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In what ways does this article, Mesozoic Measurement, represent exemplary science teaching? What practices are specific to science instruction, which are ubiquitous in all content areas? How can this lesson be scaled up to upper elementary grades? 

This article, Mesozoic Measurements, represents exemplary science teaching because it focuses on the students' inherent interests and allows them to practice mathematical and computational thinking, analyzing and interpreting data while they make predictions about the different lengths and heights of the dinosaurs. When teaching it is important to use resources that entertain and interest the students because it will allow for more engagement for the students. 

Throughout the explorations, students were able to expand their knowledge about dinosaurs and clear up any misconceptions that they might have previously thought. Throughout their exploration, the students were able to perform tasks that can be seen in the scientific method like picking a topic of study, asking a question, testing the hypothesis or prediction, collecting that data, examining the results, drawing their conclusions, and reporting their findings. At the beginning of the day, the students were able to form their own prediction or otherwise known as a hypothesis about how long the dinosaurs were from head to tail and how they compared to us. After this step is done the students then begin to test their predictions by laying out their hearts and the tape to determine how many kids it would take to make up the length of each dinosaur. The following day the students were able to analyze and interpret the data and explain the reasoning and make eight larger connections to the scientific concepts that were covered in their experiment. This experiment also helped the students prove that their misconceptions were wrong.

 The instruction that is ambiguous in all contact areas would be using a topic that the students you were working with are interested in and allowing them to explore that subject area in a way that works for them. You should always allow for discussion and exploration so the students are able to create a deeper connection with the content you are covering. 

To make this lesson be scaled up for upper elementary by still having the students brainstorm their knowledge about dinosaurs and discussing their misconceptions, then having them ask a question. After deciding on a question you can have the students form their hypothesis and instead of using smaller units of measure, you can take the students to the football field if possible and show them that 27 m, which is the length of an Apatosaurus, is equal to 29 yards on the football field. You could mark where the 29-yard line would be on the football field then have the students complete the same activity as in the previous lesson but they would have to be able to figure out a way for the students to line up and lay on the field in a way we can get all the way to 29 yards. If we haven’t run out of students the students would have to figure out a way to find a stopping point and go from there. You could do this with different types of dinosaurs, then have the students record their findings and create their own chart that shows how many students it takes to be the same length as that particular dinosaur.

This lesson does a great job of representing exemplary science instruction because it incorporated the childrens intrests: dinosaures. This is important because it makes the children more inclined to learn. There is also multiple different types of assessments to keep up with what your children already know and what they may need extra practice in. The children also had the opportunity to share and collaborate with their classmates. This helped each child learn from one another. For example, during the first step the children shared what they knew about dinosaures. There was only one child who told the class that dinosaures could be tiny. This is a great example of how children build off one another and can help teach their classmates. This lesson also included multiple subject areas in one. Students are using their science skills, math skills, computional thinking, analyzing, interperting data, and predictions during this lesson. This lesson is extremly interactive and allows the children to form their own ideas on the topic. 

This article/lesson also includes practices that are specific to science instuctions. For example, the children were able to decide what they wanted to study during this exploration. They then created and tested their predictions and hypotheses while asking questions along the way. They then collected their data and recorded that data. They reviewed what they had found and talked about the results that came from this lesson. The children were able to look at the misconceptions of dinosaures and prove them wrong and then have a conversation about what they learned. 

To make this lesson for children older than the age of five you could; have the students choose another topic of their choice. The older students will most likely be interested in something more advanced which will make this lesson versatile. The students could be measuring larger objects and collaborate with one other partner or in small groups. You could have them use journals to write out their findings and create more detailed graphs. There are many ways that this lesson could be changed to meet the needs of older children and these are just a couple. 

-Claire Bourquin 

After reading this article, Mesozoic Measurement, it is evident that it represents exemplary science teaching through its focus on the students interests, math practices, and computational thinking and analyzing. The focus on the students interests is what makes this ubiquitous. It allows for the students to be fully engaged in what they are learning and allow for them to want to learn since it is something they are interested in. This engagement will allow for them to talk about the things they already know about the specific topic and then learn deeper information about it. 

Different practices that are specific to science instruction in this article are when the students compared the lengths of the dinosaurs which lead to the learning of adaptation. This had the students noticing similar evolutionary features between each dinosaur. They then would use the date of the 'length of the dinosaurs and displayed the date in bar graph format'. It then allows for the students to practice counting to identify patterns. Overall, the lesson teaches the students nonstandard meaurement. 

