The science lesson that I observed during my clinical experience was in a fifth grade

classroom. The main focus of the lesson was on force and motion, including Newtons three laws.
The teacher introduced the lesson be stating the daily objective: Explain how factors of gravity,
friction, and change of mass effect the motion of objects. The teacher then told students to think
about how they can apply Newtons three laws to the world around them.
Since students have already read the chapter from their textbooks, the teacher then gave each
student a piece of construction paper. Students were to fold their paper to make three sections. The
first section was titled Newtons first law, the second section was titled Newtons second law, and
finally the third section was titled Newtowns third law. Students were to explain the law, draw a
picture that related to the law, and then explain how they picture that they drew related to the law. In
addition, students were told to use the vocab that relates to the law and then define the vocab.
Students worked individually at their desks on this assignment. They were allowed to talk
quietly with their other table members. While students were working, the teacher played music softly
in the background. Students did seem engaged in the lesson and enjoyed drawing pictures to go along
with each law. In addition, I think that this foldable will be useful when they are studying for their
upcoming test!
The students receive science instruction on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for about an
hour. Science takes place after students get back to the classroom from lunch. Personally, I felt like
science was kind of squeezed into the schedule whenever there was time. When there was testing
going on or some other mandatory event happening, science kind of got pushed to the side. When I
was conducting my student interviews, several of the students told me that one thing that they wish
they could change in their classroom is the amount of hands on activities that they did during science
time. A few of the students also mentioned that they wished they did more group work and went
outside to do experiments.