Resource 1: FNESC – Secondary Sciences First Peoples
Activity 1.5 – Sense of Place
This activity is all about engaging students in the outdoors and allowing them to build their own sense of place. It aims to help build the students understanding of the importance of the sense of place in an Indigenous Context. The activity requires students to interact with the land around them, which could be by visiting a local Indigenous place and gaining more information. This could also be done by having students take a stroll through a park and having them observe the landscape around them. The students would pause, be silent and try to understand the environment by using their senses. They would attempt to visualize what is around them, hear what is going on and smell what the environment has to offer. I believe this is an activity that I can incorporate into one of my Science classes. It follows the First People’s principle of sense of belonging and allows students to embrace the type of local environment they live in. It is an activity which gets students out of their desks and increases class participation by sparking new interest. It has a lot of potential, and can be further developed to make into a full class lesson if needed. I don’t see any limitations to his activity since it provides students a new approach to learning Science while incorporating First People’s principles.
Resource 2: Activity 1.6 – Two Ways of Seeing the World
This activity is all about getting students to see objects from different perspectives rather than the one they’re accustomed to which is the Westernized one. It aims to get students engaged in the environment and have them look at things from the Indigenous perspective. The lab requires students to get outdoors and find any object of their choice. Their task will be to look at the object from their Westernized perspective, and then take a brief minute to see it from Indigenous perspective and what it can symbolize. For example, students may choose a rock which may not have much significance from the Westernized view but from the Indigenous view, it could symbolize Indigenous ancestors and the concept of Interconnectedness. I feel as this is an amazing resource that really gets students mind’s thinking. Since most of the curriculum that students learn today is from the Westernized standpoint, this activity offers the chance to decolonize and create a new perspective on the environment. This activity has many strengths, one being that it teaches the First People’s principle of Interconnectedness which is extremely important to learn in today’s curriculum regarding Science. The only limitation I can see from this activity is where students fool around when being outdoors and adventure off without supervision.
Resource 3: BC Science Safety Resource Manual
https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/sites/curriculum.gov.bc.ca/files/pdf/science-safety-manual.pdf
This is a resource book created by the BC Ministry of Education to give insight to teachers and students on how to properly conduct themselves in Science environments. It introduces students to science safety in laboratory settings by providing rules and procedures. It has a section on how students should conduct themselves with personal protective equipment. It has procedures to follow in case of mishandlings and emergencies. It includes First Aid safety training and information on the different object you’ll need for it. It has a record of chemicals that are likely to be found in school science departments so that teachers know which ones can pose direct danger. It covers chemical labeling requirements such as the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System. This resource offers much significance towards me as I will be conducting many Science classes in laboratory settings. This manual provides me with information I can access anytime to prepare myself for science settings and prevent any accidents from taking place.
Resource 4: Criteria Categories and Criteria for Science K-9
This resource provides me with different criteria categories to assess various grades. It provides a framework on how science teachers should be assessing their students with a short description for each grade and corresponding category. As a teacher candidate, I want to assess my students using a system other than the percentage one. I believe that the percentage system isn’t fair because they’re only being assessed from the 100%-50% range, whereas anything below that until 0% is a fail. As teachers, we rarely every use that fail section, but that section still takes up 50% of a student’s assessment criteria. I want to focus on a system which assesses students based on academic developmental stages and this resource provides just that. Here, a student’s learning is sectioned off into 4 different stages consisting of Emerging, Developing, Proficient and Extending. By using this resource, a student can be assessed fairly into sections which have no percentages but rather descriptive feedback in each stage. These stages are portioned fairly and doesn’t base half the course’s assessment on failing (50%-0%).
Lesson Plan using Resource 1: FNESC – Secondary Sciences First Peoples
Downloadable link below