This type of lesson can be used for the upper elementary school grades. They could use it by changing the topics to relate to whatever grade levels interests. This lesson could also more than likely be shortened because they should be able to complete activities in a faster manner than the younger ages. As long as the topics spark their interests and it engages them, it will benefit their learning. To find those interests, the teachers could create a form for each student to fill out to learn about them. 

This article demonstrated exemplary science teaching by incorporating the student's interests while completing an extensive experiment.  The teacher was able to teach to the students learning abilities and make adaptions for students with special needs as well as students who needed more challenging work.  Students were working on numerous scientific and mathematical skills and concepts throughout the experiment.  The teacher was providing guidance to the students and was allowing them to explore and analyze data.  These skills are very important to learn, and the teacher did a very good job at showing kids how to use resources and compare and contrast objects attributes. 

The practices that were specific to science instruction included students incorporating the 5 E's.  Students explored a topic that they did not fully understand, and they analyzed the data that they had come up with during the experiment and then reviewed the findings with one another. Students were also making predictions while working.  They related the concepts of scales that they learned about to other activities that they had already done within the classroom.  Throughout their analyzing they discovered patterns and adaptations that dinosaurs have.  The other skills that students practiced that can be used anywhere include interpreting data, computational thinking, and using prior knowledge.   

This lesson could be scaled up to higher grades by having students dig deeper into the studies of dinosaurs.  Students can talk about evolution and why different animals have different characteristics.  They can make conversions with the dinosaur's height in m to ft.  Instead of the teacher making the graph for the students, older children could make their own graphs based off the data that they gathered.  Also, students could look at the weight differences between the dinosaurs and what they eat.  The steps and skills taught throughout this lesson can be used within any age level classroom by going more in depth of concepts and having the teacher take a less hands on approach and allow the students to create their own experiments. 

This article, Mesozoic Measurements, obviously represents exemplary science teaching through the incorporation of students’ likes and interests into the lesson. This will aid in the implementation of the lesson because it will keep students engaged throughout the lesson. This lesson also represents exemplary science teaching because it incorporates math practices, as well as consistent computational thinking and analysis. This lesson will allow students to recall previous information and schemas and connect these pre-existing schemas to new knowledge in order to deepen their overall knowledge of the topic and strengthen their thinking. This lesson helps students connect this information across other subject areas, which is another reason why this lesson is exemplary. 

This lesson has multiple parts of the lesson that are specific to science teachings and instruction. Specifically, the incorporation of the 5 E’s in the lesson helped with the overall engagement of the students. Students also compared dinosaurs by size and similar and different features. This led to the idea of adaptation and how dinosaurs adapted due to evolution over time. This lesson also included steps from the Scientific Method like developing a hypothesis (prediction) and then testing that prediction. Students also had to analyze their data and discuss their findings after conducting the test of their predictions. 

This lesson also incorporates other subject areas into the lesson in many different ways. First, they sparked engagement in the lesson by using student interest based on past experiences. This could be used in any subject area because student interest is important for any educator in order to get curriculum across to students and to make sure student learning is in full swing. Another way this lesson can be expanded across other lessons is when this lesson allows students to analyze data and discuss their findings in a group setting. 

This lesson can be scaled up to students in the upper elementary grades in many ways. For example, one simple way is to change the student’s interests based on their development. Students in 4th and 5th grade will be in the middle of their Concrete Operational thinking stage. This means that students will start thinking slightly more abstractly than before and the level of thinking and discussion will be higher than with younger students. Another way this lesson could be scaled up is by changing the curriculum specifically as it deals with adaptation and Evolutionary Theory. Students at this age will be able to comprehend more of the curriculum than students in kindergarten or first grade. This lesson could also be extended into more of an individual setting where students could work on a project based off of the original lesson. 

The article Mesozoic Measurement represents exemplary science teaching because it includes science skills used in the real world such as disciplinary core ideas, engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, etc. This lesson also allowed children to integrate skills and knowledge from other subject areas such as mathematics, language arts social studies, art, etc. The Mesozoic Measurement lesson also promotes child directed learning and develops the lesson based on the children’s interest for dinosaurs. This lesson also utilized their students’ prior knowledge to make it most effective. Lastly, this lesson was exemplary since it consisted of all the parts of an effective lesson such as engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration and evaluation.  
   
