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Goal

The goal of this project is to integrate real-world scientific topics into the reading curriculum. This project involves seven different book units that relate to scientific concepts to be followed up by hands-on exploration. Students will work in small groups to read and discuss different concepts, experiment, explore, and then present findings. These units will be measured by examining discussions, project logs, and final products and presentations.  

What will be done with my students

This project involves seven different novel studies that are related to science. Currently, my fourth-grade classroom does not have any science book units. Our classroom will be using these materials right away and then every year after. This grant fulfills many reading and science standards for the state of Florida, but more importantly, it helps students use literature and hands-on learning to connect with the world around them. Many different topics were chosen to promote the many outlets that science offers. This type of enrichment encourages students to read for more than just comprehension but also for insight, imagination, innovation, and interest. Students will explore beavers and determine whether they think beavers are pests or ecological heroes through an opinion essay. They will read about fossils of the lost world, dig for fossils, and then explain the findings. Classmates will read about the discovery of insulin and then discuss the scientific and emotional aspects of animals in experiments. Different fungi will be studied both on paper and in the classroom using Petri dishes and science logs. The engineering and design process will be identified through the study of different plagues and pandemics throughout history, a topic relatable to students. Students will learn all about X-rays and then view and sort real X-rays. Animals of the oceans that border us here in Florida will be explored and students will look at the skeletal structures of these animals through in-glass models. Women who have made impacts in the scientific world will be studied and students will create living museum presentations of the women. This project will be measured through observation of discussions in literacy groups and final culminating activities for each of the novels.  

Benefits to my students

Students will be improving comprehension and literacy skills while engaging with meaningful scientific topics. These novel study units will promote significant conversations and encourage respectful group dialogue. Pre-assessments will be performed before the novel units take place to assess student comprehension of scientific informational texts and a post-assessment will be administered when the novel units are completed. I will also be partnering with one of the other fourth-grade classrooms in my building that will not be using the novel units. She will pre-assess and post-assess as well and we will compare results. As a supplemental resource, we will also dissect the Floria Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) to compare results for comprehension of informational text. Novel studies enhance literary analysis, critical thinking skills, social development, and perspective-taking. These books and items are reusable and will not only be used each year but also shared between multiple classrooms. The hands-on projects and presentations that will take place after the meaningful novel studies will be measured through student-created rubrics. More than this, students will be creating memorable connections with literature and a love of reading and researching our interests increases literacy and comprehension. We also plan to bring in members of the community for some or all of the units including a local wildlife expert, fossil expert, college scientist, a local X-ray technician, marine biologist, and a woman from our county who has dedicated her life to science. Students seeing connections with content and their community provide different outlooks and present the bigger picture of what we are learning and why.  

Budget Narrative

The vendor being used is Amazon. Amazon has free returns and no additional shipping costs. All of the materials are also available through one vendor, instead of multiple vendors. The name of each item listed is the name of each item from Amazon. Those titles can be used to explore ratings and quality of items. Students will be rotating through each of these novel study units, therefore, each one of these supplies will touch every student in multiple classrooms each year.  

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