Sandra C. Mack
Grade 2
Londonderry, NH
December, 2010

My Journey with Science Inquiry and Science Journals

As I reflect on my experience with "Making Science Mentors," I have to look back three years. When I first heard about the program, I was very excited, because I was interested in learning more about science. Teaching science wasn't something that I was always actively doing in my second grade classroom. The science was integrated within the curriculum areas that were being taught. I also had some trepidation when beginning this program, because I didn't have a science background, and I wasn't strong in my science content knowledge. As a result, I was filled with a combination of excitement and a bit of anxiety at the start of my journey. At the time, I did not know it was the beginning of both an engaging and fulfilling journey.

Upon arriving at the first day of the Institute three summers ago, we were asked some science content questions, almost like a science survey. I thought to myself, "Oh my!" I didn't know anything about the science content areas, such as heat transfer. Then, I found out during introductions that the workshop was full of middle, high school and upper elementary school teachers. At that moment, I thought I don't think this was meant for me. I thought I'm just a second grade teacher, and my focus is not on science content. My focus is on reading, writing and math. I didn't have a strong science content background. But I told myself, this is a new experience, and I'm always up for learning new things. Let me give it a try. Here I am reflecting three years later, and saying this was a life-changing experience both professionally and personally.

At that first five-day institute, I found myself excited about science. I wanted to learn as much as possible about science content, the science inquiry process, and how I could teach science to second graders. I wanted to get my second graders to have a genuine interest in science. There was just one prevailing question; "How was I going to do that?" During that initial five-day institute, I learned about the science inquiry process, some science content, and becoming a science mentor. But then I thought to myself, how am I going to take all of this information, everything that I learned, and pare it down to a second grade understanding? Was this even possible? I remember leaving that first five-day summer institute bursting with new information and ideas. But there still was an unknown, how do I integrate these new experiences and this new knowledge into my second grade classroom. I had to think about what kind of methods I could integrate in order to provide genuine science experiences for seven and eight-year olds. I also realized, in order to do it right, it would be a big responsibility and a big commitment. As part of this program, we were becoming "subject matter experts" in the area of science inquiry. For some, I thought it would be fairly easy, because they taught science every day, and they had a science content background. For others, such as the fourth and fifth grade teachers, science was also a big part of their curriculum. But for me, it was new territory and new ground to be covered. While I have always been one who is up for a challenge, I thought this was going to be overwhelming with the other curriculum expectations for a primary grade.

As we continued with the science workshops throughout the first year, I found myself increasingly encouraged by our facilitators, and by the other teachers in the program. It truly was a cooperative learning environment. Everyone had something to offer and contribute. It was a forum of open ideas, sharing of information and knowledge, camaraderie, and the development of professional relationships. I found myself becoming more knowledgeable in the science content area. My understanding of the science inquiry process, and how to implement it into my classroom was growing. My trepidation and anxiety about not being a "science person" was decreasing. My confidence was increasing with each and every workshop.

Once the school year started, I had to figure out a way to introduce second graders to "stand-alone" science, not just the integration of science within language arts. I decided for second graders that natural phenomena would be the best way for them to make real life connections between science, their prior knowledge, and their personal experiences.

Science Journals - Year One

I decided to use science journals as a means to capture the children's thinking. I provided the children with a science journal that consisted of a simple black-and-white marble composition book. The first year I introduced the science journals, the students were excited about the idea of having a science journal, and to use their words, "doing science." At the beginning of the school year, some of them wrote, "One of my second grade goals is to learn science." As an introduction to the science journals, the children answered the following questions: "What is science? What does science mean to you?" To be second graders, ideas were flying from everyone. The classroom was charged with energy, and the excitement from the students was absolutely amazing."

The science inquiry process and use of science journals was all very new to me so I decided to take it slowly. During the first year, I decided to use existing science activities, and incorporate the science journals in order to record the exploration, data collection and sense-making phases of the science inquiry process. The children did a "blubber" experiment that went with our "Whales" theme. In the past, the experiment consisted of the children putting on a plastic glove, packing Crisco around the gloved hand to simulate blubber, and then placing the hand in a bucket of ice water. This was to show the children how blubber kept the whale warm in icy, cold water. Then the children would complete a science sheet. That year, I decided to still use the same concept, but provide the children with a true science inquiry experience. We started with the exploration phase where the children explored the temperature of warm, room temperature, and ice water. This is where I introduced the use of senses in making observations. The children made observations of the three buckets of water using their sight, touch, smell and hearing. They then recorded two observations in the science journal. Within the data collection phase, the children put on different kinds of gloves to insulate their hands in the different buckets of waters. Then the children put their hand in a bag packed with Crisco, and tried the ice cold water. During the sense-making phase, the children recorded their data, and responded to questions. The children were able to gain a better understanding of the concept, because they had the opportunity to formulate their own ideas and understanding from personal experiences, not from a "canned" experiment.

