Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 19:52:43 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <v01540b01afc32dac0cca@[206.119.243.135]>
To: "Pinhole Listserv" <pinhole@exploratorium.edu>
From: kdubyou@tiac.net (Karen Wallingford)
Subject: Elementary Science
Dave, I taught K-5 science for 7 years in San Jose. Cutting edge, I don't
know. Active, hands-on, lab science, yes, exclusively. I had a lot of
freedom, so was able to incorporate any of my personal resources. I
synthesized from texts, colleagues, you name it, the way you do to find
lessons that act on a topic that I or the kids wanted to study.
You asked about currucula. My favorite was FOSS, the Brittanica works which
San Jose Unified fortunately had adopted. It's a hands-on bunch of units,
K-6. No applied texts for students, but there are TEs, binders with
suggested readings teachers can incorporate at will. All of the FOSS units
require assembling "stuff," some provided in their kits, some not, so
working with FOSS is w/out a doubt time-consuming. All FOSS lessons also
require practice -- setting up, maneuvering problems, and then
troubleshooting with the kids once they come into the picture.
Few classroom teachers I know explored FOSS thoroughly. Some of the TEs
didn't seem appropriate to its assigned grade level, but as resource
teacher, I just shifted lessons around. The time and space demands as well
as just the hands-on nature of FOSS put off a lot of teachers, but I loved
it for its versatility and applicability at many, almost any grade level.
Teachers could revisit these lessons any number of times. Graphing,
analyzing, experimental design, all that tracks through FOSS, in botany,
physical science, geology, and bio.
Another big disadvantage to FOSS is the cost: @$500 a box. Each box
includes a TE binder of about 4-5 lessons, often without sufficient
supplies for a class of 30 plus students. For all the cost, lots of the
FOSS supplies are plastic (straws, cups, etc.), much of which has to be
replaced after each use. Each box describes a broad category, such as
"Plants," "Rocks," "Landforms,"and "Design," so each grade has to buy more
than one box in order to address more than one category. Still FOSS lessons
are so creative and drive home science discoveries in such unsual ways that
they are worth exploring alone and repeatedly, if not as a curriculum base.
I'd buy just the TE binders, still pricey ($125, I think per binder without
the supply kit, as they call it.)
Another hands-on set of lessons is FO/D (Finding Out/Discubrimiento), a
Spanish bilingual set of strictly physical science lessons, divided into
units: electricity, simple machines, weather, water, and the like. FO/D may
be easier on teachers than FOSS since FO/D is tailored to enable teachers
to "step back and facilitate" while observing their students working on
their own in groups. The cards are edited for Spanish and English readers,
3rd, (I think) through 5th (6th?) grade & illustrated, so kids who can't
read a) can figure out the pictures and b) work in groups probably
involving somebody who can translate the directions. Furthermore, most of
the equipment as I recall is reusable, not the never-ending plastic that
you pay a bundle for in FOSS, nifty as their ideas may be.
We retrofitted FO/D for 1st grade, so some of my specifics on grade level
applicability is a little fuzzy, on top of the fact that I haven't seen any
of it since I left teaching for a break last year.
Apart from curricula sources, SCIIS and ESS were other great resources for me.
Hope this is useful. Karen Walllingford