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Keystone
Weekly This week's Key Points:
*Kit Use: Magnetism and Electricity
(FOSS)* and *Web Pick of the
Week* Kit Use Through a KSN Teacher's Eyes: Magnetism and Electricity (FOSS) Paul Wade, a fourth grade teacher at Middlesex Elementary School in the Cumberland Valley School District (part of the Capital Area Math/Science Alliance), has worked with FOSS's Magnetism and Electricity kit for six years, and offers tales of his experiences with this particular kit. Paul tells a bit about what the kit is like, explaining that it's a "third and fourth grade kit which consists of three activities exploring permanent magnetism, simple electrical circuits, and electromagnetism, and a fourth culminating activity that requires the students to apply the concepts they learned in the first three activities to construct a telegraph." His district's science coordinator recommended this kit as a good source of supplementary activities to teach electricity, and Paul says "I tried it, liked it, and have been using it ever since." This kit suits Paul's curriculum nicely. "My district's 4th grade science curriculum uses the science program Scholastic Science Place. The FOSS kit is a perfect complement to this program in providing supplemental activities to reinforce and/or enrich the key concepts. I have found through experience that most fourth graders lack background knowledge on magnetism, so I also use the FOSS kit to teach this concept." Paul says, "I love teaching with this kit. The activities are fun and engaging for the students. They are easy to set up and do. Minimal advance preparation is required once you're familiar with the kit." Fortunately, his students enjoy using the kit as well. "They love the hands-on aspect. I usually use two kits so the students do the activities in pairs instead of the groups of four that the kit supports. They particularly like using the motors in the circuit activities and assembling a portable circuit tester." Paul believes that "children learn best when they're actively engaged mind-on, hands-on" and, happily, "These activities allow the children to do just that. The kit materials are ideal for inquiry. When I teach the unit, I allow ample time for the students to explore on their own using the materials in the kit. This always generates a plethora of questions which I am then able to tie back into the key concepts." Reflecting on his own practice and kit experience, Paul comments, "I like the sequence of the activities. I have found it beneficial for students to have some knowledge of magnetism before learning about electricity. Electromagnetism then ties these two concepts together. The culminating activity, making a telegraph, is a good application of the prior-learned concepts." Paul does find it unfortunate that "Parallel and series circuits are only covered as a brief extension activity." Even though most activities are very successful, Paul shares that there are a few tricky areas: "Students sometimes have a difficult time inserting the steel strip into the blue plastic arches on the circuit base when constructing the telegraph. Also it is very difficult (as the Teacher's Guide states) to link two telegraphs together." But when these telegraphs can be linked, it can create a very exciting science moment. Paul recalls that "One of my more memorable experiences was when we were able to get two classrooms corresponding with each other in Morse code via the telegraphs we had made." Expanding more on what advance work is involved, Paul explains, "One of the nice things about this FOSS kit is the ease of preparation and use. Once the wires in the kit are stripped and cut to the proper lengths, advance preparation is minimal. I keep my wires in labeled bags and use the same wires from year to year. The Teacher's Guide provides very detailed preparation and setup instructions. Additionally, there is a video in the kit that shows setup procedures. The kit provides almost everything you need, though some equipment from the FOSS Measurement kit (balances) is required." Even though Paul does not have the updated Teacher's Guide, he finds that his original 1993 version suits him fine. He says: "Background science material is provided for reference which clearly explains the activity concepts. Detailed instructions are given for activity setup and use. Pictures of the activity setups are helpful. Additionally, for each activity, there are vocabulary words, extensions and applications, and ways to adapt the activity for students with different needs. The Teacher's Guide also includes an assessment section (hands-on, pictorial, and reflective questions sections) which I use and a section on multimedia options which I have not used. Student sheets (there are only four) are well-designed and simple to use." Paul has recommended this kit to other teachers in the past, and would willingly do so again. As he says, "The kit is easy to use, all the materials are there, and it's both teacher- and student-friendly. What more could one ask for?"
Web Pick of the
Week Have you pulled any pranks today? Or have you been fooled? It's not too late, so stay on your toes today.
From teachers and for teachers, this page offers some links
and tales of ways that teachers have tricked their students
in the past.
Looking for a bit of background on this silly holiday?
Here's some history from a US Embassy.
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| The Franklin Institute gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the National Science Foundation and Unisys Corporation. | |||
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The Franklin Institute is the Demonstration Site for the
Eisenhower
Mid-Atlantic Consortium, providing science and math
resources for teachers.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9819641. © 2003. All rights reserved.
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