Teaching Science Materials

In Mrs. Dickersons classroom there are a decent amount of science

materials. The science materials include but are not limited to: Large 3-ft
Cardboard Thermometer, Safety Transport Cart, Science Poster
Listing parts of Plant Cell, Science Poster Listing parts of Animal
Cell, Digital Stopwatch, Primary Calculator, Flexible Meter Sticker 12
inch Wooden Rulers, Safety Goggles, Graphing Paper, Luna
Interactive Projection Camera, Interactive Smart Board, White Lab
Apron, Fire Extinguisher, Science Word Wall, iPad, Life Cycle of
Butterfly, Poster Life Cycle of Chicken Poster, and a Life Cycle of Frog
Poster. All of these materials play a vital role in the classroom experience. I
will expound on the four main materials used in the classroom which are the
textbook/workbook, word wall, iPad and Smart Board.
While being in Mr. Dickersons class, the students have been working in
their textbook and workbook heavily. She either reads to them, have them
read alone or read as a class (choral reading). Mrs. Dickerson walks around
the room while reading from the text and assess students while doing so. She
also assigns the students questions /problems and they discuss the answers
to come to a consensus as to which answer is correct. Although I did not get
the name of the textbook they work from, I do know that the workbook is the
ACT Aspire Workbook for Scence.

The word wall gets utilized frequently in the classroom. Mrs. Dickerson
uses the word wall to enhance the students spelling and meaning of words.
She gave the students a list of words every week and assessed them
randomly in class and at the end of the week. The students, especially visual
learners appreciated the word wall because they could use it for quick recall.
Mrs. Dickerson has words like, survival, ecosystem, adaptation, environment
and many more displayed on the wall. Being that the ACT Aspire test is
vastly approaching, they have been doing more activities with the words. I
observed an activity where the students played a game of Bingo with the
words. Each child had a bingo card with six blank spaces. The students wrote
one word wall word of their choice in each space. Then the words were
removed from the wall, placed into a container, and pulled out one by one. If
the word that is pulled out was on the students Bingo card, that word was
covered with a marker. Students entire card had to be covered in order to
win. I noticed that the students really enjoyed this game and this helped
them to learn the words.
The newest piece of technology to grace the schools of Orangeburg are
the iPads. Mrs. Dickerson believes that the iPads are a gift and a curse. Her
students received their iPads during certain times of the day because it can
be a distraction to some. Fortunately, the iPad is used during science
majority of the subject period. She instructed the students to watch different
videos on science and had them complete worksheets and write in their
science journals. I also noticed the students reviewing their pictures they

took in the iPads from an experiment they did and of the areas surrounding
the school. The experiment conducted was of the Water Cycle and it was
completed in my absence. Mrs. Dickerson uploads quizzes and some tests on
the iPad for the students to take. She also uses the iPad for attendance and
for a random name selector for picking students to answer and respond to
questions.
The classroom material that gets utilized the most is the Smart Board.
There is hardly ever a time when the Smart Board is not being used.
PowerPoints, videos, and games are all displayed on the Smart Board for
whole class instruction and activities. Mrs. Dickerson and the students
labeled plants and animals and their parts using the SMART Board by either
having the organism and labeling the parts or by moving the parts to the
correct location on the organism. Mrs. Dickerson also recorded data from
class science projects by writing it on the SMART Board, and use the SMART
Board to create tables and figures displaying data trends to compare and
analyze as a class. I also believe they would really enjoy a virtual field trip to
locations around the world.