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Stephanie Taira
Ka'elepulu Elementary School
HI

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Recent Posts by Stephanie

Sun, Nov 11, 2012 3:17 PM in Population Impacts on Environments and Ecosystems

Thanks for all the resources. I am getting ready to teach how the ecosystem changes over time and have had a difficult time teaching this topic. I feel like the students know what to say but they don't know how to apply it to their everyday life. For example, the students know that they should recycle and they say that they recycle, however, there are plastic bottles in the trash can everyday. ...

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Mon, Nov 05, 2012 6:08 PM in Nutrition

This year all of the 5th and 6th graders are running daily. The goal is a mile by the end of the year. They started with one lap, now it's 2 laps, 3rd quarter will be 3 laps, and 4th qtr will be 4 laps. Some of my students have recognized that they are losing weight - a pound every two weeks and they are feeling better. Some couldn't walk a lap when they started, now all can jog at least one l...

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Sat, Oct 20, 2012 2:34 AM in Science in the Average Day

I try to do science in the classroom a few times a week. I tie in science to my reading block by doing non-fiction reading and teaching the non-fiction text features of the textbook and other passages. (leveled readers are great for this) I also have a dedicated science time once a week where we do some type of "lab" work or investigation. During library time, I have the students do research f...

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Reviews
Recent Reviews by Stephanie

Life Cycles and Inherited Traits

Sun, Nov 11, 2012 4:10 PM
Life Cycles and Inherited Traits Review

The Life Cycles and Inherited Traits SciGuide is an excellent resource for teaching a difficult and sometime sensitive topic. The idea of nature vs. nurture is discussed and the activities address this issue. The students think about behaviors such as singing in the shower or jumping when startled and determine why they react in the manner that they do. The SciGuide requires the students to think about the reason for the behavior. (i.e. “When the phone rings, I answer it”. This is a learned behavior because I learned that the ring is a signal for me to answer.) Students are fascinated by inherited traits and want to know why they look like they do and why they aren’t exactly like their brother/sister. Using the activities here help students to understand the complexities of this subject. The web activities such as nature nurture walk on www.amnh.org and http://www.thetech.org/genetics/you.php help the students to visualize some of these concepts. When I teach this concept in the 3rd quarter, I will use these resources to help the students understand this concept. I have some students who are adopted so I will need to adapt some of the questions and I also have a set of identical twins. There are many ways to create lessons that cross the curriculum through these activities. (language – learned behavior, math – probabilities, habits of mind)

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