Measuring Mass & States of Matter iPad Lab Lesson Teaching

Reflection
Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement:
School: Timber Ridge Elementary

Alison Dunford

Grade:

Lesson Topic:
S5P1 Students will verify that an object is the sum of
its parts.
a. Demonstrate that the mass of an object is equal to the sum of its
parts by
manipulating and measuring different objects made of various parts.
S5P1 Students will verify that an object is the sum of its parts. S5P2
Students will explain the difference between a physical change and a
chemical change..
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Write a brief summary or blog of your experiences teaching this lesson,
addressing the following questions:

What went well? What did not go well? (Cite specific examples)

This is a great lab. I have been refining it for a while based on new
inderstanding of students thinking. This is a concurrent lab, with half
the students working on iPads researching states of matter, allowing
the teacher to work with a small group. The groups switch labs the
following day. The engagement element for this is so high. Several
days prior to this lab, I have a hushed conversation and ask students to
keep a secret I am going to let them chew gun in school. I glue a
parent permission form in their interactive science notebooks
requesting permission and verifying no allergy to Dubble Bubble gum.
I tell them that they are only to refer to this as the science object and
never to call it gum. I dont give any more information until lab day
except to drop hints using the unit vocabulary mass, measure,
matter, etc. This really gets them excited for lab day and thinking
about the learning targets.

How well were the lessons student performance objectives

attained?

The objectives are challenging. I would not like to do the measuring

mass lab with a full class half is plenty! As student teams moved
through the lab steps, I allowed them to struggle a bit with the math
and modeling. In each group, a couple of students figured it out with

or without my help and then supported their team to understand.

This is a necessity to reaching the objectives, because the extend
assignment requires this understanding! In the end, some students
get it themselves, and some need support, but the all attain objectives.

Did classroom activity center on science understanding, inquiry,

and sense-making by all students?

Yes! This is a lab that takes a while. After working on Measuring Mass
and the States of Matter iPad lab, we have a entire work session in
class to write the new experiment with new math models. The entire
time, for both labs, students are actively engaged in inquiry of the
science.

Did your scientific content knowledge enable you to support

students construction of knowledge and understanding of
important scientific concepts and processes?

When facilitating concurrent labs, my vocabulary can get mixed up and

I need to be careful with that for example mass not weight, etc. I
dont think it is my understanding, but it is a good observation. I
understand the physical science content pretty well.

When you have the opportunity to re-teach this lesson, what will
you do differently (strategies, teaching tools, assessments, etc.)
to improve student learning for all students?

I really love writing my own labs and then refining them over time. I
think this was an excellent lab, but I always seem to find something to
change, Small group with additional special needs teachers worked
fine this time. Next year, I will have the SN teacher review the lab
paperwork with me in advance, since it is very challenging. They did
not have time this year. At this time, I would not change anything
else.