Activity 4: Exploration of Science Education Standards

CHEM 105 not only provides an opportunity for students to learn more about chemistry and science, but it also offers an opportunity for future educators, parents and members of society to understand the expectations society has created for science education standards. In the last four activities (5-8) we will explore science concepts and also relate these to the science standards we will first explore in Activity 4.
For this activity please refer to the Wisconsin Science Standards at this website:
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/standards/sciintro.html

At this site you will find Standards A- H for grades 4, 8 and 12.  Since most of the students in this class are future early childhood educators, I would like for you to focus on the Grade 4 Standards.  If you would like, feel free to address the other grade levels if you would like! 

To complete Activity 4, choose a sub-standard under each of the Standards A thru H and describe something that you have done either in this class or outside of this class, perhaps in previous classes, that indicates that you have met the sub-standard. Each of these descriptions should be at least a paragraph long.
Here is a link to the sub-standards for Standard A:
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/standards/scia4.html

In standard A I picked the first substandard. A.4.1. This standard talks about how a 4^th grader should be able to ask and answer questions about a particular science experiment. I have shown this skill in this class when I did activity 1. In order to complete this activity I had to fully understand the experiment that I was doing.

In standard B I chose the first substandard. B.4.1. In this standard it asks if the child has used a source to help answer science-related questions and plain investigations. Like standard A I think I fulfilled this in Activity 1. In order to get the experiment correct and understand why the outcome I got was in fact the answer I was supposed to get. Along with knowing the correct answer I talked with another adult and they gave me a better in depth understanding of what the concepts of what the assignment was about.


In standard C I picked to write about substandard C.4.2 this standard is shown in the past activities that we have had to do, we are given the task of completing an activity and answering questions. It was up to us to decide on what would be the best way to do the assignment.
In standard D I thought that D.4.3 was applied to our course from activity 1. In activity 1 we studied the different states of matter; solid, liquid, gas. This activity showed me how water changes from its different states of matter.


In standard E I thought that I have done substandard E.4.7. In this substandard you are to take household things and describe them in science themes. In Activity 3 we went through 20 household items and discovered what chemicals and molecules make up the things we use on a daily basis.


In standard F I have done substandard F.4.2. In high school Biology we grew plants in a room with different lights. We tested the plants with different mixes of water, different amounts of light and colors of light.


In standard G I have accomplished G.4.2. In this standard I often would help my dad with his work. He owns a few C and C machines and draws and uses pictures and etches the picture onto different materials. 50 years ago this job would have been done by hand with a chisel and hammer, where now the machine is controlled by a computer and everything is done by a an electronic drill.


In standard H I think standard H.4.3. I personally have had a hard time with acne. Without science the medications and the creams that I had used to make my face better would not have been invented. As for nutrition, without science the things that they have found out about foods, different nutrition values would never have been discovered if science had not been used to figure out the different chemical make ups of  the different foods.