Article Review

• Did you find it stimulating, confusing, biased, informative, or helpful? This article was very informative for teachers to learn how to implement the 5E learning cycle. I am currently teac... See More

• Did you find it stimulating, confusing, biased, informative, or helpful? This article was very informative for teachers to learn how to implement the 5E learning cycle. I am currently teaching about Matter and Properties of Materials with my second graders and from this article I learned new strategies that I plan to implement to make the science unit on Matter more engaging for my students. Also, this article was helpful for teachers to learn how to teach the concept of Matter to students. Definitions, pictures, vocabulary, and a sample lesson plan was provided to help teach students about Matter and how to effectively assess student learning as well. • How does it apply to your own classroom and how would others use the information? The 5E learning cycle is a strategy that I already implement in my classroom. For science, I use the STEMScopes curriculum which includes lessons that include the 5 Es. I would definitely use the Properties of Matter app that was discussed in the article. Students used their iPads for the Matter app that had activities in which they explore the properties of matter, weight, and changes in states of matter (Adams & Feagin, 2017). Integrating technology such as iPads is a strategy that helps students engage with the science content. I plan to implement a similar strategy in my classroom using Matter stations. My students would have different objects to classify according to different properties such as texture, color, hardness, flexibility, etc and record their observations in a table along with illustrations. I would share the app mentioned in the article with my 2nd grade level team teachers. Since I already plan the science and social studies lessons, it would be easier for me to write in the lesson plans to let students access the app through their iPads or even Chromebooks. References Adams, K., & Feagin, S. (2017). Describing matter. Science & Children, 54(8), 52-57.

Very Helpful

I am currently a methods student in a second grade classroom. I found this article to be very helpful as I am in the research stages of planning a lesson on matter. I know that they have a l... See More

I am currently a methods student in a second grade classroom. I found this article to be very helpful as I am in the research stages of planning a lesson on matter. I know that they have a little bit of prior knowledge of matter, but my cooperating teacher believes that they may need a review lesson while I am doing my pre-assessment. This article also includes examples of the 5Es which is something we are touching on in my methods class! I hadn't thought about using Flubber in my lesson, but now I might. I would recommend this article for anyone teaching matter to younger students!