Extra Credit Opportunities

A. At-Home Reflections.

Before the beginning of class, you can turn in a typed or word processed description of something you have observed during the week that is related to a previous class, evidence that you tried an activity from class at home and an explanation of your results. You may try to teach someone else the material and document this process with a description and diagram/ photograph. To get credit, you must be specific about how you think what you saw related to our work. The process of writing these explanations will help you practice using language and diagrams to describe basic processes in science and will be an important part of your learning in this course. You should also include a diagram (NO CLIP ART, but hand drawn is fine) and/or a photograph showing what you are talking about. If you do research to answer a question, cite your sources; all direct quotes, whether from the web or other materials must be noted as such. Any direct quotes from the class website or other websites must be noted as such.

Reflection Grading (1 point maximum on your final grade per reflection)
1. Diagram: .1 point if you include your original, detailed, labeled diagram. No clip art should be used. The diagram is not just decoration and should communicate something about the science content behind what you saw or did.
2. Photo: .1 point if you include an original photo connected to your reflection.
3. Description: .2 point for a complete description of something you did and observed.
4. Connection to Class and/or Society: .2 point for a thorough explanation of how your experience tied in to things we have been doing in class, using appropriate terms and citing examples of other similar effects. Also consider how the experience connects to the real world.
5. Extended Application: .1 point for teaching someone else a concept covered in class with examples of questions and answers from the learner.
6. Outside Research of the Concept: .1 point for a source or sources of information used to better understand a concept with what you learned.
7. Curricular Connections: .1 point for way the concept discussed could be integrated into other curriculum areas with detail.
8. Creativity: .1 point for a new demonstration (not discussed in class) or exceptional detail.

For an example of some reflections, click here.

B. Math Science Education Center Materials Description.

a. Go to the Math Science Education Center on the second floor of Walker Hall. To be considerate to the folks at the center, it would be good to go in groups of 3 or 4.
b. Find a science manipulative that you like and play around with it. Consider ways it might be used in the classroom.
c. Go to the NC Science Competencies page from the NC Standard Course of Study and determine an appropriate grade level as well as what elementary science objectives the manipulative might be used to meet.
d. Write:

1.a description of the manipulative (.5 points)
2.a brief description of how you would use it in the classroom (.5 points)
3.and the major NC Science competencies to which the activity would
relate. (.5 points).

You may do this for up to 3 manipulatives; they may be ones you end up using in your classrooms.

C. Take Science Circus Activities Out To the Schools (up to 2 points per center for up to two centers)

1. Take one or two of the centers from the Science Process Skills Circus out into your classroom and share them with your kids.
2. Take images of children participating in the activity or activities.
3. Write a reflection on this experience, including for each center:
   • a description of how you handled this logistically (numbers of kids, teacher help, etc.)
   • things that were successful and WHY
   • things about the center that needed to be improved and how you would improve them
   • specific things kids said and/or student work

Extra credit points will be added to your final grade.