The Imporance of Lesson Planning

At the heart of learning science, there is a combination of curiosity and discovery.  With the acquisition of new knowledge, and understanding, getting to the "a ha!" moment often leads to further curiosity and questioning... This may or may not deviate from the intended focus of the lesson.  Taking advantage of a teachable moment could be a great way to spark further interest in science, but its a good idea to have a lesson plan with specific goals and objectives so the lesson doesn't stray too far off.  Having a planned-out lesson with explicit procedures, and a clearly stated objective will be helpful for keeping the teacher focused on what he or she intended to teach.

Its also important to keep students on task, by making the objectives of the lesson clear.  The objectives or the key question for the lesson should be posted in the classroom.

This way, the purpose of the lesson is explicitly stated for them, and if they stay off task they can easily be reminded to  take a look at the objectives. 

One important step in planning a science lesson is to do a trial run, and practice any experiments in advance.  Once your in the classroom, if any students are having difficulties, you will know how to help them.  Trying it out will also be a good time to make sure you have all of the materials you will need, or give you time to figure out,and gather anything else your lesson might require.  Planning for a lesson and practicing an experiment before hand also gives you time to put together any charts or other graphic organizers for students to collect data, or make specific observations. 


For teaching elementary science, safety is an extremely important aspect to consider when planning a lesson.  With so many materials needed, and possibly equipment,  its important for teachers to think about any safety precaution necessary to be taken.  When creating the lesson plan, it would be a good idea to set aside a few minuted to explain or demonstrate how to use the equipment.  Students will also need to be taught certain safety tips such as "wafting smells".