We spotlight Brennan Agajan, CRS Science Super Star honoree, who teaches at Chabot Elementary in Oakland. No matter the unit, Brennan is sure to create an environment that fosters engaging and meaning making from lessons.
May 5, 2020
We spotlight Brennan Agajan, 3rd Grade Teacher at Chabot Elementary in Oakland, as a 2020 Science Super Star!
No matter the unit, Brennan is sure to create an environment that fosters engaging and meaning making from lessons.
Class-discussions are common in Brennan’s classroom, as a way to deepen reasoning skills. A discussion that starts off with students recounting previous experiences with crayfish will quickly turn into a setting of wonder: “How can crayfish move in different ways?” and “How do they eat?”
Brennan works to maintain this wonder by relating topics to the real world. Another discussion on seeds, for example, prompted students to bring in seeds they found in their neighborhoods. The class shared their discoveries with each other, while making observations on the differences and similarities they could find.
This relates to Brennan’s top tip for other teachers: “Try to connect the basic science topic to other parts of the curriculum.”
This is something often carried out in their own classroom, as students read Newsela articles to develop reading and writing skills. When conducting experiments, they use measurement tools to collect data.
Hands-on experiments themselves allow students to engage with the material in a way that makes learning much more tangible. In a unit where they studied carts, students discussed amongst each other the best design for steam lining. They would record their best distance, and make adjustments as they saw necessary. Many made predictions about how changing a variable (such as starting height of a ramp) would affect their results. The end of the experiment was a challenge that had all students engaged, as they tested their final designs on one common ramp.
Letting students interests guide a science lesson is an excellent way to ensure student engagement. Brennan spoke of one student in particular, who fell in love with the process of teaching (and learning!) when studying the science behind one of his favorite topics:
“Sharing his passion for all things car design (Tesla), the student became a teacher when discussing the engineering requires to build the next generation of car.”