Science Teaching

Science Teaching

Oansup Choi

1. A New Vision of Science in Education

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The importance of teaching science well What scientists really do The language of science Rethinking student’s capacity for scientific understanding

Nightmare was coming true

Joanna Fredericks • Not know how to make lessons more interesting Just following the curriculum • Teach students Don’t like science • New job Much harder than she had expected

New research of science education • Different ways of thinking about science • Different ways of thinking about students • Different ways of thinking about science education

Modern world increased attention on K-12 science education • What students need to learn in science • How the education system can support student learning

Importance of Teaching Science Well • Foundation of 21st-century education  Improve people’s lives Treatments for diseases Clean water Enhancing security

Improve quality of life Become a lifelong vocation or avocation

ďƒź Requires workforce Scientists and engineers Medical and health care professionals Journalists Teachers Policy makers

ďƒź Tracing logical connections among Ideas Evidence Criticizing ideas constructively

Provide logic and problem solving skills Demands decisions with scientific information

What Scientists Really Do

Scientists operate in the real world is remarkably similar to how students operate in effective science classrooms • Engage in a process of logical reasoning about evidence • Work cooperatively to explore ideas • Use mathematical or mechanical, models • Work with various technological and intellectual tools • Participate in discussion about predictions, evidence, explanations…

• Examine, review, and evaluate their own knowledge

Students haven’t had enough experience and knowledge • Skills and practices that scientists demonstrate • Learn how to ask fruitful and researchable questions • Application of existing knowledge to new or different contexts • Connection between different representations of a concept • Use new tools or models to new evidence

• • • • •

Usually male Perceived as removed from the real world Operating in an airy realm of abstraction Applying a scientific method to get their results Struggles heroically to understand the natural world

Studies of what scientists actually do • Exchange e-mails • Engage in discussions at conferences • Present and respond to ideas via publication in journals and books • An increasing number of women still not enough to match their representation in the population.

• Talk frequently with colleagues, both formally and informally

The Language of Science In science • Science uses specialized terms different meanings than everyday usage • Educators clear about specific scientific usage to avoid confusion

Theory • Well established description of some aspect of the natural world • Can be modified and revised • Working hypothesis • Often indistinguishable in its use from guess, conjecture, speculation, prediction, or even belief

Data • Recorded observation or measurement • Designed and constructed experimental situation Haruko Obokata wipes away tears during a press conference in Osaka on April 9, 2014.

She has been found guilty of falsifying data in papers she wrote about a simple new method for creating stem cells.

Evidence • Cumulative body of data or observations of a phenomenon Scientific claim • Evidence base provides very persistent patterns for a well-established property, correlation, or occurrence •

The Fund itself will not be fully operation Not reaping any economic benefits Sole financier of the Fund, providing $40 million for administrative expenses.

Facts • Observation repeatedly confirmed accepted as true • Truth in science is never final what is accepted as a fact today may be modified or even discarded tomorrow

Students in classroom

Rethinking Student’s Capacity for Scientific Understanding Previously accepted ways of student’s capabilities or knowledge • Children pass through cognitive stages • Gradually developing new capabilities as they get older • Little direct intervention from adults • Specific cognitive deficiencies that cannot be overcome

Research based student’s capabilities or knowledge • Have surprisingly sophisticated ways of thinking about the natural world • Experiences outside school influence and shape the knowledge  talking with their families  watching television  going to parks  playing outside • Nonschool experiences can produce on in a constructive way in a well-structured science classroom

Case 1 : Seeing Ourselves in Measurement Martinez asked • Sit down in your circle time spots • Let’s discuss this as scientists • Think about it first by yourself for a minute • Let’s talk • Have to listen really • Can come up with a good decision

Should we measure your height with or without your shoes on?

• I think we should do it with our shoes off because some of our shoes are little and some are big or like high up.

That wouldn’t be fair - Alexandra What do you mean by fair?

Can you say a bit more about that? - Martinez • Someone might be taller because of their shoes but not really taller. That wouldn’t be fair.”- Alexandra Does anyone want to add on to what Alexandra said?

Does anyone disagree? - Martinez

• I no agree Shoes all the same He measured the bottom of his shoe and held up two fingers It no make no difference.

- Ramon

Are you saying that since we all have shoes on and they’re all about the same size, it adds the same amount to everyone’s height and so it would be fair? – Martinez • Ramon nodded.

• I think we should take our shoes off because some shoes are taller said Look at your shoes!

