Science Super Star: Phoebe Diamond
We spotlight Phoebe Diamond, CRS Science Super Star honoree, who teaches at Chabot Elementary in Oakland. Phoebe is an avid believer in the potential of science lessons to engage and transform students into enthusiastic learners through learning from mistakes and collaborative learning.
May 5, 2020
We are honored to recognize Phoebe Diamond, 3rd Grade Teacher at Chabot Elementary in Oakland, as a 2020 Science Super Star!
Phoebe is an avid believer in the potential of science lessons to engage and transform students into enthusiastic learners. Part of this is by realizing that, especially in science, it is okay for things to not go according to plan. She wants to share this notion with other teachers who may be intimidated to begin teaching science:
Take a risk, don’t be afraid to not know the answer or to not fully understand the concept. Be willing to learn with your students.
In one unit this past year, she and her students studied the distribution of seeds in the same fruit.
To elicit students’ previous knowledge, she asked them to think back about what they had noticed about regarding seed numbers in fruits. From there, they unanimously narrowed down on a focus question of: Do all peppers have the same number of seeds?
Phoebe had them collect their data in a multitude of ways, from sketches and measurements to tables and charts, all in their notebooks for future reference.
She overheard students comparing with each other: Why don’t I have as many seeds as you? and How are you going to count all of those?
When doing background reading for experiments, she asks students to take notes as they read. After everyone is done, she has students verbally communicate what they read, as a way to clarify their understandings. Encouraging individual presentations and collaborative discussions is a crucial way to ensure all students are being included. She notes that this practice has let students, who otherwise may be shy, shine bright.
Of one student in particular, she noted: Their confidence in speaking in public has increased through participation in scientific academic discussions.