Process Circus Center Rationale

Context: This center was created Fall 2007 in GS4401 Teaching Science in Elementary School. It was created under the advisement of Jeff Goodman. The purpose of this center was to introduce students to Weather and temperature and how it affects them. To produce this center liquid thermometers were as well as bowls with different water temperatures.

Impact: The center was used to communicate to students what temperature and how to read a thermometer. Students were able to do hands-on activities to tell the difference in water temperatures. They also used visuals such as velcroe symbols to match the weather outside and real thermometers to record what the temperature actually was. Temperature is an important topic because students were able to relate it to themselves.

Alignment:

Standard 10: Teachers provide active inquiry experiences in the teaching of science by using various questioning skills and developing science processing skills (predicting, classifying, measuring, inferring, interpreting, analyzing, and synthesizing).

This standard was met by presenting a center that students had to use inquiry skills to figure out what was happening in the center. Each center contained one or more process skill that the students would use while participating in the center.