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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Tools of Earth Science

My first unit this year is shaping up something like this:

1.  What is the Earth? - basic facts about the planet
2.  What tools do scientists use to study the earth?

To cover #1 it's usually a pretty cut and dry quiz with matching or short answers.
To cover #2 I break down what skills I need my kids to know:

  • Qualitative vs. Quantitative observations
  • Inference vs. Observations
  • The Metric System and Conversions
  • Measure mass, volume and distance in metrics
  • The process of the scientific method
The unit is broken down into short lectures with accompanying notes and then a practice sheet for homework.  After lecture days there is a lab or activity which incorporates 1 or more of the skills that were covered in lecture.  We'll see how much I change up this year once the school year gets underway.

4 comments:

  1. sounds like you are giving them every chance to learn. By lecture, by practice, and by hands on activities. Lets see how it turns out!

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  2. I'll be interested in hearing how you do!

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  3. Really interesting :)
    Hope you'll be fine with your kids :)

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  4. i wish you would post something cool that would actually be new to someone who payed attention in school

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