My Digital Footprint

Getting Connected in the Elementary Classroom

Week 3: Literature Review  

     I remember creating a terrarium in my fourth grade class with my teacher, Mrs. Coughlin, and my classmates.  I even remember my amazement as I watched the plants inside grow, and watch droplets of water form on the plants, evaporate into the air, collect at the top, and rain down again onto the plants.  Our own little class ecosystem taught me about plant life, evaporation, and precipitation.  The fact that I remember this elementary science project in such detail is testament to the fact that creative, project-based teaching works.  Obviously the many lessons I learned in elementary school were the foundation of my education and have served me well.  However, when I try to access the distant memories of specific projects and lessons during my K-5 years, the reality is that I can only remember a few.  Although Mrs. Coughlin was not using internet resources to plan her lessons in her 1989 classroom, this memory immediately came to mind when I read the article “Using Freely Available Internet Resources to Promote the Study of Science and Technology in the Elementary Classroom” by Edward J. Lazaros (2012).  He encourages elementary teachers to use the internet to access a wide array of free resources to elicit student engagement in science and technology projects, many similar in nature to Mrs. Coughlin’s terrarium.  
In “Using Freely Available Internet Resources to Promote the Study of Science and Technology in the Elementary Classroom,” Lazaros (2012) reviews the website Science Kids, recommending that elementary teachers in the United States utilize this site in order to better engage their students in science and technology.  Lazaros cites Education Digest (2010) with the claim that STEM subjects are of vital importance in American schools, as they “‘will determine whether the U.S. will remain a leader among nations and whether we will be able to solve immense challenges in such areas as energy, health, environmental protection, and national security’” (p. 14).  He goes on to argue that American students often lag behind their international counterparts in STEM subjects and that educators tend to shy away from covering certain science topics in elementary schools based on a rationale that young children are not prepared to explore advanced science topics.  There is research that suggests otherwise, argues Lazaros, and he posits that engaging elementary students in STEM subjects at a younger age will better prepare them for more advanced studies later in their schooling (p. 15).  

     The article then reviews the website Science Kids, recommending it as a free and accessible tool for elementary teachers to find resources to make science more fun and engaging for elementary students.  Lazaros describes the website as containing “experiments, games, facts, quizzes, projects, lessons, images, videos, and topics” related to science (p. 15).  He includes several screen shots from Science Kids, including the following, to support his argument that it contains useful tools for teachers. 

In addition to these project suggestions, the website also includes quizzes, videos, and games that Lazaros suggests as supplemental materials to class lessons (p. 16).  He concludes by reiterating the idea that using technology in the elementary science classroom can help to make science fun and familiar to young students, which he hopes will lead to a greater interest in STEM subjects among middle and high school students and a greater interest in science and technology careers. (p. 17).  

Lazaros’ article brings to light several of our course learning outcomes.  His argument in writing is that utilizing technology in the elementary classroom can better engage students, as it is makes their course material more interesting and relevant to their lives, thus promoting learning.  Additionally, if teachers are consistently utilizing such internet resources as the Science Kids website and allowing students to engage the resources with the teacher’s guidance, the students’ technological literacy will no doubt improve.  In a classroom where each student or small groups of students have access to a computer, the teacher could personalize the lesson for students based on their individual learning needs and their levels of expertise with technology and science.  

Although I am not currently teaching, I can see how Lazaros’ article could encourage teachers to better utilize internet resources.  Science Kids is merely one website of its kind available to supplement elementary teaching.  There is also the Trucker Buddy Program for learning geography, Math is Fun, and ABCYa for Language Arts resources, among many others.  The article merely touches on how impactful such resources can be for children, especially those students who may struggle with a more traditional approach to learning.  In the article “Technology Education in Belle Vernon Elementary Schools,” author Ian Finn (2009) discusses how one school district has hired a technology education teacher at the elementary level.  According to his article, “there are always going to be those few who are hard to win over, but in this case most people who stop by my class find it amazing how kids who have trouble with behavior and academics in other classes are the ones who do very well in technology education” (p. 17).  Technology in the classroom may allow us to reach students who were unreachable through other methods.  This is an invaluable benefit.  
When I teach I plan to use resources such as Science Kids and others like it on a regular basis.  In my experience with my own children, they love using computers and they love even more when they are given choices (“do you want the shark socks or the penguin socks today?!”).  Wouldn’t it be effective to use both of these methods with young students on a regular basis?  “Let’s take a quiz on Science Kids to find out how much we know about the human body.  Then we can choose whether we want to play a fun game that teaches about our teeth and eating or do an experiment to determine if we can taste foods without smelling them!”  These are all resources available on the Science Kids website.  If technology in the classroom can make learning more exciting or more accessible to even a handful of students, it is a success.

Works Cited

Lazaros, E. J. (2012). Using freely available internet resources to promote the study of science and technology in the elementary classroom. Children's Technology and Engineering, 17(2), 14-17. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1239269244?accountid=3783

Finn, I. (2009). Technology education in belle vernon elementary schools. Technology and Children, 13(3), 16-17. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/212871453?accountid=3783