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Listen to this episode to hear how I chose the “winners” of my science fair. Hear how we transformed their “cloud-based” presentations into traditional projects that could go on to compete at the school-wide and city-wide Science Fair. Also learn how I used this as an opportunity to teach the iterative nature of Science Inquiry and how students used what they learned in my Science Fair to improve their inquiry thinking.
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This is where the rubber meets the road. Can students determine the validity of their hypotheses? Listen to hear how I coach students in scientific thinking AND writing as they write up their conclusions to their Science Fair projects. Also hear how I guide my students to writing an Abstract which they use to summarize their entire experimental process. Also, hear how the awesome Language Arts teachers on my team interdisciplinized the Science Fair by creating an independent reading list which students used to contextualize their project in their writing. This has proven especially useful given the new emphasis on the Common Core and literacy across the curriculum.
Links:
Conclusion Directions and Rubric (Gdoc) (PDF)
Abstract Directions and Rubric (Gdoc) (PDF)
Final Paper Directions (Gdoc) (PDF)
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In this episode I continue to share my experiences with students in organizing and graphing their data. I discuss the methods for taking all their data and displaying it in a single table. In addition, I outline how students gain expertise on graph types and decide what type of graph to use for their data. Click the links below to download copies of materials I used with my students.
Creating a Science Fair Graph (Gdoc)(PDF)
Results and Reflection Writing (Gdoc)(PDF)
Data and Results Rubric (Gdoc)(PDF)
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Analyzing data always presents challenges for students. In this episode, I discuss how I approached data analysis with my students. Hear about the hangups we ran into and how the activity unfolded in my classroom.
