One day in May some former students came back to visit. They felt they needed to let me know a couple of things. The students had definitely acquired the tools necessary for experimenting. They felt I did not prepare them for expressing their scientific knowledge in writing. My curriculum had been so focused on activities that I had not incorporated enough writing.
Writing is a voyage of discovery and so is science.
They need to go hand in hand. As a seventh grade science teacher, my curriculum is life science. My science classes teach process skills such as experimenting, observing, measuring and inferring. I provide activities for my students to construct personal meaning by incorporating real-life applications. My students have the opportunity to collaborate with each other and myself.