| This unit explores the relationship between students and animals in a first grade class. This elementary school is private and located in a suburban community approximately thirty miles from a major metropolitan city. A class of eight girls and eight boys explored this math, science, and technology unit for six weeks, with three classes per week spent on lessons from this unit.;The first day of school was not only for the children, but also for the class rabbit, Henry. He had free roam in the classroom and the children were his caregivers. Henry would visit the students' homes on the weekends. Unfortunately, over Winter Recess, the Henry passed away. As the students discussed their favorite memories and funny moments of Henry, I knew the happiness that was brought into the classroom. The students and I decided to have another rabbit in the classroom. I wanted the children to experience the growth of an animal, therefore I purchased a baby rabbit, also known as a kit, that was about three months old.;There were several goals I hoped my students would achieve by the end of the unit. My first goal was for the students to be able to express their feelings after dealing with death, as it can be difficult. I also wanted students to know that for survival and health, animals need food, water, exercise, and love. Through this goal, I created the design challenge: to design and construct a bunny playground. In order to create this design, the students were to work in cooperative groups, something they had not done before. This was the last goal I was hoping my students would be able to achieve.;In order to find out what students gained from their MST experience, I conducted individual structured interview. The questions on this interview asked the students: to name three feelings; how they feel about pets in the classroom; how they take care of a classroom pet; ideas they know about pets in the classroom; what do you measure with; and tell about your experiences with building. The same questions were asked in the post-assessment, which was used to compare change over the unit. Throughout this unit, students were also assessed via checklists during group work, writing probes, design portfolios and their culminating design challenge.;Many authors discussed how pets in the classroom bring about positive emotions in students. Although the children appeared "happy" I was unsure of this data. During the pre/post assessments, I asked the students to name three feeling. I also asked the other first grade in the school the same question, using them as a control group. When tallying up the answers, there were more negative feelings mentioned in the pre-assessment, and an increase in positive feelings mentioned in the post-assessment. The control group remained constant, at an even number for both types of feelings. These data were provide beginning evidence that animals in the classroom not only helped the children show their responsibility, but also brought about happiness.;Overall, student learning was enhanced through the integration of math, science and technology. The students did indeed meet all of the goals of the unit. The students seemed to enjoy the design project, especially at the end when the rabbit was able to hop his way to the top of the playground. |
