Forums

As an aspiring teacher, I am ecstatic to have my first classroom and change the culture of science education. I received a fairly hands-on experience with science education in my lower elementary years, but as I grew older, it became solely lectures and textbook reading. How can we balance lectures and hands-on experiences for our older students, such as our fourth, fifth, and sixth graders? 

This is just an example of what I did when a science teacher at an alternative education private school, but it worked well.  I was the Grade 6-12 science teacher.  I had a regular schedule in my classroom for the week that had traditional classroom activities on Monday and Tuesday, a hands-on on Wednesday, classroom on Thursday, and either video, computer, or testing on Friday.  I wanted to get the kids back on track after the weekend, midweek lab or handson for a break, review materials on Thursday, and tests or alternate materials on Friday, when it was hard to keep their attention.  Worked well for me but every class is different.  I always looked at every class as:  Where are they now?  Where do we want to go? How do we know we got there?  Just a thought.  Best of luck!