Science Super Star: Micaela Morse
We spotlight Micaela Morse, CRS Science Super Star honoree, who teaches at the International Community School in Oakland. For the past year, Micaela led her students through a series of hands-on experiments that would have lasting impacts on the way they learned.
May 6, 2020
We are thrilled to recognize Micaela Morse, Kindergarten Teacher at the International Community School in Oakland, as a 2020 Science Super Star!
For the past year, Micaela led her students through a series of hands-on experiments that would have lasting impacts on the way they learned.
“For so many of my English language learners, hands-on science is such a powerful way to build language with an engaging concrete experience.”
Creating engaging science experiments does not need to be full of complex materials and stages. Micaela created a powerful lesson during the life-science unit by having her students observe the changes of the trees through the seasons, taking special note of the change in color of the leaves.
They started the lesson off by having an in-class discursion where they talkers about what they already know about trees from what they have observed in our lives. Besides getting to observe the trees in the school yard, Micaela’s classroom received a tree of their own.
The students wanted to be sure that they were caring for the tree properly, to ensure its survival. This led to the unanimously agreed upon focus question: What do trees need to live?
They used sketches and observational drawings while studying their specimen. To help students relate the topic to their “real world,” Micaela held discussions to jump-start thinking on the interdependence of plants and trees with animals and humans for resources and air. As the unit progressed, students were able to recognize that many of a tree’s needs are similar to animal and human needs. 
Micaela also encouraged active discussions and debates. During another unit, she had her students create models of tunnels and fences to observe goldfish and snail behavior. They all made predictions on if they thought snails would prefer smooth or rough surfaces.
Many of her students took the stance that snails prefer smooth surfaces, as they went to the wax paper more often than the sand paper. They were able to agree and disagree with each other based on the evidence and the earlier science talk. Micaela created an interactive “Word Wall” during the animal study to support the use of academic and scientific vocabulary during science talks and notebook taking.
Micaela does not want other teachers to be intimidated by teaching science. Lessons do not have to be overly-complicated to be impactful.
“Try it out. The hands-on activities are so motivating that they will get students engaged in talking, reading, writing, and doing math.”