NOAA B-WET: Teacher Perspective | Gary Abolafia
The B-Wet program has been excellent so far! It is exciting to be able to bring hands-on lessons about glaciers, watersheds, weather and climate into my classroom. Students have loved engaging in these lessons because they have been able to test their theories through things that they have built and created themselves. One of the best things is that all the lessons that have been shared through the B-Wet Cohort meet the Common Core science standards helping students to work toward graduation and to gain a deep understanding of the environment, oceans, and why it is so important that every individual takes a vested interest in protecting our Earth. As for the upcoming school year, I am excited to continue to use the recourses and information from the cohort to enrich my students’ learning and make their classroom experience exciting.
The lessons that I enjoyed most doing with the class were the Recycle Regatta and the lesson on Gyres Currents. The students especially loved constructing and racing their boats. We used recycled items such as water bottles and apple juice containers that we had in the classroom. Students also brought recycled items from home, like plastic bags and old shoe boxes. They enjoyed working and experimenting with the recycled materials to build better and faster boats. They also used critical thinking skills to waterproof their boats by using tape and glue.
While learning about Gyres Currents students found things around the classroom using these items to represent trash. They put them into a large container filled with water and tested how Gyres Currents work and were able to see how devastating garbage can be for marine life. The only modifications made to these lessons for my classroom, was giving students extended time to explore their findings and to work on and test their boats. I broke up the learning material over many days to maximize student learning and interest.
An environmental action project that the class participated in last year was recycling items that went into our school garbage. We have two large recycling bins in the classroom and we are able to reuse many of the things that we have been throwing out when we do science experiments. Students last year also took an initiative to recycle at home and were able to see why it is so important to protect and keep our planet clean. They came to the conclusion that they needed to take action because they believed that they could play an important role in helping to keep their planet clean.
I have been teaching for over twenty years now and love what I do. Each day I want to make sure that students are learning all that they can so that they can be competitive and ready for the work world. It is my responsibility that students have all the skills that they need to be successful in their future. B-Wet has given me an excellent set of tools to give students a greater understanding of their world and to develop critical thinking skills that they can utilize in the future. B-Wet has provided excellent resources to help me connect my science lessons to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to get each student ready for graduation. I highly recommend the B-Wet cohort to any educator because I believe it will give them the tools that they need to ensure student success.
Written by: Gary Abolafia
Special Education Teacher at the Rushford Academy Day School
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