My experience in

Science

In this section of my portfolio, I will show my key learnings about teaching science and sustainability throughout my first Elementary science course at McGill and showcase a lesson protocol. I will be reflecting on my developing identity and philosophy as a science educator, including how my own positionality shapes my approach to sustainable education. My reflections draw on insights from my reading reflections and my engagement with course materials, all of which have contributed to how I understand meaningful science teaching.

Ideas About Science Pedagogy

Science Pedagogical Practices

This section shows the science teacher I want to be. There is an image I created for my ideal classroom and below, two tables with goals I am setting for myself. I further support this vision with references to course materials from my second elementary science course at McGill.

Description: As a science teacher, I want my science classroom to be a space where curiosity drives learning and students see themselves as scientists. This image shows that I want to encourage asking questions, testing ideas, and using evidence to explain the world around them.

Science, to me, is about discovery and reasoning, not memorizing facts. In my classroom, I want students to think critically, discuss with peers, identify patterns, build their own models, revise their ideas, and more. My role is to guide their reasoning and help them connect observations to scientific concepts so they grow in understanding and confidence. I want to encourage discussion with pressing questions to encourage them to think more deeply about their reasoning.

References:

1) Children should be able to picture themselves as scientists. I want to build this confidence for them to question as much as possible. This mindset was inspired by Brunner & McGrail's (2022) Creating opportunities: Strategies for introducing nature of science during read-alouds.

2) Wingert, K., et al.'s (2022) article opened my eyes at how models can serve as anchors for children's scientific thinking. Models make student thinking visible, reveal gaps in understanding, and connect ideas across multiple activities.

References:

1) Rise and Thrive with Science (2023), inspired me to include more discussion in my classroom. This leads to students being encouraged to share their ideas and JUSTIFY their thinking with observations or patterns. This strengthens their ability to build explanations grounded in evidence.

2) William & Duncan's (2020) Robots and Reading showed me how important hands on inquiry and literacy integrations are to a scientist's learning. I believe that this is crucial to building students' ability to make sense of the world around them and notice patterns.

Science Lesson (Using 3E Model)

During the fall, the leaves on the trees change colour. The once green leaves turn to red, others to orange, and others to yellow. Eventually they even fall off the trees. This lesson plan is to help students investigate why leaves change colours and fall during the season of autumn. Below is an overview of the lesson and pictures of when I ran the lesson.

Topic: Seasons
Driving Question: Why do leaves change colours and fall?

Ideal Grade Level: Grades 4-5

Fall 2025: EDEE 270

Instructional goals for the lesson:

Students will know:

Why/how leaves change colours and fall from the trees.

Chlorophyll/photosynthesis.

Students will do:

Experiment to observe the chlorophyll of the leaves.

Students will be able to:

Noticing patterns of leaves changing.

ENGAGE

Engage students with phenomenon of leaves changing colours and falling.

Do this by:

Observing the phenomenon

Sharing initial observations and ideas

Creating a hypothesis

Posing a driving question

EXPLORE

Explore questions about the phenomenon through a hands-on investigation.

Allows students to

Test ideas

Record data

Look for evidence/patterns

Revise their initial thinking

EXPLAIN

Promote students’ sense-making and guide them in revising and refining their initial ideas.

Help students

Generate explanations through revising and elaborating their hypotheses

Identify patterns/trends

Develop claims with evidence and reasoning (CER)

Example of Engage: go for a walk with the students to observe the phenomenon!

Engage: We came up with a hypothesis for the class. This made the students more curious to test their predictions!

Explore: Let the students investigate through a hands-on experiment. These pictures are of the activity we tried!

The "Enactment" button will lead to an extension of this section (about when the lesson was enacted).

The "Protocol" button below will bring you to the full lesson protocol.

The "Worksheet" button below will bring you to the worksheet created for the lesson (with full 5E!)

The "Analysis" button will bring you to an reflection of the lesson.

Science Lesson (Using 5E Model)

How does a pirate ship with 1000 pirates sit effortlessly on the water, but a light, tiny pebble drops to the bottom of the ocean? With this lesson plan, students will be introduced to the scientific phenomenon of how objects float or sink. Below is an overview of the lesson and pictures of when I ran the lesson.

Topic: Matter - Solids
Driving Question: Why do some solids float and others sink?

Ideal Grade Level: Grades 3-4

Winter 2026: EDEE 273

Instructional goals for the lesson:

Students will know:

Solids are a state of matter.

Students will (do):

Conduct a hands-on investigation to test and observe different solid objects in water.

Students will (understand):

Understand the definition of density and buoyancy.

ENGAGE

Introduce the phenomenon of how different solids float or sink.

Hook/driving question: i.e. Why can water carry the giant pirate ship and not the pebble?
Do a "Wonder Wall" and create a class hypothesis to promote inquiry

EXPLORE

Explore the class hypothesis through a hands-on investigation.

Promotes independence
Allows students to:

Test ideas
Record data, look for evidence/patterns
Revise their initial thinking

Explore: Let the students investigate through a hands-on experiment. These are pictures of the activity we tried!

A toothpick floating in the water

A wax stick sunk in the water

EXPLAIN

Promote students’ sense-making and guide them in revising and refining their initial ideas.

Help students

Identify patterns
Revise their hypotheses and generate explanations

This is the explanation of density used in the lesson. Later, in the evaluate part, the students are asked to draw their own model like this.

EXTEND

Students apply their understanding of density to a new context.

Use what they learned to solve a design challenge
- Design a floating object that can carry a small weight.
- Design a sinking object using the same material.

EVALUATE

Keep track of student understanding of density with the worksheet and with a drawing of a creative model to explain the phenomena (like in the explain section above).