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Hello! I am a preservice teacher in elementary education. The school district I plan to student teach in and eventually work in switches between science and social studies every four weeks. While this is still a good bit of time if you are doing science every day, students will go without science instruction for four weeks as well. It seems as though it would be difficult to re-interest students in science and connect different standards to each other when there are gaps in between. I would love to hear any advice on this topic on how to connect science and keep students interest!
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Hi, Payton. I think the best way to keep the students interested and continually learning about a particular subject (in this case science) would be to incorporate it into other topics. Science and math go hand in hand as does reading. In the case of social studies, science has made great strides to help that subject come as far as it has. So making your lessons incorporate other subjects will help your students learn that they are all connected in certain ways and that learning science can help further their understanding of so many things!
Let's hope the district can work to get science and social studies into a full-time position.
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Hi, Payton! I would also agree with saying that inetgration of subjects would be beneficial for you. I am also a preservice teacher in elementary education. At the university I attend, my professors have drilled into our heads about the importance of integrating subjects with other subjects. One of my social studies professors made the comment that she only was able to have certain weeks for science and certain weeks for social studies, and I remember her saying that instead of switching up, she would teach both every day and split the time in half. It is tough to do either one, but I would suggest finding ways to integrate the two subjects. Maybe if possible you could find ways to review the subjects from the previous week if you have extra time in your day?
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Hi Payton,
You can easily blend together two subject areas. Have you considered teaching science and social studies together? Here is a link to obtain information. If not, make sure the lessons you choose are quality ones. Maybe try NSTAs Daily Do lessons. There are many for different grade levels that are valuable to move student's thinking forward.
Good luck!
ML
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Hi Payton! I agree that it can be challenging to ensure that science content is effectively included in the classroom when time limits and schedules are already set in place. I like the idea of implementing science instruction with other content areas. This will also help students make connections in everyday life and see how what they learn in science connects to different subjects. Recently in one of my classes, we connected science and social studies instruction by observing leaves and other materials found on a nature walk and seeing how they represented time, change, and continuity over time. In this activity, students could also create a nature journal and write about change over time.
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