He pointed to Ms Martinez’s shoes, which had 2-inch heels And mine are short, and Lexi’s are tall - Damani • By now several kids had their legs in the air, showing off their shoes

How should we decide? - Martinez • We could line up our shoes and measure them See if they’re all the same height - Kataisha I don’t think we really need to measure them all Lexi’s are really big, and mine are not so big That wouldn’t be fair - Martinez • Ramon said that he had changed his mind

Martinez control the class • Explained reasons with evidence (the different heights of the shoes) • Challenged someone else’s evidence with counterevidence • Proposed a simple experiment to evaluate a particular claim • Listened respectfully to each other’s opinions, agreed and disagreed, and even changed their minds as new evidence

Martinez used several good instructional • Accomplish far more than simply resolved the question with a vote • Listen and take each other’s ideas seriously • Facilitate the discussion variety of observations were used including English language learners

• Help to engage in collective reasoning much in the same way that scientists does • Help to benefit from the complex reasoning as a group • Students gave reasons for their opinions, and explained their reasons with evidence

Build on and add to their knowledge of science • Students still need assistance • In science, teacher play a central role in  Promoting curiosity and persistence  Structuring experiences  Supporting learning attempts  Regulating the complexity and difficulty of levels of information

Case 2 : Measuring and Graphing Height Dolens’s first graders were measuring and graphing height • Plan to measure the height of all the first • Emphasize the importance of explaining reasons and supporting ideas with evidence • Find ways to make evidence visible to their classmates discuss together • Extend activity, hoped to exchange height charts with his friend’s class as a way of demonstrating the importance of sharing scientific data

• Organized the students into groups of four • Assigned the role of reporter, scribe, or facilitator(rotating basis) • Use data to support their arguments, and they had to base their decisions on evidence

 Dolens’s teaching procedures • Told to make decisions how to measure what measuring tools to use how to keep track of their data Asking “Should we measure our heights with or without our shoes on?” “Just think for a moment. While you’re thinking.”

Call on three girls and ask them to take their shoes off Measure and record their heights on one side of a large sheet of one-inch graph paper Call on three boys and measure their heights with their shoes on

• Students talk No fair! They have to take their shoes off! • Reminded this was observing and thinking time with no talking yet

First group’s findings • At first we couldn’t decide, based on the chart. We figured you couldn’t do it both ways—measure some kids with shoes on and some kids with shoes off, because that wouldn’t be fair - Shandra

• On the chart Shandra and Jeremy are same height but they weren’t really We had them go back to back without their shoes on and Shandra was taller So that was proof, I mean, evidence - Coral • But we couldn’t tell from the chart which was better - Shandra • it meant “their shoes didn’t matter -Mr. Dolens • She means that maybe keeping shoes on, if everyone did it, wouldn’t matter - Gabby

• Oh yeah, and we found a problem Dorian wear different shoes today when we stood him next to his height on the chart he was just a teeny bit taller We think you should measure without shoes on, even though it might be sort of hard to measure everyone in every class without their shoes on - Shandra

The next group’s findings • Measure and recorded the heels and show the evidence on their poster • Measure the entire back of the shoe the height from the heel to the top edge of the shoe and then from the heel padding inside the shoe to the bottom of the sole • According to their measurements the heel is about one inch for all three boys

After each group had present • To make a group decision, taking into account the issue of getting all of the first graders in the school to take their shoes off and what they would do if some don’t want to • One student propose that they measure with shoes off, and if someone don’t want to take their shoes off, they could subtract one inch from that person’s height • Everyone agree with this idea Dolens Dolens’s class considere several different issues and students support their ideas with carefully collected evidence and thoughtful public debate

Exchange height data with students from Anchorage • Tremendous excitement height data arrive in the mail.

• Alaskan students is almost an inch taller, on average, than the students in Dolens’s class!

• The results surprise everyone and prompted several ideas about what might have caused the Alaskan students to be taller.

• Some thought it might be the colder weather, while others theorized that it might be the different food. At least one student thought that the Alaskan kids might have taken their measurements with their shoes on!

