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Blog Entry # 4

In my service learning I have seen many examples of the teachers using engaging techniques to help students be more engaged learners. The examples that stand out most include; the sixth grade teacher I am working with did a unit in science on insulators. To help the kids apply the things they are learning the teacher grouped the students and they all worked together to make miniature pool covers. After constructing the covers they then took the temperature of the water inside the "pool" every 10 minutes until they had three readings. The next morning they measured the water temperature again to see which pool covers were the best insulators and had a discussion about why some may have worked better than others.
In the kindergarten class I see engaging learning opportunities far more often. It seems as though for every topic they have an engaging component to go along with it. When the students are learning to add and subtract the teacher sets out different objects such as action figures, stickers, crayons, etc. They teacher then has the kids use those to help them add and subtract from a given number.
Additionally when the students were learning about insects they each got to make and bring home their own butterfly catcher. I think this really helped them get excited about what they were learning and it kept them interested and engaged in a topic that might  otherwise be somewhat dull to them.

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