Monica Trickett

ELED 3221
Dr. Binns
7 April 2015
Science Lesson Summary and Reflection
For my Methods Block, I was in a third grade classroom at a STEM
school. I taught my science lesson on the reasons for the seasons. I
began the lesson by asking the students to meet me on the carpet.
The students discussed with a partner what they know about the sun,
the Earth and the seasons. I listened to the discussion to see what the
students knew. I brought the group back to focus on me and we
discussed what the students came up with. After the discussion, the
students had the opportunity use a flashlight and homemade globe to
experiment and come up with a reason as to why the seasons happen
on Earth. The flashlight represented the sun and the globe represented
our Earth.
Before the students left the carpet, I gave them many questions
to think about while they were experimenting in their groups. The
students were given about ten minutes to make some conclusions.
During this part of the lesson, I walked around to see how the students
were thinking and answering the questions that I asked. After the ten
minutes, we all gathered at the carpet again to watch a video on the

smart board. The video explained that the seasons happen because of
the Earths 23 degree tilt on its axis and its revolution around the sun.
After the activity and the video, we discussed as a class about
why the seasons happen on Earth. I made sure to reemphasize that the
main reason is the tilt and the revolution around the sun. We talked
about many other aspects of the sun and the Earth such as why night
and day happen and why each planets days are different lengths. The
students got the opportunity to watch a simulation on a laptop with a
partner. I told the students to set the Earths axis to 23 degrees and
watch the simulation to see how the temperature and seasons change.
After they see how it really works, they were free to play around with
the simulations to see how the angle of the Earths tilt can affect the
seasons. After the students got to use the simulation, they completed
and individual assessment.
Reflection
The students found out that the seasons do not necessarily
happen because of the distance the Earth is from the sun. They were
surprised that the Earth is on a 23-degree tilt. When the students
worked in groups they were very engaged and investigative. They each
had different ideas as to why the seasons happen on Earth, but they
brought their ideas together to think of one logical conclusion. There
were no problems between the students; however, they were so

enthusiastic and engaged, I would have liked to have more time to give
them with the globes and flashlights and the simulation.
The activity with the flashlight and the globe was very open
ended. The students had to figure out that they needed change the
distance of the Earth from the sun and also the angle of the
Earth and observe how the light hits the Earth differently. Each group
was changing different things and making different conclusions about
the seasons from their observations. The students were able to extend
this investigation and connect it to their daily lives through the
simulation at the end. The simulation allowed the students to see how
the seasons occur when the Earth is tilted at the correct angle. It
showed the change in temperature and weather through a revolution.
Then, they were encouraged to change the angle of the tilt and
observe what happens. They were all noticing how changing the angle
changed the speed the earth revolved and the temperature and how
long each season was. They were discussing how if we changed the tilt
in real life, our seasons might be longer or shorter or warmer or colder.
They were continuously applying their observations of the simulation
to real life.
In the classroom, the desks are arranged so that there are four
students per group. The teacher has them grouped with each ability
level present at each table. Therefore, for my lesson, I had the
students stay in their tables to ensure that the lower level students

were working with middle level and higher students when they did
group work or partner work. I also used a lot of technology and
discussion so that I could accommodate all learning styles. There were
auditory, visual, and kinesthetic parts of the lesson, which I thought
was really beneficial because each type of learner got their own
experience. I used the smart board to show the video clip and the
students used the laptops for the simulation. The lesson was not
dominated by technology but it was balanced with discussion and
inquiry.
I think the students really learned why seasons happen and they
learned it through group investigation. The simulation really reached
them and made an impact. The most memorable part of the lesson
was when the students were working in partners with the simulation.
Not only were the students learning the concept, but also they were
thinking deeper and making hypotheses about what they think would
happen when they change different things on the simulations. Based
on how the students reacted to the lesson and how engaged they
were, I would definitely choose to do it again. One thing I might to do
help the students more would be to put the questions I wanted them to
think of on the board so that would have something to reference. In
addition, for future, I would like to give the students more time in each
stage. I felt like the lesson was a little bit rushed and the student
wanted more time to investigate.

Overall, I learned that I learn from the students just as much as

they learn from me. I found that I needed to ask deeper questions
because there were alot of high-level students that knew more than
the lesson covered. I had to differentiate and improvise in several parts
of the lesson. In addition, even though my lesson was really successful,
I discovered that my lesson plan was just a skeleton of how my lesson.
I realized how important it is to really study the content that youre
teaching so that you can clarify and extend the lesson as the students
need. I think that I did really well with this because I was interested in
the topic and was excited to teach it.