Inside the Classroom: Isaac Dove - Tidwell Middle School
Inside the Classroom: Isaac Dove - Tidwell Middle School
Inside the Classroom is a series that visits Northwest ISD campuses throughout the year and highlights the magical moments that happen between teachers and students each and every day across the entire 234 square miles of NISD.
Hands-on lessons are certainly some of the most memorable for students, especially in a science class. However, when it’s time to learn about plate tectonics, teachers have to get creative to make the experience hands-on, and that is where our next Inside the Classroom takes us.
For the next edition of the series, we visited Isaac Dove at Tidwell Middle School who created micro-scale tectonic plates out of graham crackers and icing for his honors seventh-grade science class.
When students entered the third-year teacher’s class, they were greeted with a warm-up activity reviewing what they had previously learned. After students answered the questions individually, Mr. Dove discussed the activity. Interestingly, he first asked for wrong answers only, offering a unique way for students to discuss vocabulary terms that may not have otherwise been mentioned.
As students offered their input, Mr. Dove offered them tickets. Each student with a ticket wrote their name on the back and placed it in a jar. On Fridays, Mr. Dove pulls tickets that reward students with various prizes, encouraging them to be positive contributors to the class.
The warm up walked the class through different types of movements that may happen among tectonic plates, and Mr. Dove modeled those movements using his hands for the class. Those movements were then the basis of the lab activity that would consume the remainder of the class period.
Mr. Dove briefly talked through the pre-lab instructions and showed a demonstration video so that students knew what to expect with their upcoming graham crackers and icing activity.
Before they began, Mr. Dove reminded students that he would be paying extra close attention to their ability to follow instructions and respect the science lab. In a couple of months the class is scheduled to complete a frog dissection, and Mr. Dove wants to ensure the students are ready for such an intensive project.
For this lesson, students spent the remainder of class in groups rotating between three stations that modeled different types of plate movement, such as divergent and convergent boundaries. As students followed instructions at each station to see plate movements in action, Mr. Dove walked around the room to visit with each group and discuss their findings.
Throughout the entire class period students had one question for Mr. Dove, but he waited until the very end to answer, “Yes, you can eat them now!”
During their snack, the class discussed post-lab questions to wrap up what they learned. If they needed a refresher on vocabulary terms, students were able to check out the vocabulary wall in the back of the room. For each content area the class covers during the year, Mr. Dove guides the students through creating this wall full of common terms that they will routinely need to reference over the coming class periods.
After completing their post-lab work, students helped Mr. Dove clean stations and prepare them for the next class.
Thanks to two simple ingredients and a creative teacher, students came away with a better understanding of plate tectonics, and a love for a new favorite snack. Mr. Dove was prepared for this and made them promise that if they asked their parents to buy graham crackers, they had to explain the reason and teach them a lesson on plate tectonics.
Check back regularly all year as we continue to visit students and teachers throughout Northwest ISD and offer a rarely seen look Inside the Classroom.