5th Grade Chemistry Curriculum:
After 11 1/2 years of schooling, you would think students would be tired of people lecturing them. However, when the tables turn, the lecturer proves to be a more frightening role. This project opened our eyes to why teachers deserve more credit than they are given. They hold the responsibility to educate the future. However, most students are obstinate children, ungrateful for education. In this project, we were challenged to create a chemistry curriculum for fifth graders at a local elementary school. Ms. Vogl (our teacher) has a sister who teaches fifth graders in Pacifica. Ms. Grillo enlisted us to inspire her students to love chemistry while learning the basics of chemistry. People always say you know the material if you can teach it, and boy are they right. By forming the lessons and labs, we developed strong comprehension of the backbone of chemistry. In a way, we were educating ourselves simultaneously.
Our Curriculum:
From the beginning of collaboration, being the STEM students we are, we knew our curriculum should be centralized around hands-on activities like labs, models, and practical uses of chemistry. Next, we divided our curriculum into five weeks. Each week would be devoted to one of the major topics of chemistry. Below you will find the calendar and the subject area. Later, we researched activities that would be applicable to each topic and appropriate for fifth graders. For each lab, we added notes and powerpoints to prepare the students for the various labs. Next, we compiled a list of projects that would help assess their knowledge of the chemistry concepts taught through labs. This was a substitute for tests. Below are all the materials we created for our curriculum, including key concepts we taught throughout the curriculum and the survey given to Ms. Grillo's students. To see our key chemistry concepts, look at the pre-activity notes and the acid and base power point.
After 11 1/2 years of schooling, you would think students would be tired of people lecturing them. However, when the tables turn, the lecturer proves to be a more frightening role. This project opened our eyes to why teachers deserve more credit than they are given. They hold the responsibility to educate the future. However, most students are obstinate children, ungrateful for education. In this project, we were challenged to create a chemistry curriculum for fifth graders at a local elementary school. Ms. Vogl (our teacher) has a sister who teaches fifth graders in Pacifica. Ms. Grillo enlisted us to inspire her students to love chemistry while learning the basics of chemistry. People always say you know the material if you can teach it, and boy are they right. By forming the lessons and labs, we developed strong comprehension of the backbone of chemistry. In a way, we were educating ourselves simultaneously.
Our Curriculum:
From the beginning of collaboration, being the STEM students we are, we knew our curriculum should be centralized around hands-on activities like labs, models, and practical uses of chemistry. Next, we divided our curriculum into five weeks. Each week would be devoted to one of the major topics of chemistry. Below you will find the calendar and the subject area. Later, we researched activities that would be applicable to each topic and appropriate for fifth graders. For each lab, we added notes and powerpoints to prepare the students for the various labs. Next, we compiled a list of projects that would help assess their knowledge of the chemistry concepts taught through labs. This was a substitute for tests. Below are all the materials we created for our curriculum, including key concepts we taught throughout the curriculum and the survey given to Ms. Grillo's students. To see our key chemistry concepts, look at the pre-activity notes and the acid and base power point.
Here are the California Next Generation Science Standards for fifth graders. You will find that the key chemistry concepts utilized in this project are shown. For example, in order to complete the phases of water activity, students must know that the amount of matter is conserved when it transitions or changes forms.
In comparison, here are the physical science standards from when I was in fifth grade in 2010. As you will see, overtime education boards have tried to include more practical standards that allow students to apply science to life. In a way, we modeled our curriculum after this modern hands-on ideology by incorporating labs like the steel wool and vinegar lab showing chemical reactions in action or the mixing oil and water lab showing the phases of matter, specifically with water. Progressively, science has evolved a universal project-based curriculum that we attempted to model.
Reflection:
As juniors in high school, our personalities were far from the didactic requirements needed as a teacher, therefore research was key to this project. We started by searching for the science standards of California for this elementary school. However, one of my personal shortcomings was that I didn't follow the standards closely enough. Even though our principles of games engages students, sometimes it proves insufficient to fulfill the California science standards. The hard part of being a teacher is providing enough education without students building animosity towards school. In the future, more notes and traditional teaching methods might be necessary to educate aspiring chemists. Another area of improvement for myself is creativity. Many of our games, powerpoints, and labs came from various elementary school chemistry students. Even if we did research for the most applicable activities, creating our own labs might have been more specific to the science standards we wanted to accomplish. Originality is what makes a great teacher, therefore our group should have followed these rules.