The journals were then used to record observations of an ecosystem, lifecycle of a plant and lifecycle of a butterfly. During this first year, my focus was on learning how to integrate the use of science journals into the classroom. The science journals included written and drawn observations, questions and predictions. At times, I had the children label some parts of their drawings, but this was minimal. Most data recording was done using lists. During the first year, my science journals were very simplistic. I felt I was still gaining a better understanding of the science inquiry process, and stepping my way through the use of science journals in a second grade classroom.

Science Journals - Year Two

The second year I introduced journals, I wanted to focus on making them a little more sophisticated. While I was pleased with my introductory use of journals during the first year of the science inquiry program, I wanted to significantly expand their use. So the second year, I started the journals once again with what science is, and what does science mean to you.

After this introduction, I wanted to introduce science inquiry using a method and content that would make sense to second graders. The first area that I taught was about observations, and using your five senses to make observations. So our next science journal task was what are our five senses, identifying those five senses, and then making connections to what kinds of things we see, smell, hear, touch and taste. I thought this was a necessary foundation in the use of science journals by second graders. I believed the science journals would allow the children to freely represent their thinking, ideas and connections through drawing and writing. I thought that journals were developmentally the best way for them to gain a hands-on understanding of science. We started out by drawing pictures of objects that we could smell, see, touch, hear, and taste. The children had to label each drawing with its name, and the associated sense.

After discussing our senses and how to make observations, I decided to have the children collect leaves from the playground. Then, they had to put their observation skills to work. The children had to draw a detailed picture of the leaf, and record observations, questions and predictions. Then I expanded this lesson to include a research component. The children made predictions on what kind of leaf was collected. After which, we had a lesson on leaf identification using tree guides, and various leaf books. During the second year of journal use, I started with a little more labeling of the drawings. Then I took the leaf observations a step further, and we made connections to the seasons of the year. After using the leaf to identify the tree, the children were responsible for drawing a picture of what the tree would look like during each season. This included labeling each season. This extended the exploration phase one step further by connecting the leaf to the tree, and then extending this to how the tree looks as it changes throughout the different seasons. These were all areas in which the children had real life experiences that connected to the science content. They were using their science inquiry skills to explore, collect and record data, and truly make sense of all of that information at a second-grade level.

In order to expand the children's ability to make observations and predictions, and ask questions, I felt the children needed to practice with something that they had prior knowledge of or prior experience with. It needed to be simple, and it needed to be something to which they could make real life connections. It was October, so I decided to teach the lifecycle of a pumpkin. I started by having the children make pumpkin observations. I was little nervous at first, because I thought it would not be interesting enough. But I thought let's give it a try. The children made observations of three different kinds of pumpkins. The children rotated through the different pumpkins, recording their observations through drawings and writing, as well as recording their questions and predictions in their science journals. The first step was to draw a detailed picture of their pumpkin. After that, the children had to write down observations, and those observations had to be specifically what they could see, smell, and touch. Then, they recorded their observations, predictions and questions about the pumpkins. The excitement was surprising to me. Their drawings had such a level of detail, right down to the ridges and spots on the pumpkins, the shading of the pumpkins, and the variations in the stems. Some of the drawings even included the label, which was still on one of the pumpkins. Then I took this one step further by using the journals to have discussions comparing and contrasting the different pumpkins.