Some of the practices specific to science instruction are use of research questions to guide the lesson, measuring using nonstandard measuring tools, use of vocabulary such as “scale”, use of stations, analyzing and interpreting data and making conclusions. All of these science skills and practices are used in science jobs in the real world, so exposure at a young age encourages these strategies and way of thinking. Some ubiquitous practices in all contents are formative assessments when children were asked to sort the dinosaurs from longest to shortest, reading to gain prior knowledge, charting and graphing data, identifying patterns, making accommodations and comparing measurable attributes. Integrating practices and strategies from other content areas also encourages the children to be strong and creative problem solvers.  
 
This lesson can be scaled up to upper elementary grades by changing the topic of the lesson since this specific lesson was geared towards 3–5-year-old students’ interest in dinosaurs. The topic of the lesson could be changed to almost any topic that the students show interest in such as rollercoasters, pools, sport fields, etc. It can also be scaled up by changing the dimension you are measuring in 3D. Instead of measuring length you could attempt to measure volume, area, etc. Scaling up this lesson for upper elementary grades has much flexibility to design it for the specific children it is intended for.  

This article represents exemplary science instruction by integrating students’ interests and the five Es. The five Es are engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, evaluation. Engagement is used in order to have students develop an interest in the topic of discussion. Exploration is used to allow children to creatively think about the topic. Explanation is used to show their reasoning for the ideas they had during exploration. Elaboration is used in order to think about their explanations and sum them up to one idea. Evaluation is used to interpret data and analyze their findings. 

One practice that is ubiquitous in all content areas is allowing children to do the findings in their own creative and inventive ways. They need to feel like scientists in order to make a connection and interest in the topics. Another practice that is ubiquitous in all content areas is using the interests of the children in order to engage them and excite them about their lessons. This is a very important practice that can be used in all content areas. 

This lesson could be scaled up to elementary age by changing the main interest, dinosaurs. The older students could choose their own interests and complete the lesson in small groups or on their own. They could also add real-world topics or issues to solve them. 

This lesson displayed exemplary science teaching because it was informed by students’ interests, which creates a sense of motivation to engage and learn. It also provided hands-on, multisensory, experiential learning, which is integral to science education throughout the entire extent of one’s schooling and provides a deeper understanding of scientific and mathematical concepts. It connected exploration to real data and displayed that data in a digestible way with a bar graph. 

In this lesson, students followed the scientific method by asking investigative questions about dinosaurs (ex. “how do dinosaurs compare to us?”), hypothesized about the answers to those questions, then conducted an experiment to find the answers to those questions. This “5E” structure of the lesson lends itself to scientific thinking because it follows the scientific method. The article describes “crosscutting concepts,” which are used to integrate many content areas and skills with one overarching concept. We see this with the addition of math concepts in the given lesson, like counting and visually comparing the numbers of objects. 

The concept of nonstandard measurement could be scaled up for older grades by having students measure lines and/or objects around the room with a set of other given objects. Students could work in pairs, with one partner measuring a length with an object, and the other partner guessing which object was used to measure. For example, a student could explain, “this line is 3 ½ of an object.” and the other student could look at the set of possible objects to guess which one would give that result. This gives students practice with the skill of estimation. 

After reading this article, Mesozoic Measurement, there are many ways it represents exemplary science teaching. Throughout the article, the author talks about a verity of different things that help students learn to the best of their ability. I liked the 5E method which is – engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, evaluation. Using the 5E method, it allows students to use their best aspect of understanding to learn certain concepts. The methods the author listed in the article are great for student learning because the students can use their actual bodies to physically learn the concepts they are being taught. I know that me personally, I am a hands-on learner, so I like the way they gave examples of hands-on learning.

            In this article, the practices that are specific to science instruction are when the students were asked to measure the lengths of different dinosaurs in the classroom. They were given specific instruction on how to do this task. One practice that is ubiquitous in other content areas is when the students made a bar graph with the number of preschoolers and the type of dinosaurs. This activity can also be used in math courses to compare results and get statistics.

            This lesson can be scaled up to upper elementary by using different lessons that pertain to that grade level. Depending on the grade, any lesson or activity can be scaled up to support what those students are learning. Using different activities with students depending on the lesson can be scaled up based on the grade.

The article on Mesozoic Measurement represents exemplary science teaching because it focuses on students’ interests (in this case dinosaurs). The teachers who wrote this lesson were able to really captures their student’s attention. This instruction was divided into multiple days and kept building upon the topic; it was carefully planned to keep engagement in the lesson and not have the students become overwhelmed with “too much to do” because in some cases science exploration can be become “busy” and lack the real meaning and connection to content teachers hope to establish.  