Two areas our group excelled at were organization and time management. To begin, we created several google documents laying out the schedule for our curriculum, gathered notes and activities to prepare for each lab, and made the needed materials easily accessible to the teacher. Our organization proved to be impressive because it gave the teacher a detailed perspective on the impact of our curriculum. Secondly, time management saved our group from a lot of stress.Together, we managed to finish all our documents in class time. Each member worked on a specific subject such as matter or chemical reactions and finished that section for the curriculum. Our productivity allowed us more time to prepare for our presentation in front of the school board. Not to mention, because each of us researched a specific area of chemistry, we were able to thoroughly explain theses aspects of the curriculum. Teamwork and time management contributed to a conglomerate of great ideas.
Two pits our group faced were technology and communication. In regards to technology, the google docs were very irritating. For example, we would finish a section in let's say "The Atom Matching Game" then because there were so many users, the Internet would pause to reconnect and our work would either be deleted or we would be delayed. Frustration always brings negative energy to the table, usually slowing your group down mentally. In regards to communication, we were only able to communicate with Ms. Grillo once to give her students surveys. Never again did we ask her wishes for our curriculums or what they have already covered. With more of her involvement, our curriculum could have been more applicable to her class. Her ideas are the most important, and we ignored them. For example, what if instead of ending the curriculum with Cooking with Chemistry, she wanted to give them a test? We wouldn't know that, and it is important.
Two peaks of our project were the presentation and the "Element Bingo." Like mentioned earlier, all of us were enthusiastic and knowledgeable on the subjects we researched. We were able to promote our curriculum with a positive attitude while proving its educational value. "The Element Bingo" was one of the most creative ideas we had. It was an easy game that would entice kids with its competitive vibes while teaching them about the elements and the periodic table. Superb presentations and grand ideas helped make a successful fifth grade curriculum.
As juniors in high school, our personalities were far from the didactic requirements needed as a teacher, therefore research was key to this project. We started by searching for the science standards of California for this elementary school. However, one of my personal shortcomings was that I didn't follow the standards closely enough. Even though our principles of games engages students, sometimes it proves insufficient to fulfill the California science standards. The hard part of being a teacher is providing enough education without students building animosity towards school. In the future, more notes and traditional teaching methods might be necessary to educate aspiring chemists. Another area of improvement for myself is creativity. Many of our games, powerpoints, and labs came from various elementary school chemistry students. Even if we did research for the most applicable activities, creating our own labs might have been more specific to the science standards we wanted to accomplish. Originality is what makes a great teacher, therefore our group should have followed these rules.
Two areas our group excelled at were organization and time management. To begin, we created several google documents laying out the schedule for our curriculum, gathered notes and activities to prepare for each lab, and made the needed materials easily accessible to the teacher. Our organization proved to be impressive because it gave the teacher a detailed perspective on the impact of our curriculum. Secondly, time management saved our group from a lot of stress.Together, we managed to finish all our documents in class time. Each member worked on a specific subject such as matter or chemical reactions and finished that section for the curriculum. Our productivity allowed us more time to prepare for our presentation in front of the school board. Not to mention, because each of us researched a specific area of chemistry, we were able to thoroughly explain theses aspects of the curriculum. Teamwork and time management contributed to a conglomerate of great ideas.
Two pits our group faced were technology and communication. In regards to technology, the google docs were very irritating. For example, we would finish a section in let's say "The Atom Matching Game" then because there were so many users, the Internet would pause to reconnect and our work would either be deleted or we would be delayed. Frustration always brings negative energy to the table, usually slowing your group down mentally. In regards to communication, we were only able to communicate with Ms. Grillo once to give her students surveys. Never again did we ask her wishes for our curriculums or what they have already covered. With more of her involvement, our curriculum could have been more applicable to her class. Her ideas are the most important, and we ignored them. For example, what if instead of ending the curriculum with Cooking with Chemistry, she wanted to give them a test? We wouldn't know that, and it is important.
Two peaks of our project were the presentation and the "Element Bingo." Like mentioned earlier, all of us were enthusiastic and knowledgeable on the subjects we researched. We were able to promote our curriculum with a positive attitude while proving its educational value. "The Element Bingo" was one of the most creative ideas we had. It was an easy game that would entice kids with its competitive vibes while teaching them about the elements and the periodic table. Superb presentations and grand ideas helped make a successful fifth grade curriculum.