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Mountain Age: Creating a Classroom Profile

Question 1

Some science concepts are hard for young children to conceptualize because:

a) The inability of the young children to comprehend long periods of geologic time in which

changes occur to landforms.

b) Young children have challenges of literal interpretations pertaining to visual information.

Question 2

There seem to be no the correct answer to the “Mountain Age” because when it comes to

the determination of the relative age of the mountains, it involves various interacting factors and

cannot be determined purely through visual cues.

On the other hand, uncovering students’ ideas is more essential than getting the right

answer because the probe makes the students to think visible as well as engaging them in the ideas

they will be learning about. Through engaging the students to share their ideas, opens up minds of

the students to understand the idea behind the subject being taught. As a teacher, you can avoid

the right answer approach through the use of probes to uncover the perception of the students at

any moment during an instructional pattern as well as holding back providing students with the

answer so they may discover it by themselves.

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Question 3

In order for the probe to address the essential question, it has employed use of A

framework for K-12 science Education, the framework helps to perfectly identify as well as

describe the main ideas which were employed to inform the development of the next generation

science standards (NRC 2012)

The ideas that the probe elicit to address the essential question are by the end of grade 5,

students should acknowledge that water, ice, wind, living organisms as well as gravity break rocks,

soils and sediments into smaller particles and move them around. These ideas will automatically

answer the core question, “How and why is Earth constantly changing?”

Question 4

A classroom profile for a formative assessment probe is defined as a way of for teachers to

record, analyze as well as share data with colleagues for the purpose of planning instruction which

aim students’ commonly held ideas about phenomenon.

The profile for a formative assessment can be used to provide a written record of students’

misconceptions or partially formed ideas which the teacher may refer to in supervising for

conceptual change over time. Again, the profile for a formative assessment provides data which

would help the teacher probe further or differentiate instructions for a group of students with

similar misconceptions. In addition, teachers can share and discuss the formative assessment

profile in their professional learning communities, thereby building the capacity of a collaborative

group to examine student thinking and discuss instructional strategies for addressing students’

ideas.
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Question 5

The profile indicates that a good fraction of the students has started gaining the idea of

mountain building while other students are yet to get the concept. From the response, students have

indicated small mountains are young, again not jagged, implying the students get the sense of

growth. While other students gave repeat answers with no explanations, implying that the concept

is yet to sink in themselves. Therefore, the data actually tells me I have two groups of students.

Group one is seeing the sense of mountain growth while group two does not. Now, the data informs

me to probe further to examine whether group two have a beginning concept of mountain

development and invent ways to help them catch up with group one.