University of Maine at Farmington elementary education students in Professor Carole Lee’s Science Education for K-8 Students course received valuable professional experience teaching third-graders at Farmington’s Cascade Brook School about the inner workings of the human body.
UMF elementary education students bring the first annual “Wonders of the Human Body” science fair to third-grade students at Cascade Brook School in Farmington.
Lee’s students had several opportunities to teach in the five, third-grade classrooms, followed by creating a hands-on “Wonders of the Human Body” science fair where the elementary students could participate in hands-on learning activities. The topic was specially requested by Cascade Brook teachers to coincide with the unit they were teaching.
According to the Daily Bulldog, “the first annual “Wonders of the Human Body” science fair brought together aspiring young scientists and education major students from UMF for experimental, hands on learning. The UMF students prepared each of the ten learning stations focusing on different aspects of the human body. Third-graders from five classes learned about how the heart pumps blood, how optical illusions can trick your eyes and how food moves through the digestive system along with many other lessons. The science fair fulfilled the science education requirement for the aspiring educators.”
Third-graders from five classes learned about how the heart pumps blood, how optical illusions can trick your eyes and how food moves through the digestive system, along with many other lessons.
“This is a great experience for them. They have all taught in the classroom twice and this is the end to all of it, so they are really getting the classroom experience as well as the science fair experience,” UMF Associate Professor of Science Education Carole Lee said.
The UMF course emphasizes teaching and assessment techniques as well as strategies and activities to use to teach a diverse community of learners in the K-8 science classroom. In the past, Lee has had her students host a Family Energy event where they help elementary and middle school students and their families participate in a number of interactive, hands-on, self-guided energy-themed activities that allow exploration of energy concepts and how to make wise energy choices.