What can we find in the Garage?

I had never really thought before that my beliefs about learning would affect how I would teach my students. I can now see that there are two types of teachers and two types of beliefs. One type of teacher trusts her students and the other one does not. I hope to trust my students. I acknowledge that my students are knowers, and that they have their own ideas, and that they are capable of constructing and carrying out investigations on their own (Koch, p. 267). The other teacher still cares for her students and wants them to succeed but this teacher believes students need modeling and authority, she believes she must have all of the right answers or she is not doing her job (Koch, p. 268). She does not trust that her students can be in charge of there learning process. What worries me about this teacher attitude, that the teacher knows all of the answers, is that the teacher is not going to be able to hold that child's hand through life. The teacher must teach the student how to fish, not give them the fish. She must give the students the tools to figure out the answers for themselves.

This week in class we experienced a great science lesson that allowed us as students to take control of our learning. We were given a bin full of supplies (batteries, Christmas lights, foil, tape, ext.) and we had to figure out how to make a closed circuit (how to light the Christmas light). Our teacher did not tell us how to make this, she gave us no instruction. Before the lesson began though we were challenged to figure out how a little chicken was chirping. We figured out as a whole group that it was chipping when it was in a closed circuit. Our teacher lead us to this answer, but she did not tell us. I loved this idea! We as students felt more accomplished that we figured it out on our own. Our teacher gave us confidence in ourselves and our own learning ability. This is a picture of me and my group trying to figure out how to light the Christmas light:
Did you know that a diaper can hold up to five cups of water?? I had no idea either. My guess was 3/4 cup. I was way off! I had no idea that a diaper is full of these little white crystals could expand when water is in them. What a fun experiment to do with kids! Check out this link to show kids that when you open up a diaper you found polymers: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/diaper-secret

Here are other science experiments you can do with the water absorbing crystals in the diaper:
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/water-absorbing-crystals