Victoria A. Raucci
I designed this unit to appeal to the population within the school where I teach fifth grade. At John S. Martinez School, a majority of students come from Spanish-speaking homes and have learned English as a second language. Consequently, students have limited language skills and learn primarily through hands-on activities and in situations where all of their senses are engaged. Most of the students will enthusiastically state that science is their favorite subject because they are allowed to examine a variety of objects and learn about high-interest topics, however, they often think of science as a time of "play" rather than exercising higher-order thinking skills. Hands-on activities are not enough to prepare students for the future. They must learn to work cooperatively to plan, research, and analyze. They need to ask questions, take risks, attempt to solve problems and accept that sometimes results will not meet their expectations. They should be encouraged to embrace the unexpected results from experiments, for those are often where we gain the most valuable information.
