6th Grade Teachers Share their Classroom Management Suggestions

I teach sixth grade at an intermediate school, so I'm teaching all subjects. I'm in my third year of having my class participate in the S'COOL project. I was lucky enough to attend the summer workshop back in 2002 and have used a lot of ideas from that experience. At the beginning of the year I show my class the S'COOL power point presentation and we spend about a week doing the observations together. Next, from the summer workshop I have some design templates in shapes of mission patches, so I have the students get in groups of 3 (a few groups of 4 if necessary) and they design their team patch based on common interests. Each week a new team is chosen to do the observations. I just put the mission patch on the front board and next to it is the satellite overpass time. The benefit of working with sixth graders is that I can trust them to go outside for a few minutes to do the observations. I also have a big window that looks out onto our courtyard so I can make sure they are on task. The team does the observation, comes in and records the data on our two week chart and then later during study hall they are allowed to get on the computer to send in the information.

Jamie Hald
Picture Rocks Intermediate School
Tucson, AZ

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I provide my 6th grade students with an introduction about the S'COOL program. I take them step by step through the observation form that needs to be completed and provide a brief explanation about the different cloud levels, cloud types, cloud coverage and visual opacity, reminding them that a further explanation will be provided during our weather and technology unit. I encourage students to identify and match their actual cloud type with one of the cloud types indicated on the S'COOL program poster. The S'COOL program is organized in the following way: 1. Take class list and pair up students. 2. Give two pair of students the same group number. 3. One pair of students from the same group number observes Terra in the morning and the other pair observes Aqua in the afternoon. 4. Pair of students rotate by number sequence not by the days. 5. Provide a permanent spot for cloud observation with poster and observation forms. 6. Observation forms are in a folder attached to the wall with the date and time of cloud observation. 7. Students stop at the station during their cloud observation time and complete the form. 8. If students don't recall which group should go, the group number is indicated at the upper right hand corner of the board in the classroom. 9. During lunch or Science class students have permission to attend the computer lab and download the data for NASA.

Jose Caballero
Radians School
Puerto Rico

See Grade 7 for ideas from a science teacher for 6-8th grades.

Have you found another good way to implement S'COOL? Send us a note and we'll post it here to share with other teachers.

S'COOL What to Observe Report Form Glossary