CONTEXT
Currently, my 7th grade science classroom is located in Southeast Michigan. Demographics within the school district include 51% Caucasian, 41% African American, and 1-2% in other categories with a large majority of students considered to be at the poverty level ("Van Buren Public Schools," 2014).
Unfortunately, students have very little opportunities to work with technology in the classroom. My classroom has four computers located in the back of the room and two computer labs that are available to schedule, but are often being used by other teachers. The school has an amazing media specialist who is always willing and able to find a new website, app, or resource to help teach students more efficiently. Often times, I allow students to use their own cell phones, tablets, iPads, etc., to perform research in the classroom. However, not every student has a means of accessing the internet in class.
In 7th grade, students learn concepts such as finding density through experiments, calculating density with a formula, defining density, and applying the concept of density to explain the impact of temperature. As students learned, many of them excelled at regurgitating the definition or the formula, but struggled with explaining and applying the concept. The pie chart to the right represents assessment data from students in the classroom. Students were tested on concepts related to density including the definition of density, how to find density for regular and irregular objects, and using a formula to calculate density. 44% of students received a D or E on their density assessment.
Students were also tested on applying the concept of density. For example, students were required to identify and explain the impact of temperature change on density. About one-third of students did poorly when applying the concept of density. While the majority of students were able to identify the effects of temperature on density, students did not have a clear explanation.
Students were not mastering the concept of density, which caused many students to struggle through higher-level thinking questions. Analyzing this data motivated me to try and solve my problem of practice.
Students were not mastering the concept of density, which caused many students to struggle through higher-level thinking questions. Analyzing this data motivated me to try and solve my problem of practice.