The practices specific science instruction were the 5 E’s. Students were able to choose a topic they wanted to investigate, collected, and analyzed data, recognized patterns, compared/ contrast. Additionally, the students used mathematic abilities to understand nonstandard measurement and scale. They worked with charts and graphs to interpret data.

To scale the lesson up for upper elementary grades I would investigate with dissection of owl pellets; with reference to closely studying and sorting the bones by type, skull, ribs, etc. By putting the bones back together the students can compare to the bodies of dinosaurs and predict what they might look like. And make a ratio based on size between the two different animals.

            One way that exemplary science teaching is represented is how the students’ interests were at the center of the lesson. The lesson that is highlighted focuses on dinosaurs and how they varied in length, which made them useful when talking about scale. When students’ interests are used to build lessons, it draws the attention of the child into what is being taught. Students are able to share what they know about the topic with the rest of the class allowing them to become engaged with the lesson from the beginning. In this lesson, students are able to explore materials and use them for purposes other than the intended purpose of the object. Overall, this lesson is very hands-on and has ample opportunities for students to create their own thoughts on the topic.

            The 5E’s were the practices that were specific to science instruction. The 5E’s included engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. These aspects of the lesson were used to engage the students in three-dimensional learning. The students were presented with a topic that they did not fully understand yet and were asked to analyze the data that they collected during the experiment. They then reviewed this data with other students in the class.

            This lesson doesn’t have to stop at just measuring scale. To modify it to fit upper elementary grade students can take a closer look at dinosaurs. They could start with this lesson and then move on to conversions of the heights that they collected. For example, if they originally measured with blocks, they could see how many inches the blocks represent. Once they have that information, they can figure out how many inches tall is the dinosaur by using the original number of blocks that they collected. They could even take it a step further and calculate how many feet the dinosaur is. There are endless amounts of lessons that can follow the one demonstrated in the article. 

A concept that stuck out to me while reading this article is the fact that it highlights the importance of having multiple concepts for one unit in the classroom. Although the students may not realize, they are being exposed to numerous concepts in a very engaging way. I also really liked how each student was given a sense of autonomy which is very important in the younger grades to cater to their needs. The instructors were also able to incorporate the thoughts of the students in a meaningful way by allowing them to use this unit of dinosaurs to engage their interests in the classroom. 

The aspects of this lesson that are specific to science include the collection of data, modification of measurent, comparing the data, and using scales. These are all great aspects of science and how we use science in our everyday lives without always realizing. The aspects that are ubiquitous are the 5 Es. Engagement is used for all subjects and really is crucial for students and their learning. Exploration allows students to obtain information either as a group or as an individual and allows them to discover new ideas. Explanation allows for the instructors to give a clearer understanding for all students with their tasks. Elaboration gets students and teachers working together to come to a more formal understanding. Evaluation is used in all classrooms to help teachers gauge learning and interests. 

This lesson could be scaled up for older learning using standard measurements and conversions. Students could use rulers, yard sticks, even centimeters and use their knowledge of scale to again relate to this lesson. The students could also be using different objects to measure such as the area of their desk, classroom, or white board. Students in older grades could also use different measurement tools just like the younger grades and compare and contrast with their standard measurements. It is important for students in older grades to understand the concepts of scales and measurements that we use daily. 

This article, 'Mesozoic Measurement', did an excellent job at representing exemplary science teaching. This article explained a lesson in which the students partake in something called 5E learning. During this science teaching, the author explains how the students will be doing an activity that is engaging to their interest, which is dinosaurs. They would be doing exploration tasks and elaborating with peers. Then, finally an evaluation. This dinosaur science teaching focused on mathematical and computational thinking. They also used this activity to analyze data and work on knowledge of scaling and comparing. I think that the key aspect in all 5E’s of this activity was the engagement of the student’s which was easily grasped by creating an activity that they were interested in and because of this engagement, the teacher was able to engage the students and hold attention while completing all of the activity.

The practices that I believe are ubiquitous in all content areas is the inclusion of the 5E approach to learning. Students were exploring a topic of their interest, making them easily engaged. They learned about all things dinosaurs, including the discussion of adaptations. They then were asked to explore by actively doing the measurements using their bodies and making predictions based off prior knowledge and later based on findings, they were actively asking questions, creating and analyzing data, and using mathematical concepts such as scale and the usage of non-standard measuring tools. They were elaborating based off open ended questions and working in groups. Then evaluating based on their findings, the students analyzed and interpreted their data while they looked for patterns and used those as evidence. All of these tasks intertwine all different types of instruction in all content areas, making it an effective and engaging lesson.

