My concept map demonstrates who I am as a science teacher. My concept map speaks about what science would look like in my classroom, my beliefs about an ideal teacher and my belief of who a scientist is.

Goal 1: Use of the Scientific Model

I want my students to learn how to use the scientific method to answer their inquiries and explain the results they obtain through experiments and the collection of data. For example, throwing an airplane without accessories and throwing an airplane with accessories and comparing the results.

Goal 2: Develop Critical thinking skills

I want my students to develop their critical thinking skills through experimentation, class discussions and observation of phenomena and situations (e.g. see how weight can affect the paper airplane when added to their model).

Strategies to Support Student Learning

Support 1: Talk Moves

I will use talk moves to scaffold my students' learning and aid them in explaining and thinking about the scientific method as they go through experiments such as asking students to explain their reasoning and using wait time (Keely, 2016).

Support 2: P-E-O Technique

I will use the P-E-O technique to aid students with their critical thinking skills as students will be using their prior knowledge to predict the outcome, and explain why they believe this will happen and observe (Keely, 2013). For example, predicting what will happen when the wings of the paper airplane are folded down at the end, and explaining that it could result in more drag, then observing what will happen when thrown.

Support 3: Context-Rich Models

I will use context rich models to aid students to visualize the phenomenon that is being examined, and revise the model to have students demonstrate their understanding as the topic is further explored and discovered (Models and Modeling: An Introduction, 2015).

Support 4: Differentiation

I will differentiate the lesson to allow for all students to succeed within the classroom. As students have different abilities I will be using collaborative group work and mixed-ability grouping to allow for each student to stand-out, as each student has a different set of abilities (Harshbarger, 2019).