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NORTHEASTERN
Unfortunately for us, the time available to visit Jason Gish's fourth grade classroom at Conewago Elementary School was too short. When we arrived, we noticed that the students were producing a great deal of commotion, obviously because they were very excited about their upcoming exploration. We were immediately caught up in the enthusiastic fervor and would have enjoyed staying longer if the schedule had been more flexible. Jason was already involved in orienting his students toward the session's objectives and achieved a quick review through directive questioning. Apparently satisfied with the level of comprehension, Jason proceeded to initiate a discussion about the next activity.
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Jason's room had students' desks clumped together for
cooperative groups of four to work on the final parts
of the STC kit Electric Circuits. They were
initiating the lesson entitled "Wiring and Lighting
the House," which was the culminating activity for
the unit. Each group had one cardboard box to serve
as their "house" and prior to this class they had
formed a plan about how to wire the house with at
least one light per room. Before starting the new
lesson, Jason reminded the students about the
importance of diagrams to illustrate their designs
and encouraged them to mention these written or
sketched plans during their group presentations.
During the subsequent reports, Jason often reminded a
few somewhat verbose students the importance of
having such a plan for guidance.
The enthusiasm for the project was evident as each
group described their design. Students needed to use
their accumulated knowledge about parallel and series
circuits to identify components and the reasoning
behind their plans. Many students incorporated
information about their designs that was based on
what they noticed and liked in their own houses. Some
groups built their plans based on a model that would
be viewed from the top down, as if the roof had been
removed. These were defined as "one floor houses"
that only needed lighting in each room.
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Many groups had rather lofty expectations regarding
the splendid potential of electrification. Some
students reported an inclination to add areas in a
room that would support wiring for more appliances
than just a single lamp. Without judgement, Jason
questioned their practical plans for power sources
and asked to see diagrams. To underscore the
importance of writing or drawing, Jason often
referred to the plans used by real house builders to
insure that all aspects had been carefully
considered. He would frequently hold up the
blueprints donated by a student's father to
physically exemplify what the experts use. Again he
encouraged his students to draw their designs.
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Some views of the house-models were intended to be from the
side as if one outside wall of the house was cut out. These
houses were referred to as "two-story houses" and groups
that decided to design such a house had the added
complication of a staircase. Jason rhetorically puzzled
about how switches could be added for a light to be turned
on/off at the top or bottom of the stairs. Students began to
discuss and postulate many schemes.
Their fascination over house design was
understandable since this aspect connected so readily
to their own lives. Who has not fantasized about
building his or her own dream house? Chatter filled
the classroom as each team exchanged ideas about the
shape and function of each room. Jason permitted the
children to be swept away by the tide of their own
excitement. He immediately launched the building
stage of the project while the children's interest
was highest. They happily began to work and put extra
effort in even the smallest detail such as drawing a
tile floor in a room. |
Circulating from group to group, Jason was able to
ascertain which designs were in need of some expanded
planning details. Rather than telling the students
about their work, Jason appeared to prefer giving the
students strategies to find faults on their own.
Sometimes a few carefully phrased questions would
help the students to clarify their intent. On a few
occasions Jason would call the attention of the
entire class to highlight a problem to be solved or
to offer a way to tackle the difficulty. He would
often review content broached in a previous lesson.
Jason reminded students that circuit diagrams made
the work of wiring more organized. When pitfalls
occurred, Jason could refer to the diagram that they
created and then guide the students to resolve the
dilemma. This reinforced content and gave the
children confidence in their abilities.
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While thanking Jason as we were leaving his class
that morning we noticed many independent students
fixed to their tasks. Creative juices were flowing
and a cooperative spirit prevailed. Students
especially enjoyed this project because they all
could feel successful. Each group was serious in its
intent to wire a house that worked and when this
required an adjustment to their original plans, Jason
continued to encourage them to do so. Writing and
drawing are important components to the design of any
endeavor. Jason's class was learning a valuable
lesson fit for any scientist: document everything!
Electricity Connections: (STC Kit: Electric Circuits, Fourth Grade) Teachers like Jason Gish of Conewago Elementary School who like to enrich the house wiring activity of Electrical Circuits may find the following websites useful. Jason uses real blueprints in his classroom to highlight real-world connections of house building. More background information about blueprints for teachers may be found in the first listed website. In addition, Jason asked his students to consider all details possible when they were wiring their houses, just like real electricians must follow electrical codes. In the next listed site are a series of drawings that highlight sections of those codes. Although the content is not important for fourth grade students to understand, the diagrams may offer some ideas about hazards to avoid when wiring their houses. Another site providing real-world diagrams is also listed below. The PBS show: "This Old House" offers printable floor plans on this website. Students could either look at the floorplans on the classroom computer or teachers might display some prints as examples of how the experts detail their designs when building houses. The children may also find it interesting to view the finished houses.
http://w
ww.psrc.usm.edu/macrog/work/blue.htm
http://www.code
check.com/eleccode.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/thisoldhouse/projec
ts/sanfran/floorplans.html
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