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Giving Students Voice

I recently completed one of my favorite units of all time. It was also one I was teaching for the first time. The topics we covered were kinetic and potential energy, conservation of energy and simple machines. For kinetic and potential energy we used the anchoring phenomena of a skateboarder on a halfpipe.  We analyzed her energy as she moved through the half pipe. Students used an amazing skate park simulator to explore the skaters energy changes.  We learned about simple machines through a station rotation and trebuchets. The culminating project was construction of a trebuchet that was built in groups with the goal of launching a marshmallow two meters.

I have rarely seen student engagement like I saw in this unit. They were excited to come to class and wanted to stay after to continue working. But, being that it was a unit I had never taught before, I knew that it could be better. So, I thought, who better to help me make it better than the students? I knew it would mean a little pride swallowing but it would be worth it if it meant creating a better experience for my students.

We are a Google Suite school so every student has a Google login and they know how to navigate Google Classroom. Google forms are easy to create and easy for students to fill out. So, at the end of the unit, I created a short survey for students to fill out  and I made it optional. This morning I looked at the results for the first time and have already started to make changes based on what they wrote.

First, I wanted to know what students thought of the unit. Here is what I found out:
These results are pretty darn good. It seems as though this unit was a hit. You can't please all the people all the time but this is pretty close. And no "yucks"! Considering these are middle school students this is definitely a victory.

The real meat of the survey came in the written responses. The questions I asked were:
  • What was something you really liked about this unit?
  • What was something you didn't like about this unit?
  • How could we have supported your learning better?
  • Finish the sentence...When teaching new material, I really wish my teachers would (something that would help you learn)....
  • Anything else you want to add about the unit that you think would help us next year with the same unit and when designing units for the remainder of the year.
Before administering the survey I reminded the students that things like having no tests or assigned seats weren't likely to happen. I assured them that any criticisms they had were 100% welcome as long as they were constructive and respectful. And the students truly adhered to the guidelines.

Some student feedback:





So, here are my biggest takeaways from what they said:

Glows:
  • For the most part they loved, or at least liked, the unit - especially the skateboard simulation, building trebuchets and being able to choose their own groups.
  • They want more hands-on science.
  • They appreciated the variety of content delivery methods (I paraphrased that one)
  • The fact that they saw real world applications of the content made it more interesting

Grows:
  • I need to give more notes (that is the change I have already started to implement and I am in the process of creating note pages for the unit)
  • Some classes didn't get to choose their own groups and they didn't like that (not so shocking)
  • They wanted to learn more about friction since that came up a few times in what we were doing
  • They did not love that all the assessments were not announced
  • Maybe less (???) labs because they wanted some time to synthesize
What I am taking from this is that the unit was very well received and the kids really liked it but I need to support them a more with the content and take a little more time to step away from labs so that they can put all the information together. This information is GOLD! This may be one of the best things I have done for my pedagogy and I fully intend to keep it going. No matter how much I think I know what they students need and want from their science lessons, no one knows better than they do. This process also gives them a stake in the class and some ownership of what goes on in the classroom.

Thank you seventh grade for helping me get better at what I do and being such amazing learners and teachers! We are truly learning from each other.






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