Observation

For my science observation, I observed a 5th grade class because my class/grade was
not going to start covering science until after their winter break. When I first walk into the class, I
couldnt help but notice that all the students were putting on lab coats.
The class was studying thermal heat. The teacher started with asking students what it
was and how it is created. I got the impression that the students had covered the topic prior to
me observing. The questions were quickly answered so I assumed that the teacher was
reaching her students prior knowledge.
After a few questions were asked, she began to go over the sheet that the students were
going to fill out. Each student was going to have a worksheet, but as a group, they were all
going to work together with the experiment. Each group was going to have an empty coffee cup,
a cup with cold water, a cup of hot water, and a thermometer. The experiment that they were
going to do is record the temperature of the cold and hot water and then record the temperature
of the water after it is mixed every few minutes.
Before students started the experiment, they were asked to make a hypothesis while
materials were handed out. Students recorded the temperature of the water then mixed it. After
it was mixed, student read an article while they waited for the next time that they had to record
the temperature. They recorded at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 minutes. The article was perfect for the
experiment because it was about thermal energy. As student read the article aloud, the teacher
asked questions about what they just read and highlighted vocabulary words. After they finished
reading the article, students answered five questions about the article. I think reading an article
and this experiment were a great idea. While reading the article, students were eager and
excited to see what changes happen to the temperature while they were reading.