This lesson can be scaled up to upper elementary grades by changing the topic of the specific lesson, and gearing it towards an age-appropriate interest for the students. Also, still involving measurement, the students could make conversions of measurement based on different measurement units. I think that the 5E approach should still be used no matter the grade because it’s an engaging way to get students involved and use three-dimensional learning.

Lauren- 

I also talked about the 5E lesson and we hit a lot on the same points. I agree with the ways that the 5E approach is ubiquitous becuase with every 'E' there is another type of learner that can follow this lesson. I really liked the examples that you gave on how the lessons could be interchanged, and I did think of all the ways to really use this lesson. I also enjoyed reading about how you would upscale the lesson for upper elementary years. You went into great detail about all of the 5E's. Nicely written! 

This article, Mesozoic Measurement, shows exemplary science teaching in the classroom. First the lesson of measuring is taught using the sizes of dinosaurs that the students enjoy and love. This grabs the students attention and motivates them. A big part of how the students were learning from exemplary teaching was having the real size of different dinosaurs marked on the floor of the classroom. This gives the students the visual of how that dinosaur was compared to themselves. They used students for their first nonstandard unit. All of these factors were a part of exemplary teaching because the kids weren’t just memorizing facts and information about measuring. They were exploring and learning visually. This lesson included science because of dinosaur information. They learn about different types of dinosaurs and different sizes they have. A big part of this lesson was also mathematics. They create a graph and measure nonstandard units. One way is changing the measurement into standard units like inches and centimeters.

This article shows exemplary science in a multitude of ways. One of the major things that I personally noticed was the 5E. These stand for Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation. There is set aside time for each of the Es to be explored during the activity. Students are learning science while also gaining valuable life skills that help them become lifelong engaged learners. The lesson was also gauged towards students' interests and something that they wanted to learn more about.

I truly believe that the 5Es are a great example of ubiquitous in all content areas because, in most, if not all subject areas, you want your students to be engaged, exploring, explaining, elaborating, and evaluating in everything that they do. Students can use these skills when solving a math problem, summarizing a story, or learning about historical events. In this science instruction, you not only see the use of science skills, but also math skills. Science in math goes hand and hand especially when collecting data, measuring, or creating charts or graphs is involved. 

I think you could easily scale this activity to be more advanced or for higher-level grades by simply changing the topic of measurement. You could do an interest survey of what the children would be interested in measuring and use more complex measurements. You could easily still apply all of the 5Es.

This article represents exemplary science teaching because it allows science to be accessible even to students who do not come from privileged backgrounds. It also details a 5E lesson, which truly allows the students to explore a topic on their own and work through challenges. The 5E method stands for engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. These steps allow students to not only build on their knowledge of scientific practices, but engage in an engineering research perspective that focuses on creative problem solving.

The practices that are specific to science instruction are the methods of exploring a question and experimenting to gain a better understanding of a topic, as well as learning about another species of life and its characteristics. The practices that are ubiquitous in all content areas are the history of dinosaurs and the origin of them, time period, etc. could all be tied to social studies and history. The measurements of the dinosaurs and the numerical values of measurements can be tied to mathematics. The scientific names of the dinosaurs could be written out next to the images of them, which could be tied to reading and language arts instruction. The discussion of their findings can aid in social emotional development.

This lesson can be scaled up to upper elementary grades by using more standard units of measurement, doing a deeper dive into the origins of dinosaurs, learning more about the evolution of dinosaurs, and comparing and contrasting the sizes of them. 

The Mesozioc article represents exemplary science teaching because as said in the article, crosscutting concepts “'enable less privileged students, most from non-dominant groups, to make connections among big ideas that cut across science disciplines” (NGSS Lead States 2013 Appendix D, p. 6).' It also incorporates the 5E methods in the lesson on dinosaurs to engage the younger students when learning about three-dimensional concepts.

The practices that are ubiquitous in all content areas was reading the National Geographic Kids: Ultimate Dinopedia, as it can be tied to history because it gave the students backgroud knowledge about dinosaurs. Another practice would be the 5E methods, as those can be used in any content area. The practices that are specific to science instruction are the methods of describing and comparing dinosaurs and their size, look, etc. 

This lesson could be scaled up to upper elementary classrooms by allowing students to broaden their topic, come up with mathematical equations and graphs, and using other standard units of measurements(their shoes, their hands, etc.).