One thought before I begin, if you have not thought about using FOSS Kits in your classroom, whether you are a Kindergarten teacher or an 8th Grade Science Teacher, I strongly recommend you consider looking into the thought of using them as a part of your curriculum. Teaching in an inquiry setting with Middle School students is the way to go, I enjoy the process and the students enjoy it even more.
Teaching about convection cells is a challenge to begin with because, when relate them to our environment or atmosphere it is hard for the students to visualize. Why? We are discussing the air around us, and it is for one at the molecular size and invisible to see. So using a structured inquiry setting allowed the students to learn about convection cells on a smaller scale that they could relate to the real world around them.
You can see through the student samples that learning was demonstrated through the lesson. I tried to choose students at different ability levels in the classroom to get a spectrum of the classroom. For the really low learners, which are not in the group of students sampled. They did a great job of using the drawing opportunity to explain their learning, which was an easy way for students to express their understanding even if they struggle as writers.
Note - My samples are linked to a teacher website (mine), so you will have to find on the left-hand side a link called "Nature of Science - Grad Work"http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/JPirkl/
