All students learn differently. If you stick to the books, your students may not grasp what is meant to be learned. Like the book said, if Ms. Drescher did not let the students experiment with the objects and eggs in salt water, they may not of grasped the concept of density! When students explore, they learn and ask more questions, which will lead to expanding on the area being focused on. Just because you have to teach one area does not mean you can’t cover another one along with it. If a student did an experiment the year prior on density, maybe he didn’t fully understand it until the second experiment with Ms. Drescher. These are the things us teachers need to take into consideration when planning our curriculum.
From the stories in chapter 8, I would define sinking and floating in terms of volume and density. If an object sinks, then it has a greater density than the liquid it was placed in, if the object floats, then the liquid has a greater density than the object placed in it.
Students might explore the idea that people could float in the Dead Sea. They might want to know the difference between that body of water and other bodies of water. As the teacher I could get three large jugs of water and different objects to drop in the jugs, maybe a pencil, eraser, paper clip, etc. I would have one jug just plain water, the second jug would have half a container of salt mixed in (to represent oceans) and the third would have four times the amount of salt as the second jug(to represent the Dead Sea). I would have the students predict what will happen with all three jugs as objects get dropped in them, in the third jug, the objects should float a lot higher than in the second one, where in the first jug items will sink.
Spiraling curriculum is wonderful because it helps the student remember what they once learned, but expands on it year after year. I remember doing experiments in grade school on plants, growing my own in class in at least two different years, but learning something new like photosynthesis the second time around. I also remember creating solar system projects over the years and then the last year in elementary school we went to the planetarium to “experience” the solar system and be able to see all that we have learned and “created” over the years. This type of curriculum is like building a house. When you first learn about it, that’s your foundation, then every year you get to add more and more until you finally have a roof. I think it is imperative to incorporate this into your teaching.
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