Follow Laura Jane Linck’s
Notebook
This presentation is part of an ongoing series that
follows a very special group of grade school
students that attend Palm Beach Day Academy.
With the help from Laura Jane Linck, they are using
Habits of Mind in the classroom.
The results have been inspiring, and is a testament
to both Laura Jane Linck and the students’ belief in
Habits of Mind.
Our Essential Question
What does it mean to think like a scientist?
Returning to the Science Lab with our many new
life forms...Our
pays off!
As I had anticipated, we learned all about the proper PH and
dissolved oxygen required to keep our new family alive as well as
the amount of sun energy required to maintain our classroom
ecosystem.
But, the biggest and best surprise came from my students
The student’s
I can't believe it, what are they? Are they fish, animals, bugs, or germs?
What makes you think the things you see are alive? What does it mean to
be alive....what do living things do...?" So we began our observations and
data collections...
And the population of our Science Lab Grew and is Growing....
First came our mouse.
Then...donated turtles...
A Florida Tree Frog...
How can we tell that all of these things are alive?
Just what are they made of that makes them alive?
And so the observations began and the data
Was recorded…Lots of work…messy…
But so much fun.
The Happy Water Bug
Observations that were made from all of our hard work:
Move, Eat….(Really take things in,
Because plants don’t Eat!) Breathe,
Give off Waste, Grow and Reproduce.
With the help of our PERSISTENCE and
microscope we can tell that these
Living things, like our happy
Water Bug, are all made of cells.
The Student’s
Continues
“What are cells?....I am just not
to be able to picture myself being made of all of these
tiny things..”
It was then decided that more time was needed to think
as they
to this new idea of cells….
“I remember how Mrs. Linck helped me to imagine it…last year
we hatched chickens and we took the eggs apart to see how they
work.”
What the students concluded
“ Remember the egg is a single cell, and that we are
made of millions of cells that look like that.”
“Just
it with your eyes
closed. It is so much to wonder about.”
Let’s get a closer look
In order to get a closer look at the chicken egg, the students did
the following:
Dissolve the calcium carbonate shell off a chicken egg by soaking
it in Vinegar.
After rinsing it carefully, the actual cell membrane can be felt,
and looked upon closer.
“Just THINK FLEXIBLY and try to imagine…The outside
covering is the cell membrane and the gooey stuff inside
is the cytoplasm…It even has a nucleus!”
Working Together
After a closer look, the students worked in small teams
that were able
about how our bodies are designed.
The purpose of the teams was to
communicate their
as
to each other.
and take this egg apart...is the nucleus the yolk or is the
nucleus the germinal disk, the little tiny white dot where
the baby chick would develop if it were fertilized? We
learned all about that when we hatched chickens. We
learned so much and had so much fun we all can
remember everything...isn't that amazing that we can
remember everything so clearly and well. It must be
because we were thinking interdependently. We really
worked together and that made such a difference in how
much we learned. I am just happy that I was able to apply
my past knowledge of eggs to learning about me. It
seems so easy now!
So Much To Share….
"I am really trying to
but I cannot figure out how, if a cell is a
living thing, does it take in food and get rid of waste! How does the
stuff get in and out without popping the cell membrane?
This is what I need to see in real life...this is the experiment I want to
do
and create a plan..." Let's start
with the egg that has the shell dissolved off and see what we can come
up with!“ We can soak it in water and see if it gets fatter? We can soak
it in salt water too...let’s try a bunch of stuff...
What The Students Learned
The sugar absorbed the water out of the cytoplasm...and the cell membrane
did not pop! it is magic...no it is really flexible science because we
and we are
....don't forget
, we are really doing a lot of that. I mostly use
because I can't figure this stuff out without
and what I already know.
More From The Students
I get it I think...one of these cells works with a team of others to make a tissue like the
bone marrow we looked at under the microscope. So you mean a bunch of tissues
work together to make a whole organ, like a bone!
Then a group of organs like all of our bones make our skeletal system. Oh, I don't
believe it, it is like Lego....Living Lego Cells.... Then all of our systems work together
and make us an organism...
I have to document this in my sensitivity sketchbook…
Drawing and writing what I am Thinking about helps me to put all the pieces
together…Mrs. Linck is right, it really does make our Thinking Visible…and once it is
out there in front of us for everyone to see. We can move it all around until it makes
sense…
Then we put it back inside our head…Now I understand why it is so important to think
about the way I think…I guess we are really being METACOGNITIVE…because we are
in charge of what we understand.
Cell, Tissue,
Organ System….
Me!