Entry 7 - Math/Science night

This was my first experience teaching multiple students. I spent three Sundays in a row trying to make my idea come together. My goal was to show how magnets repel and attract, and convert inches to feet using fourth grade math and science standards. A big thanks to Jeremy Sample for giving me some feedback on my board via email. Also, giving me great advice to not be nervous and just have fun with then kids. 

I began my activity with asking the kids what they know about magnets. Everyone of them said something to the effect that they stick together. I said, "that's great, and yes they do, but sometimes magnets don't stick and we're going to figure out why." They held one horseshoe and I held the other. Each of the horseshoes were labeled with north and south. When we touched south to north, (opposites) they attracted or stuck together. My favorite part of the night was their faces and grins when they touched two like poles together and felt them repel. At this point they learned the basic concept of how and why magnets repel and attract. We then moved on to the fishing activity. The goal of this game was to learn how to convert inches to feet. The students would take a fishing pole made of a stick in the yard, fishing line, and a magnet. They would then catch a fish by touching the magnet against the paperclip. On the back of the fish would be the total average length of a Tennessee state fish. They would then use the conversion chart and ruler located on the board to successfully figure out what fish they caught and place it on a magnet directly under the fish.

I spoke with a retired elementary school teacher that gave me some great advice and words of encouragement. She liked my board and gave some ideas on how to expand on it and incorporate it in the classroom. She also told me to be careful when I start teaching to not even raise an eyebrow at students. She said they will sense danger and be intimidated of me because of being a tall male. However, she said once I establish a good reputation that the children would eat out of the palm of my hand.