Vonnahme Master’s Portfolio 1

Science

Samantha Vonnahme

ED 698 Master’s Portfolio Spring 2024

University of Alaska Southeast

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At a recent professional development day, one of our district’s curriculum directors

came over to me to say hi and ask how the year was going. I replied that though I enjoyed the

kindergarten and 1st grade split class, it had been difficult to manage fitting everything into one

day—especially science. Rather than laud the importance of science at this young age and

encourage me to keep trying, she arched her eyebrow and informed me that in Europe,

teachers do not even begin science instruction until middle school. I assented with a hum and

our conversation ended. Given some time to contemplate the conversation, I found that I

completely disagreed with her attitude. Science is important at any age.

Upon reading a science lesson on hibernation I wrote during my practicum, I was

reminded of the attitude my host teacher held toward science in her kindergarten class. She

was passionate about exploration of the natural world and planned detailed units about arctic

animals and plants. These units and others often applied practice in writing, reading, and math

as students labeled, recorded observations, and detected patterns. In many ways, I want my

practice to reflect a similar type of intentional, guided exploration.

The lesson I wrote—unfortunately taught virtually due to COVID restrictions—reflected

the intention to teach science purposefully, yet lacked several of the guiding principles I have

learned since. I will briefly describe each of these principles in a discussion on the way I

currently teach science. My practices are far from ideal, and I am constantly adjusting how they

can fit into our demanding schedule, but there is considerable growth and change from the

hibernation lesson that was taught four years ago.

Anyone who works with young children knows that they are full of wonder and

curiosity. Kindergarten and 1st grade students are no exception. Chip Wood (2017) writes that
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five-year-old’s have vivid imaginations and that six-year-olds will joyfully participate in anything

that involves exploration and discovery. Both are full of curiosity and a passion for learning,

according to Esach & Fried (2005). I want to tap into the natural inclination my students have to

explore and ask questions and provide them with learning experiences at which they can be

successful. The level of success a student can experience in any subject is strongly related to

their experience of the subject at a young age and especially their engagement in that subject,

according to Fisher et al. (2018) and Contant et al. (2005).

Due to a child’s active imagination, it was a wise choice to begin the hibernation lesson

in an exercise on pretend. Wood (2017) writes that it is the task of a five-year-old to play, so

incorporating science and pretending together is developmentally appropriate. I try to

incorporate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) explorations into the math

centers we conduct Tuesday through Friday and play “plays” a large part in these. STEM

explorations investigate problems one might encounter in engineering and some examples we

have done are building a bridge using popsicle sticks and clothespins or designing a Lego

marble maze. An activity like these might appear as ordinary play to a child, but it is also a

practice in problem-solving, communication (when working with a partner), and perseverance.

Another way I try to tap into my student’s natural curiosity, is merely by letting them

look. Esach & Fried (2004) claim this type of “mere” looking is vital to science. I can guide them

towards certain things on which to focus, but my intention is to participate in the scientific

practice of observation—a procedural practice or cross-cutting concept according to Alaska’s

science content standards (2024)—without requiring anything more. Similarly, it is like reading

a book for pure pleasure or assigning a book to a student without the expectation of a written
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report—a practice that actually causes students to read more and have a more positive attitude

about reading according to Fisher et al. (2018). In our classroom this year we have earthworms.

Rather than keeping science journals on the worms or assigning earthworm specific

explorations, we will often simply check on our worms for the sake of looking. Sometimes this

turns into holding the worms, as well, but it is often a chance to wonder at a living creature.

The enthusiasm with which our “looking” is often met has prompted me to create

science lessons in which the central purpose is for students to marvel. This winter we

experienced two weeks of -30 or below, so the kindergarten teacher across the hall, together

with my class, filled a couple mugs with boiling water and tromped outside briefly just to

experience what happens when the boiling water is thrown into the air. We didn’t ask any

questions or expect a record of observations afterward, we only wanted the students to be

amazed and intrigued.

Positively impacting a student’s attitude towards science is of great importance, but I

can also not underestimate addressing early misconceptions students and adults have in

regards to natural phenomena. Addressing this is two-fold. My understanding of content should

leave little room for error and I should also be willing to tell a student, “I don’t know! Let me

look this up so I can tell you the answer later.” It is not realistic, in my opinion, that I should be

an expert on all science standards from kindergarten to 8th grade, but I should familiarize myself

with the grades I am teaching. According to Fisher et al. (2018), teachers should be conversant

in common misconceptions and be ready to address them and Contant et al. (2005) write that

teachers do not need to be experts and can gain necessary knowledge simply by teaching.
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According to Fisher et al. (2018), however, content knowledge does allow teachers to

design lessons in a way that is more easily understood by students. Specialists are not a

requirement—only teachers who have enough of a confident grasp on content knowledge to

convey and facilitate learning for their students. In kindergarten the standards focus on

weather patterns, animal needs, and the results of pushing and pulling. In my class we talk

about the weather every day during calendar time. A student weather reporter checks the sky

and the flag, then the whole class looks at a large thermometer, comparing what happened

today, with what happened the day or week before. In the future I think it would also be

important to include the cross-cutting concept of pattern in more obvious ways, perhaps by

recording the weather of one month in a bar graph.

