Assignment #4

Teaching students how to gather data and be able to understand and use that data are difficult tasks. As a person who is inclined to search for the connections between these two I find it hard to instill this type of curiosity in children who do not already possess a natural instinct to do so. The nature trips out to the creeks are a great way to show these children the environment that surrounds them. Being able to use computers to organize their finding on these trips is a wonderful tool. Data is empty without organization and computers help us compare and learn from our findings. The type of mapping outline this author uses to help the children with their data is a tool that will help them not only in science but in all areas of their life. Teaching cause and effect is a major goal for teachers especially for the 6th grade age group. I am a visual learner and using mapping would help me to visualize the information and make the necessary connections to understand the experiment.