As we continued to explore our pumpkins and collect data, I decided to extend our science inquiry, and use the pumpkins from October all the way to the beginning of March. We observed how the pumpkins changed throughout those months. The children made predictions about what was going to happen next with the pumpkins. They also made predictions as to why the pumpkins were changing, and what was happening to them. We started making predictions about the inside of the pumpkins. The children drew pictures of what they predicted the inside of the pumpkin would look like. We then cut open the pumpkin, and recorded those observations, compared the predictions to the observations, and generated new questions. They even had a chance to smell and touch the inside of the pumpkin. Through this natural phenomenon, a simple pumpkin turned into science inquiry that lasted from October until March of the following year. The children were coming into the classroom looking for the changes in the pumpkins. Questions were being raised, such as, "Why were the pumpkins changing from green to more orange? Why did one pumpkin start to rot and change faster than another pumpkin?" The inquiry was like a train that could not be stopped. Science inquiry in our classroom had taken on a life of its own. The children's excitement was growing, as was mine. I was surprised how a simple pumpkin could ignite so much learning, sharing, and enthusiasm.

Closing out year two, we received our Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars, and planted different kinds of seeds in the spring. Using their science journals, they observed the lifecycle of a plant, as well as the lifecycle of a butterfly. The children continued drawing and writing their observations. They recorded their questions and predictions. We watched the lifecycle from seed to plant, and from caterpillar to butterfly. Once again, this was taking simple concepts whereby the children could make connections, and marrying the inquiry process with science content. Their observations became more detailed. The questions and predictions became more thoughtful and authentic. There was a level of sophistication to these second grade journals.

Science Journals - Year Three

As I started the current school year, I wanted to continue to expand and improve on the use of science journals in my second grade classroom. I asked myself, "How can I improve the science experiences of my students?" "How can I increase their science inquiry skills?" I decided to focus on the same science concepts used in the second year. This year my introduction of the science journals was a little different. As their first assignment in the science journal, the children drew a picture of what they thought a scientist looks like. The next task consisted of the children drawing a picture of what they think a scientist does. Both of these pieces of information gave me an understanding of what the children knew, perceived or understood science to be, as well as their knowledge of what a scientist does. Just these two simple assignments generated a "science buzz" in the classroom. The children were excited about science and using the science journals. Also, I decided to focus more on labeling this year as well. With the introduction of the science journals, the students were expected to include labeling in all their drawings in the journal.

As in year two, I continued with the introduction of the senses and making observations. This year for leaf exploration, I took it one step further. The children started this exploration by finding leaves on the playground. Then I provided each group with an assortment of leaves to explore. They used magnifying glasses, tweezers and rulers. During this group exploration the children shared ideas, asked each other questions, volunteered answers, and made observations and predictions. It was truly collaboration among second graders. Their discussions were thoughtful, animated and energetic. And this was only October. The exploration moved to data collection where the children selected a leaf, and recorded observations, questions and predictions. Once again the observations included a detailed drawing and labeling.

In addition to labeling, I wanted to add another component to the science journals this year. I decided to give the children a word bank of sentence starters when writing observations, questions and predictions. My goal was to make the science journal also a vehicle for writing. I wanted to integrate written expression into the science journal. By integrating the writing and science curriculum, this would allow me to spend more time teaching science inquiry and content. Combining the science and writing would help me to address benchmarks in both curriculum areas using the same tool, the science journal. As a result, I moved away from using lists for observations, questions and predictions to having the children write complete sentences. In providing sentence starters to use when writing their observations, questions and predictions, I found the responses in the children's science journals to be more comprehensive. Not only were the children using complete sentences, but more care and detail was taken when recording data.

As I come to the close of this three-year journey in the "Making Science Mentors" program, I realize that this is not the end of my journey. I realize that it is just another stepping stone in the integration of science inquiry into the primary grade classroom. I've learned so much from my colleagues and the facilitators of this science inquiry program. It has been an invaluable experience over the last three years. I started this program with some anxiety and trepidation, because I didn't have a background in science content or science inquiry. But as this three-year program comes to an end, I realize that I've not only grown in the areas of science content and science inquiry, but I have also grown as a teacher. I have a stronger understanding as to how science can be integrated with all aspects of the curriculum. When I'm teaching reading, I find myself asking children, "What is the evidence of your answer?" This is something that I can attribute to the science inquiry process. I also believe that science in the primary grades is an important foundation for children to have. We need to catch these children early, and foster a genuine interest in the world of science.

It has been a wonderful and enlightening journey along this path of science inquiry and science content understanding. Over the past three years, the professional relationships and collaboration have made me a better teacher across all areas of the curriculum. I look forward to the years of pure joy, excitement and awe that come from young children experiencing the world of science around them. I am excited and looking forward to becoming part of that science experience.