Lesson Reflective Summary

Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement: Maggie Gudgel

Instructor: Dawn/Terri George

School: Frey Elementary Grade: 1st Grade

Lesson Topic: What’s the Big Idea Ben?

This lesson was a culminating activity at the end of my magnet unit. This
was a STEAM lesson that I used to connect Ben Franklin SS content to our
science unit of magnetism. The students watched a fun puppet show video
that other young students created. They enjoyed the product and hearing
the fun dialog between the students performing the play. The kids created a
kite using serval materials. Then, the students attached magnet tape to the
back of the Popsicle stick with the kite glued on secure. The student acted
out a paper puppet show using the magic magnet stick wand behind the
paper. This made the kite appear to be floating or flying because it was
magnetic through the paper “puppet stage.” The girls in my class thoroughly
enjoyed this experience and loved the opportunity to create and design
their ben Franklin puppet show paper backgrounds. The lesson achieved
the learning content goals because the students had to use their knowledge
of magnetism to create the puppet show props (kite). They had to use
dialog from social studies content to retell the life and facts of Benjamin
Franklin. The students even incorporated technology using Chatterpix. They
made Ben Franklin present his findings through use of the fun Chatterpix
application. The children showed of their creations and Chatterpix
presentations at our “Museum Talks.” This was a 45 minute dress up
presentation of the Ben Franklin STEAM project- What’s the Big Idea Ben?
The parents in my class received the link to see their child’s Chatterpix
presentations.
This activity allowed me to access overall knowledge of our current social
studies historical figure and the main idea of magnetism. My students
proved that through our CTLS IRESPOND data and the culminated project
activity rubric scores, they understand the learning content and used the
entire engineering CRE process throughout this magnetic unit. My input in
this lesson was critical! My students needed kid-friendly unpacked learning
standards, modeling of the activity, and direct instruct to use the
technology in this lesson. I spent time making sure my students knew the
learning objectives. If I have the opportunity to reteach this lesson, I will
require the students to provide more information during the Chatterpix
piece. Some of the students knew more than you could tell, because he/she
got confused or froze up during the microphone recording. I had to help a
few partnered pairs restart several times just to hear their voices correctly
or without being silly/nervous. I think my students needed a little more
practice using Chatterpix Mic. And speaking clearly into the iPad when
recording. I am very pleased with the data I have collected from this unit
and plan to make a few revamps before teaching it next year!