2. Four Strands of Science Learning

Four learning strands • Understanding Scientific Explanations • Generating Scientific Evidence

• Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge • Participating Productively in Science

What happens in science Looking deeply at how students learn science • Students have sophisticated ways of thinking about the natural world  With direct experiences  Talking with their families  Watching television  Talk from parents  Going to parks  Playing outside

• Students knowledge is not static  Build on capabilities throughout science education experiences inside outside the classroom  Bring capabilities to school

Books on science education • Drawn a fairly sharp distinction  Scientific content  Scientific processes

Content seen as accumulated results of science ● Knowledge about the actual subject matter • Concepts • Theories • Law • Ideas • Organizational frameworks • Evidence and proof

Processes been seen as the scientific skills • Sequence of steps take to learn something • Scientific skills expect to master  Designing an experiment  Making measurements  Reporting results

New way of thinking Which is most important, Content or Process?Â

• Scientific processes almost always take place when students are considering specific scientific content  Science, content and process are inextricably linked  Moves beyond dichotomy between content and process skills  Link between content and process is vital To be proficient in science Student use their ideas about the natural world to design investigations or argue about evidence, it strengthens their understanding of scientific content

Students need to know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world

Four learning strands Understanding Scientific Explanations Generating Scientific Evidence Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge Participating Productively in Science • Four strands are intertwined • Each strand supports the others Progress along one strand promotes progress in the others • Provide opportunities for all four strands Students are more likely to make progress in science

1 : Understanding Scientific Explanations Categorize as content • Learning the facts, concepts, principles, laws, theories, and models of science Links between concepts • Rather than on discrete facts

National Science Education Standards Understanding science is integration of complex structure of many types of knowledge including • Concepts of science • Relationship between concepts • Ways to use the concepts to explain • Ways to apply the concepts to many events • Prediction of other natural phenomena

2 : Generating Scientific Evidence Wide range of practices in designing and carrying out a investigation •Asking questions •Deciding what to measure •Developing measures •Collecting data from the measures •Structuring the data •Interpreting and evaluating the data •Using results to develop and refine arguments, models, and theories • Recognizing when there is insufficient evidence  What kind of additional data are needed

Evidence is at the heart of scientific practice.

• Generating and evaluating evidence  Entailed proficiency in science  Part of building and refining models and explanations of the natural world

• Anomalies or inconsistencies with some of the images that were published along with the paper • One image had been spliced • Shown in one image may have been reused in another

3 : Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge Understanding nature of science • Recognize that predictions or explanations can be revised  New evidence or developing a new model

From Gregor Mendel's experiments with peas to the work on plant evolution in a modern lab, and from J.J. Thomson's primitive equipment to today's Large Hadron Collider — science has indeed come a long way

• Track and reflect on their own ideas as those ideas change over time

4 : Participating Productively in Science Doing science and doing it together in groups • Productive social interactions with peers ďƒź Classroom science investigations

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Like scientists, science students benefit from Sharing ideas with peers Building interpretive accounts of data Working together to discern which accounts are most persuasive

Science is a social enterprise governed by norms for participation • Understand the appropriate norms for presenting scientific arguments and evidence • Includes the motivation and attitudes that provide a foundation for students to be actively and productively involved in science classrooms Strand 4 is often completely overlooked by educators, yet research indicates that it is a critical component of science learning

Interconnections between four strands Four strands of scientific proficiency and their interconnections • Students see science as valuable and interesting • Students tend to be good learners and participants in science

Case 1: Biodiversity in a City Schoolyard Gregory Walker • Learned how to manage a classroom  How to plan  Orchestrate with an extremely heterogeneous group of students

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Working hard Raise student achievement Meet the demands of the state tests Teach fifth grade urban school in northwestern Massachusetts.

Over 75 percent of the students were free or reduced price lunches

Walker’s science class • Used an out-of-date textbook and several old science kits that were missing some key materials • Often stayed up late at night trying to come up with interesting science activities • Interested in teaching biodiversity  Emphasized in the national and state standards  Not well developed in either textbook or the available kits

Teachers at Walker’s school • Collegial, energetic • Willing to open their doors to colleagues and parents • Eager to share their successes with one another.

• School was turning its attention to science The school district had appointed • Committee of teachers and curriculum specialists work together  For a new science curriculum

Walker know that biodiversity afford the opportunity • To develop central biological principles important to evolutionary thinking Beginning the simple task • Catalog the species in their schoolyard • New species find  Observe the behavior of different species  Changes in the density  Distribution of populations

Walker and Rivera to compensate for the lack of science materials • Work together • Discussing the science behind their schoolyard investigation • Develop a yearlong project mapping in their schoolyard  Plants  Animals

Divide the schoolyard in half • East side include  Street on one side and a sloping ravine muddy, rocky stream • West side include  Grassy front of the school swampy woodlot where a home for frogs large shade tree parking lot outside play area .

