SLED TEACHER REFLECTION HUB SUBMISSION
There are three parts to this reflection submission. The first part requires a brief description of
your instructional activities over the course of a SLED design task. The second part includes
your reflection on a student who performed well and your reflection on a student who performed
unsatisfactorily. The last section includes your response to two short questions.
Save your file as: Reflection_YourName_YourSchool_YourGrade_Date
Example:
Reflection_Capobianco_Purdue_Grade4_11-15-14
When uploading to the hub, use the title: Teacher Reflection: Your Name, Activity, Term
Example:
Teacher Reflection: Capobianco, Save the Wolf, Fall 2014
Teacher Name: James Minogue
School: Klondike Elementary School
Grade: 4th
Design Task: Erosion Canal
Date: 3/2/15
PART I:
Day
Overview of your SLED lesson(s):
Brief description of lesson activities you enacted
each day over the course of the SLED design task
What do you think your
students learned each day
1
*Class discussion using the following questions:


How does the Earth change?
Have you seen changes in the Earth’s surface?
Reflecting on their previous
knowledge to build off of
Everyone writes down everything they already know
about changes to the Earth’s surface
2
Using Science fusion to read and discuss erosion vs.
weathering.
Students draw examples sediments, erosion, and
deposition
3
Erosion Inquiry
Other Forms of Erosion:
Wind, Ice, Gravity, and Water
Erosion/weathering is a slow
process that wears down the
earth.
Deposition is when water
carries down sediment from the
earth’s surface
Different causes of erosion and
the effect they have on the
Earth’s surface. Example how
2
4 stations –
 Pg. 138 Straw/Wind, (Sand in tub with straw
for wind)
 Pg. 139 Ice Cube/Ice, (Rubbing “clean” ice
across tin foil vs. rubbing ice with “sand/rocks
on the bottom across tin foil)
 Pg. 140 Slope/Gravity (Using different slopes
to move rock)
 Pg. 141 Sand Container/Water (Stream tables
with water running down through sand/rock)
 Bill Nye – Erosion video and individual
laptops.
4
Erosion Inquiry
Other Forms of Erosion:
Wind, Ice, Gravity, and Water
4 stations –
 Pg. 138 Straw/Wind, (Sand in tub with straw
for wind)
 Pg. 139 Ice Cube/Ice, (Rubbing “clean” ice
across tin foil vs. rubbing ice with “sand/rocks
on the bottom across tin foil)
 Pg. 140 Slope/Gravity (Using different slopes
to move rock and look at the shapes of sand
and clay)
 Pg. 141 Sand Container/Water (Stream tables
with water running down through sand/rock)
 Bill Nye – Erosion video and individual
laptops.
5
slope or the speed of water
affect erosion)
Different causes of erosion and
the effect they have on the
Earth’s surface. Example how
slope or the speed of water
affect erosion)
What are canals?
 Look at SLED PowerPoint to examine what
Why people use canals and
canals are used for, how they are made, and the
different types of canals
different types of canals.
(natural vs man-made)
 Read – “Canals” book to class
6
Introduce SLED design task
 Identified the client, end user, problem, etc.
 Discussed the problem and the materials
Various requirements of the
design task
Prompting and reminding of the
slope of the canal
3



Students were able to manipulate the materials
before they were asked to sketch their
individual design. (sand paper, cotton balls,
screen, cheesecloth, tape, pipe cleaners, clay,
etc.)
Demonstration of how to measure and fold
canal.
Students sketched their individual design.
7
Sketching 2 points of view of
your individual design.
Choosing the best design that
solves the problem.
Students shared their designs with their group and
decided on a group design to sketch, build, and test.
8
Understanding that “their”
design is not always the best
one to use.
Students learned that it can be
difficult to use the limited
materials and manipulate them
Students begin to build canal using the materials given in the way that you want them
after design was approved.
to work.
Students also learned how
difficult it is when you don’t
plan ahead for materials
9
Making observations and
recording data
Students design were tested in whole group and
observed which were successful and which were not
successful. Students used graduated cylinders to
measure the amount of water vs. the amount of sand.
All students record data in a chart to compare
numbers.
10
Redesign
Groups used their original builds to look at how they
could redesign them to solve the problem.
Groups sketched their redesign
Journal Reflection
 What did you learn?
 How did it help you with your design?
How to measure using a
graduated cylinder.
Students also learned that
failure is a time for learning and
growth. (Many design were
struggled to attach the materials
to the canal)
Many students were more
prepared when going into the
redesign and felt appreciated
having this opportunity
How to use other designs that
were tested to help influence
their own redesign.
4

What do you still want to learn?
Please answer the questions below:
1. What worked well?