A second side of addressing misconceptions can be seen in the practicum lesson on

hibernation. I recall that I performed a pre-assessment to check on student understanding of

hibernation and the common perception was that creatures who hibernate are merely sleeping

for a long period of time. This is a misconception I was able to address and correct. In another

lesson from a unit on plants, we planted seeds to grow in our classroom. As I asked the

students what a plant needs to grow, many of them were under the impression that plants

grow because they eat the food in the soil. While this is a good comparison between humans

and animals, it is also a misconception that should be addressed. Without water, air, and

sunshine, the plant will certainly suffer and die, just as a human would. Both of these examples

convey a need for awareness of the knowledge students are already bringing to the classroom.

Building on their prior knowledge will allow me to develop lessons in a way that assists in their

success, according to Contant et al. (2005).

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Other disciplines require background and foundational knowledge to build upon for

future mastery. Esach & Fried (2004) indicate that if students are to learn new categories of the

natural world, it will be greatly influenced by prior knowledge, so I believe that just as other

disciplines begin from early elementary, so should science. If this instruction is absent, new

information learned later may not make any sense. In the hibernation lesson, we did not

explore concepts that would be above student comprehension, but stayed on surface level to

ensure a base-level understanding of what an animal can do to survive when their food sources

leave for the winter. We also talked about how humans get ready for winter and what that

might look like in their lives, as a way to tap into prior knowledge while introducing new

content. This is something I try to practice in the lessons I teach now, but I think the use of pre-

assessments and KWL charts should be used more for this purpose.

Scientific practices are another part of introducing science to children at a young age. At

the end of lessons we often participate in practicing scientific observation and communicating

this information via drawing—a common form of data collection among scientists. Another

scientific practice I teach is the ability to plan and carry out an investigation. In an exploration

of animals and their food, specifically our hedgehog class pet, we discussed the meaning of

prediction in order to conduct an experiment. Our question was: “What will happen when

Phoebe and an earthworm are placed in a plastic tote together?” Through this question, I was

able to guide student thinking and teach that a prediction should be made using the

information we know about animals and the way our hedgehog already acts.

Questions are another integral scientific practice, and over the years I have shifted from

providing the question for the students, to allowing them to ask their own questions. This shift
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is apparent in the hibernation lesson, where I provided questions for the students, compared to

observing the earthworms and allowing students the freedom to ask questions as they arise. I

would like to get better at planning in the middle ground and encouraging student questions to

direct the learning, yet guide them towards crosscutting concepts and the standards in focus

for their grade. This is the very heart of inquiry-based learning according to Contant et al.

(2005)—an approach, “…in which they interact with their teachers and peers; establish

connections between their current knowledge of science and scientific understandings; apply

science concepts to new questions; engage in problem solving, planning, reasoning from

evidence, and group discussions; and experience an active approach to learning science” (p. 8).

A final scientific principle that guides my teaching is demonstrated by the tremendous

variety of multimodal instructional methods and strategies for differentiation in the hibernation

lesson. This is an appropriate approach for this age group according to Wood (2017). The plan

involved dramatic play, music, technology, background knowledge, and art all placed

thoughtfully to reinforce thinking on what some animals need to do to survive the winter. I

think this communicates clearly that science is not an add-on to other subjects. It should be

interconnected with reading units and mathematical word problems, but it is also a subject in

its own right.

It is an inevitable product of aging that much of the curiosity and wonder we held

towards the world around us as children will progressively dissipate. For some people, feelings

of boredom and apathy are brought on by nature, or we are too busy doing adult tasks to

notice the natural spectacles that surround us. I think it is so important to do the best I can to
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teach young children to continue wondering and looking and asking questions. I will teach them

to read, certainly, but I will also endeavor to teach them how to think.
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References

Alaska Department of Education & Early Development. (2024). Science standards. State of

Alaska. https://education.alaska.gov/standards/science

Contant, T.L., Bass, J.E., Tweed, A., Carin, A.A. (2005). Teaching science through inquiry-based

instruction. Pearson.

Esach, H. & Fried, M.N. (2004). Should science be taught in early childhood?. Journal of Science

Education and Technology. 14(3), 315-336.

http://www.fisme.science.uu.nl/publicaties/literatuur/2005_eshach_science_early_chil

dhood.pdf

Fisher, D., Frey, N., Quaglia, R.J., Smith, D., Lande, L. (2018). Engagement by design. Corwin.

Wood, C. (2017). Yardsticks: Child and adolescent development ages 4-14. Center for

Responsive Schools, Inc.