For project, • Two classes work separately • Two classes agree to follow a common plan  Identifying trees, shrubs, and flowers • The two groups meet once a month (Biodiversity conferences)  Rreport to one another what they’d been doing what they’d found

Preparation for the Biodiversity conferences • Organize ideas for presentation  Typically in printed handouts  Posters  Power Point slides • Work hard on communicating their ideas clearly  Maps  Pictorial form  Drawings of the leaves or insects they have found • Borrow a field guide books from the local library  Identify different plants

Find additional information Shrubs were difficult to distinguish from small trees, and flowers were hard to identify when they weren’t flowering • Became topics of intense conversation Actual plants they found often looked different from the pictures in the guidebook • Gave opportunity to steer students toward the reading of expository texts

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Prompted the students to find additional information Where is the plant usually found?

When does it typically bloom?

How tall is it?

Notice more trees and larger trees on one side of the schoolyard than on the other  Theorizing about the cause Was it sunlight Was it soil quality Was it amount of water

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Use systematic measurement Motivated by their own theories and investigations Shared Mapping techniques Strategies for sampling to characterize the woodlot and ravine After much discussion Different proposals were considered Students decided that they could do something Similar to what whale biologists do

After several months • Number of the students highly skilled  Depicting the details on plant leaves, woody stems, and bark • Interest groups emerge  Estimating tree age by measuring their circumference and height  Tree  Weeds  Insects  Databases drawing

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Students in the fifth grade Explore the history of different plantings in the yard Interviewing older residents who lived nearby Visiting the local history museum Students had ended up with many unanswered questions

Rivera and Walker decided to continue their curriculum • For unfinished work and unanswered questions generated • Ask for help from members of the biology department  Asking about methods for pursuing the students’ questions  Soliciting factual information

Walker and Rivera’s study of biodiversity Provide students • Deep and personal relationship with their subject • Understanding that learning scienceis based on  Continuous and creative investigation  Mapping  Reflection  Observation  Data analysis  Presentation  Discussion  Modeling  Theorizing  Explaining

Examining the Four Strands in Instruction Strand 1: Understanding Scientific Explanations Focuses on concepts and the links between them • Study of biodiversity were not starting completely from scratch  Prior understanding  Interests and previous experience or interaction with nature  Students have a remarkable ability to track various patterns in the biological world • In the process  Students conceptual understanding of living things begin to see interconnections among living things

Strand 2: Generating Scientific Evidence Collection of data • Record in notebooks, post-it notes, wall charts became data to think about, question, and argue with • Using these data  Describe and discuss patterns of vegetation  Relationships among vegetation and animal life • Using maps, charts, and evolving field guide  Raise questions about the evidence  Design investigations to answer specific questions.

Good evidence led to more questions • With careful documentation of the height of the trees Generated questions about the causes of differential tree height  Was it due to differences in exposure to sunlight or water?  Was it because there were different species of trees present?  Was it due to the age of the trees?

Strand 3: Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge • When reporting on their findings after a fieldwork activity • Asked each other questions about the quality and reliability of the data they were collecting • Asked for evidence from one another when causal explanations were proposed.

• Became aware of occasional mistakes and paid attention to how these mistakes were corrected, as well as to how their ideas changed over time

Strand 4: Participating Productively in Science • Students actively participated in discussions about their data, questions, and emerging conjectures and plans for systematically following up on these ideas.

• Students worked in small groups and regularly engaged in “crosstalk” sessions in which they exchanged information with other interest groups • Monthly biodiversity conferences, moderated by Mr. Walker and Ms. Rivera.

3. Foundational Knowledge and Conceptual Change

Young student begin school with…was Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

Recent research On concepts and alternate conceptions • Students come to school with  Great capacity in learning  Sophisticated scientific thinking  Deeper appreciation about the nature of science

• Students’ sophisticated reasoning skills and knowledge  Helps building and supporting science  Helps explain phenomena and solve problems

A key challenge for teachers • Embodied students’ knowledge and understanding of the world ďƒź Help students to confront their misconceptions productively in order to develop new understanding

It raises a questions • How does students recognize the knowledge?

• How does students build the knowledge?

• Students diversity (in culture, language, or prior experience) as a resource rather than an obstacle?

• Integrate the four strands of science learning enhances the others strands?

