How Mistakes Help Students Learn

Guessing is useful for students’ ability to recall information—even when the guesses are wrong.

By Youki Terada

Despite its popularity, memorizing information is one of the least effective learning strategies. While it may seem efficient, students are more likely to forget memorized material if they don’t reinforce their learning with other strategies, and a new study looks at how incorporating guesswork into a lesson can significantly boost students’ ability to recall information.

Why does guessing improve memory? When students try to answer questions on their own—as opposed to when answers are given to them—they engage in productive struggle, which helps them make sense of what they’re learning. Posing questions to students helps them think through a problem, bridging the gap between what they know and what they don’t.

Trying to guess an answer—and getting feedback on how close the answer is—leads to higher recall rates than simply trying to memorize information, a new study found. When trying to memorize lists of words, participants in the study remembered slightly more than half the words. But if they used a trial-and-error approach and guessed what the words were and then got feedback on their guess, they recalled about eight in 10 words.

Full article: https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-mistakes-help-students-learn

Centers

3rd and 4th graders rotated in centers including games with molecules and microbes, Makerspace with Legos, engineering a car, Bunchem robots, and dough circuits.

Helping Santa

Second graders are brainstorming ideas for their challenge from Santa Claus — design and build a prototype for new toy.

Club Invention 2019

Spring Club Invention is OPEN for grades 1 - 6. 

Register online at 

https://www.invent.org/programs/club-invention-afterschool

The dates for Club Invention are THURSDAY, January 17th - March 7th from 3pm - 4pm. The first two sessions (Jan. 17 & 24) will be until 4:15; the remaining will be until 4pm. Also, there will not be a session on Thursday, Jan. 31 since I will be out of town at a tech conference. 

PLEASE sign up as soon as possible. Once all 22 slots are filled, there will be a waiting list. I am only doing one session in the spring. 

*** REGISTER ON-LINE only using the address above. If you send in a check, I can't guarantee your spot if the on-line registrations fills up. 

Here's an overview of the next session: 

Phys Ed: Physics in Motion TM 

Children create games based on the work of scientists who helped to answer questions about how and why objects move the way they do. Children will incorporate the laws of gravity, energy, motion and magnetism into their activities.

A series of fast-paced, innovative games illustrate each day’s concept.

Children create games based upon the work of Italian physicist, Galileo. Children participate in a relay race to keep objects from falling to the ground, throw beanbags at a target and design speed bumps to slow down a ball.

Children use Sir Isaac Newton’s concept of gravity to balance an irregular-shaped object, change another object’s center of gravity, and create a tower using shaving cream and index cards.

Children exploring Newton’s first law of motion. Designing and creating a game of shuffleboard and a miniature golf hole gives children hands-on experience in observing objects in motion and objects at rest.

Children demonstrate the powerful effects of air pressure, as explained by Daniel Bernoulli. Children create the slowest parachute and explore ways to move an object using air.

Finally, children investigate the properties of magnets and magnetism, as described by William Gilbert. Children act as detectives to search for objects that are, and are not, attracted to magnets. They then create games that use magnetism, including a game in which they design a magnetic maze and navigate through it.

Gingerbread & Pringles

Using their five senses, first graders compared and contrasted gingerbread cookies and Pringles using adjectives and a Venn Diagram.

The Great Reindeer Escape

Second graders have been learning all about reindeer and where they live. They were challenged to create a calf (baby reindeer) that they could add five things to in order to make it go faster -- we also learned about matter, mass, friction, force, and slope. They finished their calves and raced them against the predator (a wolf). Luckily, most of the calves escaped.

Jesus has a place to lay his sweet head

Third graders have finished their stables and managers. So precious to see the care and detail they put into their projects.

Reindeer Escape

Second graders are preparing their calves (baby reindeer) to escape from the predator.