Destreamed Grade 9 Science
Destreamed Grade 9 Science
Embedded Files
Course Design
Course Design
Inquiry-Based: This course is built from guided-inquiry lessons. Students explore and discuss ideas in cooperative groups, and write in their own words every day. There are lots of hands-on activities and real-world scenarios. There is very little note-taking! The lessons are highly-structured to support a wide range of learners and build high-level skills.
Scientific Thinking: Students make lots of observations and find patterns. They develop hypotheses, make predictions, design experiments (tests), observe results, and evaluate the hypotheses. There are no "labs": scientific skills are integrated into many investigations in large or small pieces.
Pedagogy: Physical evidence is always presented and explored before new scientific ideas are introduced. Core concepts are woven throughout the course. Visual representations help students develop a concrete understanding of concepts and ideas. Mathematical work is very important and highly structured. Trivial information and topics are trimmed out to allow for a deeper exploration of core ideas. What students write is their own thoughts and ideas about science, as opposed to their teacher's. This provides students with much more practice using the vocabulary of science.
Course Flow
Course Flow
Flow: Intro - Electricity - Chemistry - Astronomy - Ecology
Intro Unit: We start with a one week introductory unit that focuses on cooperative group work, scientific skills and the concept of density.
Electricity. Then we dive in to static electricity. A conceptual bridge is built from static charges that move to current electricity. In circuits, we focus on the movement of electrons and changes in energy.
Chemistry. We use electrical ideas to test and explore the structure of the atom. Electrical ideas explain the interactions of electrons in an atom and the properties of elements. Atoms react and form bonds due to electrical interactions. The particle theory plays a major role throughout.
Astronomy. We discuss daytime observations of the Moon and Sun. The Sun and life cycle of stars is explained by gravitational and electrical interactions. The periodic table is "filled out" during the life-cycle of stars and the evolution of the universe.
Ecology. We study ecosystems from the point of view of matter cycling and energy moving through living systems. We focus on two important processes: cellular respiration and photosynthesis. We also explore what happens to the cycles of an ecosystem when biotic and abiotic factors change.
Mailing List and Resources: Please Sign Up!
Mailing List and Resources: Please Sign Up!
Mailing list: Please sign up below and let me know who is using these resources! I am a curious person and would like to know more about the people the resources are helping. I also make lots of little updates to the resources so I will send out emails sharing these with out.
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Resources: What you will find
Resources: What you will find
Each unit of the course has a Course Guide Powerpoint that has slides and teaching tips for each lesson. These complement the Handbook lessons very closely and should be explored and used together - the lessons will make much more sense!
Handbooks: The daily investigations students complete. We print out one package per student for each unit.
Course Guide Powerpoints: These are the Powerpoint slides we use with each lesson. They contain lots of helpful visuals, videos, pictures of the equipment, and various teacher and student tips for each lesson.
Tests and Quizzes: Includes my solutions.
French Immersion: My colleague, Herman Lam, has adapted our grade 9 course for our French Immersion program. You can find all those resources in the folders for each unit of the course.
How to Use These Resources
How to Use These Resources
Depending on your interest and teaching goals, you can use these resources in different ways.
Run Your Own Inquiry-based Science Course: You will find almost everything you need to run a full, lecture-free grade 9 science course that is rich in scientific exploration. All you have to do is gather the equipment, print the workbooks for students, set up students in groups, and have fun doing science!
Build Your Personal Understanding: Use the resources yourself to explore familiar concepts in a fresh, deep way. Read and work through the workbooks and build your personal understanding of the course content. We aren't all experts on every aspect of the course, so there is a good chance you will find helpful explanations and techniques in each unit.
Discover New Experiments and Activities: Explore the different activities and experiments for each unit and find ones to try in your own course.
Replace Your Lesson Notes: You might not be ready to move away from teacher-led lessons; no problem! Use the guided-inquiry investigations as an outline for your teaching notes (the lessons you would deliver) and replace the group work with less formal student discussions and reflection.
Course Units
Course Units
For detailed information about each unit, please follow these links:
Assessment and Evaluation
Assessment and Evaluation
Completed Student Handbook: I have included a completed copy of the student handbook. I often revised each lesson right after teaching it, so what you see in the scans can be quite different from the updated resources above!
Quizzes: We have replaced our unit tests with two quizzes, dividing the unit in half. This makes for a manageable amount of content for students, allows for a generous amount of time to accommodate our IEP students, and provides time for students to go through the "blue pen" self-evaluation process.
Scientific Skills Culminating: Since hands-on work is so important for this course, we run our version of a lab exam that focuses on our experimental thinking processes and skills.
Learning Logs: Students create daily summaries of their lessons.
Daily Homework: Most lessons have an associated homework page. We provide students with the homework solutions online. They are responsible for completing the homework and making corrections using a blue pen. At then end of each unit, they complete a self-evaluation where they assess how thoughtfully they go through this process.
Mastery Learning: I routinely collect the daily classwork or homework and provide simple feedback: G (Green) if there are no significant errors; Y (Yellow) if very minor improvements are needed or things are correct but the explanations are poor; and R (Red) if there are significant errors or incomplete work. I do not accept work that has not been blue-penned! Students are welcome to resubmit their work to upgrade their feedback.Using this process, there is a clear and high standard for daily work and credit recovery is built in to the course.
Assessment Preparation and Exams: Grade 9 is often students' first experience of a formal exam. The assessment folder has the PowerPoints we use to introduce the exam and discuss study strategies.
Learn More:
The Inquiry Classroom
The Inquiry Classroom
Working in Groups
Many students have had negative experiences working in groups long before they arrive in our science classes. However, group work done well is a very effective way to learn. To make groups work in your class, there are a few important things to do:
Explain why groups work so well and traditional teaching doesn't. People learn much more when they explain what they are thinking. Listening to one another allows students to quickly catch their mistakes and reflect on different points of view. Writing lots of notes in class does not allow students to do wither of these things!
Train students how to work effectively in groups. It's not a free-for-all: everyone has a role to play in the group and everyone still needs to produce their own work. This is different group work from what they are likely used to!
Promote self-evaluation of students' learning. Students won't improve at anything unless they reflect on their actions, identify what needs to improve, and figure out what to do to improve it. This applies to group work behaviours as well as science content.
Set-up the classroom for group learning. Configure the seating so students can face one another. Have the group materials (white boards, multiple choice letters, pencils, etc.) readily available at each table.
During the first two weeks of class, I randomly change the groups every day. This way, students get to meet one another and find people they will work well with. After that, we change groups each unit. To help design good-functioning groups, I ask students for their input and try to match people up.
Learn More:
What do students say?
What do students say?
The last question of our first test is always the same: "In our science class, we learn in a different way than many other classes. What aspect of learning in our grade 9 science class helped you the most? Explain." Here are my students responses. All are included, so I'm not being selective!
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