Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dr. Dwyer
EELB 532
Briefly describe the class, including: areas in which it’s located, grade level, general
information about student demographics (5pts)
The 5th grade class is at a public school located in Indio CA. It is in a suburban area
where many students walk to school because there are surrounding housing areas. Most
of the students are Hispanic and there are two Caucasian and 1 African American student.
Moreover, many students in this class, and at the school, come from lower income homes.
They also deal with some difficult situations such as parent separation and parent
incarceration. In general, they are a happy and energetic group of children who value their
peers more than academics. Most of them perform below grade level in ELA and MATH.
There isn’t a great deal of science taught within the classroom, but my resident teacher
does at least one STEM or STEAM challenge with them a month. Out of everything they
do, those challenges are their favorite and it is the only time they are all completely
engaged. Often, they are curious and excited, so they are motivated during the mini-
lesson before the challenge when scientific information and vocabulary is introduced and
explained. Currently, they are about to start working on designing a kite that will stay in the
sky.
Melanie Valencia
Dr. Dwyer
EELB 532
the students expressed that science is about finding out how the world works and that
scientists are the ones who gives answers about how the world works. They also
expressed that science is “cool” because you can do experiments and science projects. In
this class they are familiar with STEM projects and it is their favorite thing to do. They’ve
expressed they wish all subjects could be as fun as science. There were other students
who realized that science was apart of creating new medicines that could help many
What resources do they have at home that can be used to support their science learning?
(5pts)
Students have expressed that most of them have computers or cellphones at home in
which they can conduct research. I also made a list of items and had students raise their
hands to count how many students had each item. With these they can conduct
experiments as well as various STEM and STEAM projects that I could make available for
them. Below is the list with the number of students who have these items at home:
they’ve used the engineering design process to record their progress. They are familiar
with the process of working with a team/partner because two(or more) heads can
sometimes be better than one when designing. Moreover, they have experience with using
their chrome books to conduct research. I could share video links with to reinforce topics
and add to their background knowledge. Also, I could give them surveys with different
projects and have them choose which ones they are interested in and why.
Melanie Valencia
Dr. Dwyer
EELB 532
What challenges do they have that you need to pay special attention to in science teaching?
(5pts)
One of the challenges I need to pay special attention to regarding teaching science is
the academic vocabulary. Sometimes certain concepts are difficult to comprehend so it’s
important I make accessible. For example, I could bring in realia and give them hands-on
examples to explain concepts. Instead of just telling them what a word means, I need to
show them and have them experience it themselves to better make that connection and
understanding. Also, some of the required reading in the science text books might be hard
for some of my lower readers. Thus, I will need to rephrase some of the wording and
include visuals such as videos and pictures that will help them comprehend the text.
Lastly, I may need to pay attention to how they respond if they fail a STEM challenge
because I want them to know that scientists make mistakes all the time and learn from
them to better the outcome. Science challenges can teach important life skills along with
Photos (5pts) STEM PROJECT: Create a boat that will float for at least 1 min. given certain
weights (unifix cubes).