RES 5040: Teacher as Researcher (spring 09)

It certainly has been an interesting two weeks of data collection. I have interviewed all 5 of my participants, and the results were much like I anticipated. For 5th graders, they were very unfamiliar with weather content, other than temperature and the existence of clouds. Although that was troubling from a teacher’s perspective, from a researcher’s, it could work to my advantage, making it hopefully easier to show the impact of the planned instruction. They enjoyed “doing” science – activities and experiments were the primary ways that were mentioned, along with reading books about animals, which was their favorite “part” of science. All of the students said they enjoyed science, although Amy’s response was not as convincing as the other students!
I particularly enjoyed interviewing Ms. Sanders, the teacher in Classroom 2. She is having a difficult year with her students, as her students are struggling to be successful for various reasons. When I asked about the students from her class that I was interviewing and observing, she was not as concerned about Amy, but concerned about Reilly and others retaining the information that we have taught this year. It may add an interesting twist to this project, but I would be interested in looking either now or later at the impact that using media resources made on retention and application of the content. She remarked that the kids were now referring to the Classroom A (the classroom that is using media resources, as opposed to Classroom B which is using textbooks and more traditional methods of teaching) as the “fun” science classroom.
I have also been able to observe the students 3 times in the classroom setting. The first was during a 15-minute video on weather tools, during which they filled out a viewing guide. After watching the video, all 4 students were able to recognize the 6 basic weather tools and describe their use. In contrast, after reading the passage in Classroom B concerning the same tools, they were only able to give the use for 4 of the tools and recognize 2 of the 6. The students were also observed using an Interactive Weather Maker, accessed through the Media Center’s mobile lab. They were actively engaged in experimenting with different weather variables to create different types of weather. They were also able to draw conclusions about the causes of different types of weather, such as clouds, wind, and various kinds of precipitation.
Data collection seems to be going uneventfully, which is a nice surprise! I haven’t had to make any changes as of yet, however, I may have to alter my time line a bit next week. We were informed today that the 5th grade End-of-Grade in Science would count for the first time in our schools’ composite score (which affects our school’s grade on the NC School Report Card and ABC Bonus). This is a very difficult test, more so than our other EOG tests. So I may have to shorten the number of lessons that I teach in order to move on to the next goal so that we are able to complete our science instructional units prior to the EOG. I have a meeting with our principal on Monday to determine what changes we need to make in our science instruction in general, as well as how that could possibly impact this project.