We spotlight Denise Kruger Case and Cynthia Lopez, CRS Science Super Star honorees, who teach at International Community School in Oakland. Denise and Cynthia designed experiments focused on seeds to highlight plant and animal life cycles through a captivating method of learning.
May 6, 2020
We are honored to name Denise Kruger Case and Cynthia Lopez, 1st Grade Teachers at the International Community School in Oakland, as 2020 Science Super Stars!
Denise and Cynthia designed experiments focused on seeds to highlight plant and animal life cycles through a captivating method of learning.
Before settling on a focused topic, they filled out the pre-lab section of a KWL (What I Know, What I Wonder, What I Learned) chart as a class. Some students seeds could germinate in their stomachs.
They chose to explore more of the FOSS guided question: What happens to these seeds in moist soil?
The classrooms planted alfalfa and ryegrass seeds, so students could not only observe the sprouting process, but compare the way different plants grow.
They measured and compared how many centimeters the plants grew every 3 days.The students were amazed to see how long the roots grew. A few students, who often have trouble with comparison, benefited from having this tangible visual to aid with their understanding. Both teachers overheard all of their students being able to interpret the results from their data: "The ryegrass grew taller than the alfalfa!"
Denise and Cynthia had their classes keep up with their notebooks, so the students periodically made sketches of plants at different growth intervals. They also diagrammed the plants and their structures and functions using a T-Chart.
Both teachers worked on expanding their students' evidence-based reasoning while using scientific sentence structures in their notebooks. "I observed the wheat stem was as long as the roots." and "I know this because the roots were 6 inches long and the stem was 6 inches long."
Incorporating language arts in science lessons is especially beneficial to their ELL students, who during Spanish Language Arts, read books about different life cycles. (Their students even did a sequencing of the life cycle of a frog to demonstrate their understanding!)
The teachers encouraged following-up on wonders that arose after the first experiment. The students began wondering what else is essential for plant growth. Some students hypothesized light might not be necessary, so they planted seeds and compared those left by the window versus the ones left in the dark. After collecting their data and final results, they determined if their predictions were correct or not, and worked on explaining their reasoning.
Denise and Cynthia remain avid proponents of hands-on science, and are admirers of the way it turns students into passionate learners.
| "I have a student who was very excited to come in and measure his plant's growth and would ask to do science every morning." |