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Identifying a Shared Base of Understanding Seeing Nature in New Ways Types of Conceptual Change Using Prior Knowledge to Make Sense of the World Science Class: Molecules in Motion

Identifying a Shared Base of Understanding Student tend to think about their experiences in similar ways, regardless of their culture • Students have a strong sense of cause and effect • Students have a conceptual understanding of the world  Strong sense of domain-specific reasoning Four Domains of Knowledge • Simple mechanics of solid bounded objects(physics) • Behaviors of psychological agents(psychology) • Actions and organization of living things(biology) • Make up and substance of materials(chemistry)

Domain-specific reasoning • Student understand that the causes of physical events are fundamentally different from the causes of psychological events

• When the apple falling down and hitting the student  Apple doesn’t “want” to hit the student  The ball has no “desire” to roll down a ramp • Person or animal  Animal go down a ramp to find food  Person might want to hit a wall because she is angry

What are the things used for

In studies, students ask vary systematically • Tools often have a purpose • Living things don’t have the same practical purpose as tools  Don’t focus on what the living thing is used for This pattern of thinking or applying reasoning • Students tend to reason in a given domain in similar ways  Students hold a domain specific reasoning regardless of a culture or language  Type of reasoning they do varies by domain

Seeing Nature in New Ways

Science education • Sometimes seen as  Process of filling students up with facts  Learn enough concepts, definitions, and discrete facts • View from researchers group  Reposition of ideas(bring to school) within a larger network of ideas  Learning facts alone is not enough  Broader contexts of meaning in facts Adult male human brain contains on average 86.1 +/- 8.1 billion neurons

Types of conceptual change Three broad types of conceptual change • Elaborating on a preexisting concept • Restructuring a network of concepts • Achieving new levels of explanation

Impressive periods of conceptual change • Real conceptual change  Being exposed to new information Not the same as what student already knows  Deeper reorganizations of knowledge occur • Experiments or make observations  Scientific understanding will not miraculously emerge

Students see the striped animal at the zoo. They may call a horse rather than a zebra

When a mother says, “No, that’s a zebra,” the students may adapt the schema to fit the new stimulus, learning that there are different types of four-legged animals, only one of which is a horse

Assimilation: Elaborating on a preexisting concept • Use already developed schemas to understand new information ďƒź New evidence knowledge that fit well with their current thinking

Accommodation: Restructuring a network of concepts • Involves learning new information, and thus changing the schema  Thinking about a preexisting set of concepts in new ways  Uniting concepts previously thought to be fundamentally different or separate

Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass so air is nothing With experiment air is nothing no longer relevant and can be discarded Achieving new levels of explanation To understand atomic-molecular theory • Need to understand ďƒź Materials consist of atoms and molecules ďƒź Behaviors and interactions of these microscopic constituents of matter

Using Prior Knowledge to Make Sense of the World One common approach to science education • Link her own experience • Use her own experience knowledge to navigate the world • Arrive at incomplete or incorrect Hand closer to a hot objects feels hotter Temperatures in the summer are warmer than those in the winter due to the distance between the sun and earth

• Misconceptions may be necessary stepping-stones toward more accurate knowledge • Mistaken ideas may be the plausible for a students • Misconceptions may coexist with some accurate ideas • Some misconceptions will generally self-correct without instruction as students go about their lives Very young student often believe Individuals can become giants by eating heartily If you break material into successively smaller pieces will make it disappear

Case 1 Molecules in Motion

Seventh-grade science teacher begin a Molecules in Motion • Introduction to the atomic-molecular theory of matter  Starting with air pressure demonstrations  Reasons for this Textbook introduced air pressure demonstrations • Demonstrations produce surprising and unexpected outcome • Elicit students’ thinking experiences they’ve had with air pressure • Discover that their usual explanations or assumptions don't work well to explain what was going on • This would encourage them to be more open to exploring new tools and models and to developing new explanations

The problem of the demonstrations in science textbook • Predict what would happen but  Move on too quickly to other demonstration  Memorizing vocabulary  Completing worksheets • Overestimate the students’ knowledge and experience

Faulkner determine to make sure • Students see themselves as doing science • Not just seeing cool effect • Not just memorizing vocabulary for tests

Faulkner arrange an aquarium, several different-sized glasses • Ask two students to fill the aquarium with water • Add some blue food coloring • Put glass into the aquarium • Turn glass sideways • All the air bubbled out • Turn it upside down and slowly raise the bottom • Watch the water stay in the glass above the tank • Brake the rim of surface and the water flowed out in a rush

Students propose their own ideas for demonstrations • Do it with the taller glass and see if that works - Alliyah • That’s a great idea - Faulkner • Ask Alliyah to try the experiment with the bigger glass, since it was her idea Alliyah placed the glass in the aquarium and lifted the bottom of the glass slowly from the water in the tank, the water came with it • Could we try it with an even taller glass? - Eriziah.

