Science Super Star: Anderson de Andrade
April 8, 2020
We are honored to recognize Anderson de Andrade, 5th Grade Teacher at the International Community School in Oakland, as a 2020 Science Super Star!
How do shadows change throughout the day? Anderson’s classroom came up with this question after experimenting with flashlights and exposure to globes.
Anderson opened this unit by hosting a class discussion on the ways shadows change due to the Earth’s rotation. There were many misconceptions at first; many believed the sun moved across the sky. Anderson helped refer them back to spherical models of the Earth. They used their understanding of how bodies creat shadows by blocking a light sources.
Beginning the actual experiment, Anderson would periodically bring them outside, so they could observe how the size of shadow would change depending on the time of the day. His students traced their shadows with chalk and measured them throughout the day. They copied quick sketches into their science notebooks and, back in the classroom, created accompanying charts to record the measurements along with their corresponding times.
He interconnected the rest of his curriculum with this science experiment, which helped bolster understanding all around. His students engaged in the same math the learned theoretically in math class, with more practicality during the experiment, to find differences in shadows. He also promoted key comparison scientific vocabulary, which they embed in their own writing.
As the unit progressed, his students were able to conceptualize and compute higher levels of theoretical thinking. They created predictions about what shadows would look like at ther hours when they aren’t in school.
Anderson used this topic to encourage his students to think more critically of the information they are fed in their everyday lives. They connected the experiment to the to the topic of people believing that the Earth is flat. He stressed the importance of being informed and identifying misinformation in their lives.
He highlights the way science engages all students in his class, and helps create a base level of understanding for all subjects: “There are many newcomers in my class. Science, specifically, the hands-on-experiments, allow them to really engage in the materials- more so than when learning only from texts.”
He stresses to other teachers, considering teaching science, that the best way to create engaging science lessons is: “Staying engaged with scientific thinking outside the school building.”