Science lesson concepts and teaching approaches

Science Lesson

The lesson I chose to demonstrate to second graders is that matter can change forms, and that in doing so it is neither created or destroyed. The scientific concepts associated with this lesson are notions of matter, the fact that matter can change shape and form, and that in doing so it still exists. This is a lesson that was specifically designed to meet the curriculum for second graders in California as denoted by the Next Generation Science Standards (Next Generation 16). It is indicated as such on p. 16 of a PDF that was downloaded from the aforementioned entity's web site; this document is entitled "DCI Arrangements of the Next Generation Science Standards." This same standard, labeled "Matter and Its Interactions" is also found on the same site in a pdf entitled 2 Combined DCI Standards, which includes a document called "Second Grade" (Next Generation 2). In this document, "Matter and its Interaction "s is found on the second page.

There were three students that were involved in this lesson: a second grade boy named Jason, a second grade girl named January, and a second grade boy named Fred. These students had myriad reactions to this particular lesson and, as such, learned a considerable amount of information regarding matter. Essentially, they learned that matter is not immutable. The basics of the lesson included taking matter in one form and transforming it into a different form. Finally, that matter was transformed into its original form so that the students could see that these changes were in fact reversible and, despite them, that matter would continue to exist. The students all seemed to grasp this concept full well. The most difficulty that they had was with the particular matter we utilized for this experiment. Two of the students had known water and ice as distinguishable "things" -- they were not aware that water makes ice and that in some instances, ice can make water. They seemed to have a little more difficulty than the third, January, who had watched her mother put water in the freezer to make ice cubes. All of the students grasped the lesson's core concepts; however they appeared much more profound to the two little boys. When I asked them how they thought ice formed they both told me that they did not know, and had never given it conscious thought.