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Students loved being able to move through stations to explore the different causes of
erosion. They appreciated being trusted with different inquiry tasks that involved dirt and
rock. Working in smaller groups during these stations also allowed for more meaningful
communication and sharing of ideas.
Spending a day to explore canals before the design task really helped give students
background knowledge for the design task. Students had a chance to look at pictures of
different canals and also saw pictures of the different slopes for canals. Students were
instantly looking at the slops of the walls and stating which ones they thought were going
to erode more.
All students were successful in minimizing the erosion and so they felt very positive after
the test.
Students were very hands on with the testing of their designs. Each team member
contributed by collecting the water/sand in the graduated cylinder, pouring the water on
the canal, or measuring out the water needed to test.
2. What are two ways you can improve your efforts toward integrating design?


I would like to utilize the design process when looking at Indiana’s History. Students
could examine inventors/engineers from Indiana to see what problems they fixed and the
process the used to design the solution. I think this would help relate the engineering
process to history and connect students to engineers from Indiana.
I would like to use the engineering design process with problems in our classroom.
(examples: squeaky desk, door not closing all the way, door slamming loudly, computer
cords getting tangled easily) I think providing these opportunities would help my
students use this process more in their own lives and would help us practice this process
in a more meaningful way
5
PART II:
Reflection#1 on student performance:
Include an image of work from one student who you thought performed well on the task. Insert
the image here within the Word document. This image may be a copy of the student’s notebook
entry(s) or an image of the team’s artifact or an actual picture of the student at work.
In the space below describe what the image(s) is about and why you would explain or
characterize the student’s performance as mastery or excellent.
This image shows a group of students testing out their canal design with a bunch of huge
smiles! First, this photo demonstrates how much this group enjoyed testing out their design and
the design task itself. This photo shows a canal that has 13 strategically placed popsicle sticks
used to hold the sand/rock in place. When asked about this design feature the group shared that
the popsicle sticks were acting as trees roots to hold the sand around it. The slop of their walls is
also very steep, which at first seemed like a mistake to me since the sand would easily erode of
the sides, but the team explained that they wanted all the sand to be at the bottom to form a
tighter grip with the popsicle sticks. Since they knew I was pouring the sand on the made steep
walls that the sand would not be able to hold on to. This demonstrated that they used their
knowledge of slop to their advantage. This group not only utilized their knowledge of erosion
but also used their experience with the design process to see how one design feature would affect
another design feature and plan ahead.
6
Reflection#2 on student performance:
Include an image of work from one student who you thought did not perform as well
(unsatisfactory) on the task. Insert the image here within the Word document. This image may
be a copy of the student’s notebook entry(s) or an image of the team’s artifact or an actual
picture of the student at work.
In the space below describe what the image is about and why you would explain or
characterize the student’s performance as unsatisfactory.
This is an image of a team that attempted to control erosion by forming two screen like filters at
the end of the canal. I chose this image because it demonstrates that the students didn’t have a
complete understanding of what the design task was asking. This team understood that one of
the goals was to have clean water when testing the canal and placed all of their efforts in filtering
at the end of the canal. As seen from the picture the rock/sand got clogged the opening and did
not let a lot of water through it. The side walls also had no erosion control which shows me that
they did not use their experiences of slope and how that affects erosion to assist in their design.
7
PART II:
Reflection #3
Describe one thing you enjoyed about instructing this SLED task.
One thing that I enjoyed about this SLED task was how messy the materials were. Using
sand, water, ice, rocks made me at first very nervous imagining my class at the end of each day,
but I was pleasantly surprised with how well they handled the materials. Students demonstrated
responsibility when they would clean up their stations or even when they were testing out their
canals. Students loved being able to pour dirt on their canals and catching the dirt/water at the
end. Most of all these materials allowed students to see all the variables involved with erosion
and at times how unpredictable Earth’s surface can be.
I think that this design task really helped students develop a concrete understanding of
erosion because of the way that we tried to prevent it and test it. I had the opportunity to hear
students discuss how a cheese cloth wouldn’t trap the sand as well because of the large holes and
how their walls had too much of a slope and gravity would erode it before they even ran water
through their canal. When testing, students could instantly see erosion and how the gravity/water
both played a part in the success of their canal.
Describe one thing in your practice you would improve upon next time you implement this
engineering design task or another SLED design task.
One area that I would like to change for this task next year would be to have a control
canal to test. This canal would have no erosion control mechanism to stop the sand from eroding
and would help show the students how much erosion would have happened if their mechanisms
weren’t in place. This would help showcase their success and demonstrate how erosion, without
any control mechanisms, would affect the canal. They might have been able to see how the
erosion would have collapsed the entire canal making it unusable for transporting through water.
I would also like to explore more types of erosion control mechanisms before so that
students could apply that knowledge to their designs. This year I wanted students to try and
create their own with no knowledge of real control methods, but I feel that students might have
been able to use this background knowledge to improve their designs.