Amazing

This a great article for students to learn about density. I like how they showed the lesson in steps and provide a summary. I would recommend using this as a resource when teaching density.

Predicting

Teachers are supposed to clearly identify their expectation of their students in a science lesson. In Ms. Kim’s class, she wanted her students to learn to make predictions. She has no idea a... See More

Teachers are supposed to clearly identify their expectation of their students in a science lesson. In Ms. Kim’s class, she wanted her students to learn to make predictions. She has no idea about is the concept of density too difficult for kindergarteners to understand (Smithenry & Kim, 2010). Exploring why the concept of density can explain the reason of things sink or float is essential. Developing a model contains liquid water, floating object, sinking object is needed. The teacher should provide representation that all mater is make up of particles even they cannot be seen by the naked eye and the particles packed together. The sinking object has particles packed together more closely. This instruction directly explains what influence on the floating and sinking of objects. Students are required to predict whether certain objects will sink or float. Students in kindergarten may predict that lighter objects will float and heavier ones will sink. Elementary students began to consider weight and size. However, according to a recent study (Kloos 2008), children at age three are able to “distinguish objects with salient differences in density” (Smithenry & Kim, 2010). The teacher put a plastic egg into water and it floated. She encouraged students to think how to make this egg sink into water. Students thought about adding something inside the egg. Then, the teacher put marbles in egg and ask students to predict how many marbles can help the egg sinks. They should record what they observed. From my perspective, combining predictions with hands-on activities can be a good instructional strategy. Some unknown results can arouse students’ curiosity and they will try to predict what will happen. Then, they will think about their prediction after they saw the overcomes of experiments. So that, teachers should attach importance to use predictions to help students understand some abstract concepts.