Fifth grade students learn about the cosmos through their usual astronomy unit…before also learning that the sky isn’t the limit to their learning.
“I noticed several years ago when teaching the basics of astronomy that many kids were still curious about more complex topics such as black holes, dark matter, spacetime, etc., but these were areas we didn’t study during our unit because the concepts were well beyond what you would expect to understand in 5th grade,” said Branson Lawrence, Middle School Science Teacher.
It would be easy to dismiss questions from students by telling them that they’ll learn more later, but Lawrence and fellow Science Teacher Kelly Long saw this as an opportunity. Instead of shutting students down, they allocate extra time and encourage students to explore what interests them through a “choice board project.” Students choose their astronomy topic, have it approved by their teacher, conduct research, and then use several resources to present what they learned to their classmates in unique and creative ways.
Resources include the NASA middle school website, our School’s database subscription (Gale Science in Context), and books from the Messing Library. Students collaborate with partners on Zoom, and each group explores two topics and creates two products. Some students used the Maker Space in the Middle School to create models, while others made posters and videos. “It is really exciting to see what the kids come up with when they share what they’ve learned about these unique topics,” said Lawrence.
Check out some of their work:
What’s next for these science explorers? Robotics!