• Go ahead and try it - Eriziah

What’s making the water stay in the glass?

• Suction! The water gets sucked up into the glass like a vacuum! – Damian A lot of adults would guess the same thing. A vacuum sucks the water up into the glass. But Science never sucks! – Faulkner • Give students some time to think about this explanation, rather than simply telling them it is not valid • Question students assumptions and move beyond the idea of suction

Faulkner would do one more group demonstration • Groups exploring  Work at different stations around the room  Groups of four exploring different activities with air and water.  Each group would put together a report for the rest of the class Explain what was go

One more demonstration that will add a little more data and help • Ball up a paper towel and stuck it in the bottom of a large glass • Turn the glass upside down push the glass down into the water • Will the paper get wet?

• Tell each student to turn to the person next to them and discuss their ideas.

Predictions • Ask different partners to share their predictions on the whiteboard 1. The glass will be filled with water and the paper will get wet 2. A lot of water will go in the glass but the paper will not get wet 3. A little water will go in the glass but the paper will not get wet 4. No water will go in the glass and the paper will not get wet •. Most of the students voted for Prediction 1, several for Prediction 2, and a few for Predictions 3 and 4.

Change the prediction • Ask the students to explain the reasons for their predictions • Tell students they were free to change their minds If they heard something that convinced them to rethink their position •

•

At first we thought the water would just go into the glass, because, you know, it seems like there’s nothing in there, But then I heard someone else saying they’d done it and no water went in, and I changed my mind. I guess, like Joanna said, there’s air in the glass and the air won’t let the water in - April I know air is real. It takes up space and keeps water away from the paper - Phuong

• Well, actually, I think this is probably wrong, but me and Tanika were thinking that water is heavier and has more force than air, and it might force the air into a smaller and smaller space, and even squish up the paper. But we agree with Juanita and April. We’re pretty sure the paper won’t get wet - Joanna Demonstration • Water went only a little way up into the glass • One of the students pointed out that the paper wasn’t getting wet

Talk • Which prediction fits the results the best, and why didn’t the paper get wet? Go back to your seats and let’s talk about this.

• Heard the word molecules.

• I read in a book that molecules are really, really small, too small to see without a microscope, - Salizar • Faulkner wrote, Air is everywhere, made up of tiny molecules Over the next several days • Each of the groups attempted to explain what was happening • Each group developed a poster that showed the demonstration in action and tried to explain what was pushing what

Groups presentation • Students in the audience responded with questions, challenges, comments, and suggestions based on what they had discovered at their own stations • • •

Explained that the air was pressing equally everywhere, on the outside of their noses as well as the inside. “Otherwise your nostrils would collapse If something is not moving, it doesn’t mean that there’s no air pressure It means the forces of the air are balanced—pushing equally in all directions

Accepted Facts • Air molecules are constantly moving, but without intention or knowledge.

• Air molecules are moving very fast in every direction, and they don’t stick to one another, so they can’t pull; they only push • • •

An adult man has about 100,000 pounds of air, pushing in every direction, on his body, up, down, sideways How come we can’t feel it? Eriziah asked Great question

Conceptual Change in Molecules in Motion Investigations with air pressure entailed the student preexisting concepts of air and elaborating on them —the first type of conceptual change • Students began with ideas about air  based on their experience Some students began the unit thinking that air was nothing, except when you could feel it as wind Students were beginning to rethink and restructure the network of existing concepts about air, molecules, forces, and pressure —the second type of conceptual change

Build new levels of explanation — the third type of conceptual change, • Over several days of investigation and discussion, students learned to embrace and apply the notion that air pressure pushed the water up into the glass,.

• Understand atomic-molecular theory and use it to explain phenomena like air pressure.

• The students will also learn to understand increasingly more complex material explanations

What We Think We Know About Air • Share ideas • Record ideas on a large piece of chart paper • Remind them that this was just the beginning of the investigation and their ideas were sure to change • Record ideas so they could look critically at them later and see how they had changed over time, as more evidence was gathered

Building Understanding Over Multiple Years • Small number of core concepts • Core concepts have great explanatory power • Concept built on in increasingly complex ways from year to year

What differentiation strategies does the teacher incorporate during his second observation?

