Data Collection Project 1

Data Collection Project

Alicia Cochran

School of Education, Regent University

UED 496: Field Experience E-Portfolio

Dr. Jennifer Flannagan

Spring 2023
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Part 1: Description

This data collection project took place in the second placement of the student teaching

semester at Regent University in Spring of 2023. The second placement was in a first grade

classroom with 22 students. One student had an IEP and four students had 504’s. There were also

12 boys in the class as well as 10 girls.

For this data collection project, the unit is on plants. The subject is science, based off of

the curriculum plan for the current Chesapeake Public Schools district. The SOL that aligned

with the unit on plants was SOL 1.4 The student will investigate and understand that plants have

basic life needs and functional parts that allow them to survive. The pre-assessment task was

created by the following student teacher to fit the SOL 1.4 with concentration on the following

SOL points: a) plants need nutrients, air, water, light, and a place to grow; b) structures of plants

perform specific functions; and c) plants can be classified based on a variety of characteristics.

The pre-assessment given to the students is the same as the post-assessment which was

given to the students after the unit. The pre-assessment has questions asking the students about

what plants need to grow, specifically air, nutrients, water, and light. Which aligns to the first

part of the SOL. It also has questions asking about the different parts of the plants, which aligns

to the second part of the SOL with questions about the 4 different types of plants: mosses,

conifers, flowering, and fern plants. These questions align with the third and final part of the

SOL for the unit.

After scoring the pre-assessment, the data showed that the students fell into three groups.

One group of students needed to practice learning what plants need in order to grow, another

group of students needed to learn that plants have different parts that perform different functions,

and another group needed to learn about how plants can be classified based on different
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characteristics. The pre-assessment data also told me that a small group of my students knew the

plant parts and functions but did not know that plants can be classified based on different

characteristics. Based on the data, I decided to create activities and lessons that help address all

of the weaknesses mentioned above to bring them to grade level. This includes but is not limited

to small group differentiation, whole group instruction, and remediation for individual students.
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Part Two: Description of Activities

Activity 1: My first activity was a foldable specifically designed to address the first two parts of

the SOL 1.4: a) plants need nutrients, air, water, light, and a place to grow; b) structures of plants

perform specific functions. First, I made sure to write an example of the foldable so that my

students were able to follow along as they made their foldable. First I handed out a large piece of

chart paper and a pencil to each student. Then they folded their chart paper into three places. Two

outside pieces of the chart paper fold over each other so that there is only one third of the

foldable on the outside, the opening facing the right. On the front of the foldable students will

write, “All About Plants by: (said student).” On the first page of the foldable students will write,

“Page 1.” Then students will write, “Materials, seeds, soil, cup, and water.” Students will

underline materials and draw a small picture of the material next to the name. Then students will

write the steps to plant a seed. “First, we will put soil in a cup. Then, we put the seeds in the soil.

Finally, we water the seeds.” For the middle or second page of the foldable students will write,

“Page 2,” they will also write, “Plant Needs.” The students will write, “Sun, Water, Soil, and

Air.” Next to each word they will draw a picture of the sun, water, soil and air. On the third and

final page the students will write, “Parts of a Plant.” Underneath, students will draw a picture of

a plant with the corresponding parts. For example, students will write the word Stem next to the

stem of their drawn flower plant. For this activity I choose to differentiate by having certain

students come to a small group table to be given more time to write their foldable. I also had my

other students in the whole group as we discussed the needs and parts of a plant.
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Activity 2: My Second Activity for my students was to plant a seed. First I made sure to order

cups, soil, three different seeds, and individual trays for my students to plant their seeds. Then I

gave each of the students their own cup and tray. They were given 15 minutes to decorate their

cup and tray as well as put their name on both the tray and the cup. Students were given sharpies

to decorate their cup since nothing else would show up on their cups. After the students were

finished decorating their cup and tray I called over table groups to come to my table. My table

already had a bag of soil, my watering can, red sunflower seeds, yellow sunflower seeds, and

shamrock bulbs. I also had another cup inside of the soil bag to easily scoop the soil into the

students’ cup. The first table then lined up and chose their seeds while I assisted them with

placing the soil in their cup. Afterwards, they placed their chosen seed or bulb into the cup, my

students used the watering can to water their plan. Then they placed their plants on a designated

ledge for the plants to receive sunlight. After this I called up other table groups one by one. For

this activity differentiation occurred with the process of planting the seed. Some students needed

help watering and placing soil in their cups. While other students did these tasks by themselves.

