Friday, August 17, 2012

Taking Notes in Science


One of the fun things I have incorporated into our classroom this year is using our desks and tables as dry erase boards. The students are having fun writing with markers on items they are usually not allowed to. They have more enthusiasm to write the notes and I can easily see what they are writing. The notes taken here are from a video they were watching on water. The students learned about biotic and abiotic factors and were trying to identify as many as possible from the video.


This lesson is part of our ecosystem unit. The students are working toward designing a viable ecosystem in our class aquarium. Here is a link to the lesson plans. 

5 comments:

Bar Qu said...

So, basically using dry erase markers on desks that have not been treated with anything? Brilliant. I have seen lots about whiteboarding, but this is a much simpler, cost-effective way of doing it.

pklein said...

Are these not notes that they need to keep? Are they primarily for discussion purposes? Do they ever need to retain the notes they write on their desks?

Wm Chamberlain said...

@pklein, great question. Typically this is for brainstorming or for doing pair-share/small group work. There is no reason why the students couldn't copy the necessary notes in a more permanent form or take a picture of it.

Unknown said...

So cool! Ummmm....why aren't we all doing this? For work you need to keep you could take a picture of the desktop (funny using that term in the concrete context:) to project later. You could even create a timeline of their learning...similar to anchor charts. AWESOME!

Unknown said...

So cool! Ummmm....why aren't we all doing this? For work you need to keep you could take a picture of the desktop (funny using that term in the concrete context:) to project later. You could even create a timeline of their learning...similar to anchor charts. AWESOME!