“I love when I can bring in App State folks for my students to learn from,” said alumna Amy Atkins ’16, a middle grades science teacher at Hardin Park School in Watauga County.
A student draws and labels a seashell. The student is using Ocean Anatomy as a reference for labels. Photo submitted.
Atkins reached out to Dr. Damiana Pyles, a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, about adding in a language arts lesson with the book Ocean Anatomy. Pyles brought in Drs. Leslie Bradbury and Rachel Wilson, also professors in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and together they created a four-day science and language arts lesson focusing on coral reef organisms.
“Rachel and Leslie created a list of organisms, complete with links for the students to research, and together we all co-taught the lessons for three of those four days,” said Pyles. “The lessons focused on scientific drawing, beginning with drawing a seashell and ending with drawing coral reef organisms each pair of students researched, along with a written paragraph that they wrote.”
Final products created by 8th grade students for Zooplankton, Seahorses, and Zooxanthellae Algae. Photo submitted.
Atkins compiled the drawings and paragraphs into a book for each class period.
“For the final lesson, which also served as a review, we played a game with the students focusing on how energy works in a food web, culminating in creating the food web for the coral reef organisms the students researched,” Pyles noted.
Students participate in food chain game activity. They are running around the "habitat" hunting for food! Photo submited.
“It was a lot of fun to have them in the classroom with me,” said Atkins.
Pyles concurred: “It was so fun to be in Amy's classroom and to help to teach these lessons.”
Drs. Bradbury and Pyles lead class discussion. Photo submitted.
Photos from the science lesson