Some students also needed some assistance with placing their seed cups on the ledge. Overall

this process took about 2 weeks. While this science lesson was two weeks long I decided to

begin planting their seeds at the very start of the unit. Students were tasked on the first few days

of our lesson with watering their cups every day before they left the classroom. After about a

week and a half all of my students' red and yellow sunflowers had grown into small green plants.

All of the shamrocks were not out of the ground at that time yet.
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Activity 3: The third activity that my students completed was the parts and functions worksheet.

First, I reviewed the parts of a plant and how these parts of a plant worked. Then I asked my

students to pull out a sharpened pencil and their crayon worksheet. I gave my students 6 minutes

to use the following word bank below to fill in the plant job to the plant part. After they fill in the

blanks they were tasked with drawing a picture next to each plant part, and coloring in their

picture. This activity aligns with part b of the SOL 1.4 b) structures of plants perform specific

functions. Differentiation occurred through small group. Students were placed in small groups to

complete this activity. One group of students were tasked with reading the sentences and words

aloud to me. Another group had the sentences read to them and they chose the answer from the

word bank to go with the blank.

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Activity 4: For the fourth activity I decided to plan a picture identification activity. First I taught

my students the different plants conifers, flowering, fern, and moss. Then, I made a four square

anchor chart with my students. Each box had a list of characteristics that separated each plant

from the others. For example in one box the underlined word Moss would go on top and all of

the characteristics of moss would go in that one box. This activity was written by me but done

completely student led. Afterward I gave the students a blank sheet of paper. They were tasked to

draw a four square on their paper and draw a picture of each plant in the different boxes. For

example, students will write the word moss at the top of one box on their four squares, they will

then draw a picture beneath their underlined plant word of the plant. This activity aligns with

SOL 1.4 c) plants can be classified based on a variety of characteristics. Differentiation occurred

through the pictures on their four squares. Some students needed a picture of the plant given to

them as they drew their own plant. While other students only needed to see the picture once to

draw their plant picture.

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Part Three: Graphs and Reflection

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Reflection:

This unit on plants lasted for two weeks, afterwards students were given a post

assessment that was the same format and questions as the pre-test. I used the same questions as

the pre-test for the post test to see how much my students had grown and which questions they

had learned or did not learn. From comparing the pre and post assessment data I can clearly see

that all of my students grew in their learning scores. 2 students received a final score of 69, 6

students received a score of 100, 2 students received a score of 76, 5 students received a score of

84, and 6 students received a score of 92. Based on the post assessment data the students who

needed remediation in certain areas to meet the SOL 1.4 achieved their grade level goal. After I

gave my students the pre test I was able to plan activities that met the SOL chosen for the unit.

They also learned about reproduction in plants, what it means, and how many different plants

reproduce in many different ways. For this unit I used a variety of materials from the Chesapeake

Public School curriculum, online resources, as well as resources that were made by me in order

to better fit the SOL 1.4. One thing that I would modify if I were to do this unit over again is

creating more lessons on characteristics of plants. While most of my students did understand the

differences between different types of plants, some of my students did misidentify the difference

between a conifer and a fern. Another thing I would change about my unit plan is making both

my pre and post assessments online. While my post assessment was online, I decided to make

my pre-assessment the same format only printed. The only reason I would make both online is

because the online version did not take as much time as the printed version. Overall, I definitely

feel that this unit plan was successful as my students did reach the SOL understanding.