I have participated in the Yale Teacher’s Institute for the past five years. Each year my objective in developing each unit has been two-fold. First, my principal concern was to place as many “hands-on” scientific investigations as possible in the units. Secondly, I wanted to make each unit as self-explanatory as possible for the teachers using it.
This year I plan to create activity cards which the teachers can duplicate for their students to record their data and perform their activities. I feel that if this third dimension is added to our units, more teachers will use them. After all, we pay anywhere from five dollars to fifteen dollars at most teacher book-stores to find appropriate activities to demonstrate our lessons.
This year I participated in the seminar, “Meteorology and Oceanography,” and have decided to develop a unit about classroom weather stations. The concept- weather—is a part of our fifth grade science curriculum. By teaching at a science magnet school, I feel that making and using a weather station in the classroom is a great addendum to our science curriculum at Troup Magnet Academy of Sciences. Since the students will get a chance to make most of the instruments used in the weather station, they will receive a thorough understanding of the function of each of the instruments. They will also gain insight on how the data they receive from the instruments help meteorologist in forecasting the weather.
I honestly feel that this is an extremely exciting unit for my students, and hopefully for anyone else who chooses to use it.