4. Organizing Science Education Around Core Concepts

Current Curricula Consist of disconnected concepts Give equal priority each concepts Continually introduce new concepts

Types of Conceptual Change • Elaborating on a preexisting concept ďƒź New evidence, knowledge, or experiences fit well with current thinking

• Restructuring a network of thinking  Preexisting set of concepts in new way • Achieving new levels of explanation

Core concepts • What is core concepts?  Central to the disciplines  Well tested and validated science ideas Atomic-molecular theory of matter DNA molecules Interactions between molecules

 Evolutionary theory  Newtonian laws of force and motion  Biig Bang

• Core concepts  Prepare students for deeper levels of scientific investigation and understanding in high school, college, and beyond  Enables creative links to be made between disciplines.

Atomic molecular analyses are important in physics, chemistry, biology, and geology  Can be understood in progressively more complicated ways  Guides new research

Effective science learning and teaching • Teach core concepts ďƒź Build over a years rather than weeks or months

• Need a contents and excellent classroom skills  Define shorter term goals for students Shorter term goals for involve more immediate understanding  Identify and promote long term goals  Connections related to core concepts

Deep understanding of scientific explanations • Connections between concepts ďƒź Concept alone is not useful unless we can make connections between what we know

Building on Core Concepts Over Time •    

Organize Learn over multiple years Dramatically fewer than currently included concept in curriculum Allow teachers to focus on building and deepening of science concepts Support the exchange of knowledge and information related to core concepts

Physics Ph.D. Qualifying Oral Examination Policy Purpose The Qualifying Oral Exam is an important part of the process of admission to candidacy. The exam seeks to give the student an opportunity to exhibit a broad knowledge of physics and an in-depth understanding of a particular area in order to be effective in original research. The student should exhibit command of the material, an ability to extract the essential elements of a relatively recent development in physics, and the capacity to present this material to an audience of general professionals in a way that demonstrates his or her expertise.

• Intermediate understanding of atomic-molecular theory  Not employ the language of atoms, molecules, theory  Students learn atomic-molecular theory in progressively more complex ways over the years

Core Concepts in Standards and Benchmarks •    •

Research, national, state, and district standards Do not provide a basis for designing curriculum sequences Contain too many topics Not identify the most important topics in science learning Other countries provide little guidance for sequencing across grades

• Frameworks for both curriculum  National Science Education Standards (NSES) Frameworks for K-12 science education  Benchmarks for Science Literacy Suggests how students might progress toward goal Document is a tool to be used in designing a curriculum not a particular curriculum design itself.

National Science Education Standards

• Questions to organize curricula around core ideas  What areas are critical for students’ future learning Explore in meaningful and increasingly complex ways  Which areas are deferred until high school or college • Future standards  Dramatically reduce the number of topics of study

Using Core Concepts to Build Learning Progressions •   

Learning progressions Learn successively more sophisticated ways of thinking Extend multiple years From preschool to twelfth grade and beyond

•     

Potential benefits of learning progressions Learning in sequence of a curriculum Suggest the most appropriate ages for introduction of core concepts Master underlying concepts before starting particular area of science Engage meaningful questions and investigations of the natural world Incorporate all four strands of scientific proficiency

Learning progression : Atomic-molecular theory of matter • Core scientific concept  Explains puzzling aspects of the physical world  Allows for the integration of many different scientific findings  Allows for links to be made between various scientific disciplines, including physics, chemistry, biology, and geology

“You start with a random clump of atoms, and if you shine light on it for long enough, it should not be so surprising that you get a plant,�

National Science Education Standards

National Science Education Standards

Case study : Atomic-molecular theory • Grades K-2, grades 3-5, and grades 6-8 • Give progressively more sophisticated answers to the following questions  What are things made of?  How can we explain their properties?  What changes, and what remains the same, when things are transformed?  How do we know?

• A well-designed learning progression  Atoms and molecules wouldn’t mention in the earliest grades  Atoms, chemical substances, chemical change are complex ideas Some may have heard about atoms and molecules  Macroscopic understanding of matter takes several years To develop, test, expand, and revise To understanding the basic constituents of matter To create larger units

•   

Goal of understanding concepts Not merely memorizing vocabulary or definitions Not emphasizing technical terms in the early grades Avoids sending the counter productive message to students Science is memorizing terms and definitions

Science Class Grades K-2 (Mystery Box) There is plastic,wooden, metal fork and spoon Take my whole set into a bag Take one and put it into the Mystery Box Close your eyes. No peeking!

Figure out what is inside the Box If you ask me about what’s inside the Box, I will tell you the truth - Winter

Is it the plastic spoon? – Maya Is it a fork? – Carlos With Maya’s question we got rid of one thing, the plastic spoon With Carlos’s question, we got rid of three things Can anyone figure out why that is? - Winter

Science Class 176

Tended not to talk much in the large group, raised her hand. “Carlos asked about all of the forks, and Maya just asked about the plastic one, just the plastic spoon.” - Kelly, Is it the wooden spoon? - Lassandra Winter removed the lock and opened the doors of the Mystery Box, revealing—“Ta dah!”—the wooden spoon inside.“Congratulations,” Ms. Winter said. “Just by asking questions, without being able to see inside, you’vediscovered what’s in the Mystery Box

Mystery Box activity • Long way from the kinds of scientific investigations relating to the atomic-molecular structure of matte • Thinking about how to ask questions different questions can produce different information • Negative evidence can be very useful right answer isn’t the only thing in a scientific investigation.

• Using reasoning to draw inferences about something can’t see • Activity doesn’t directly address the atomic structure of matter

Mystery Box activity making • Sense of, categorizing, and reasoning with available information • Key to asking good questions and formulating good hypotheses • Learning to participate in discussions with peers

Effective science learning • Supports multiple  Predictions  Explanation  Positions • Have reasons to argue (to agree and disagree) • Back up the evidence for their positions • Involve the students in actual scientific investigations

Mystery Box activity is teacher-guided activity • Teacher is actively involved, pressing  Clarify and explain students ideas to one another  Help students become thoughtful, logical questioners, data analysts • Sutudents playing active roles in reasoning and theorizing  Listening hard to one another and building on one another’s ideas

Extending Scientific Discussion Learning progressions • Unfold over the course of several school years • Unfold over the short term  Extended and deepened the Ideas and concepts related to specific science activities

Post Mystery Box activity • Led to an investigation of the different objects in the classroom  Counted and recorded the total number that were made of wood, plastic, or metal  See the grain of certain items with magnifying glasses Introduced a set of density

ďƒź Transition away from reliance on sensory observations ďƒź Generate questions that would be worthy of investigation Which is heavier: wood, metal, or plastic?

Why does metal shine?

Which of those objects would float?

Science Class grades 3-5 (Properties of air) Core concepts important to develop in these grades • Solids, liquids, and gases are forms of matter • Matter takes up space and has weight • Matter continues to broken into pieces too tiny to be visible • Matter and mass are conserved across a range of transformations, including melting, freezing, and dissolving

Figueroa’s third graders were carrying out a weighing air • Previous weeks weighed and measured different materials  Predicted which objects would be heavier  Graphed their results • Now investigating whether or not air could be weighed  Some of the students were sure that air couldn’t be weighed because “you can’t weigh something that’s nothing.”  Others disagreed and thought that air was definitely something

Put the volleyballs on the pan balance and adjusted the scale so they balanced perfectly, which are same size, but one is dark and one is light colored When I put them on pan balance, what do you think will happen? .................

Why do you think that? – Figueroa Because they’re the same everything. Same size, same, um, leather covering, just like when we weighed and graphed our density blocks. If it was the same size and same material – Gemma Everyone seemed to agree Put the two volleyballs Balance came to rest in a balanced position

Pumped 15 times into the light-colored volleyball That make it Heavier?

Lighter?

Same weight?

When we put this volleyball back on the pan balance going to go down?

When several students called out answers Don’t say anything yet, Just think for a minute

Is it

Stand up for your predictions

Once they’d made their predictions, they sat back down

Who wants to start off?

The one you pumped, will go up Because doesn’t air make things lighter?

Like when you blow up a balloon with air, It gets light. It sort of floats – Megan It will balance because air is nothing I mean it’s invisible It’s like nothing - Marisa

Figueroa called on Eduardo Born and lived most of his life in Puerto Rico Spoke slowly and paused often to find the correct words Difficulty with pronunciation, but the other students waited respectfully while he spoke Other Spanish speaking students volunteered words or phrases when he seemed stuck Once my papi pump the tire and his truck went up The air make it to go up. The truck is heavy - Eduardo Wow! What an interesting observation Can anyone repeat what Eduardo has told us? - Figueroa

I think I understand, because the same thing happened to me. When I blowing up a balloon, the air pushed inside the tire and lifted the truck up. - Keisha Is that what you were saying - Figueroa Nodded.- Eduardo

We have lots of different theories on the table, and they’re all interesting. Does anyone want to agree or disagree with any of these predictions? - Figueroa More hands went up.

One student said, Just do it!

Then several said, Yeah, let’s find out.

I still want to hear what more of you think Let’s go around so everyone gets a chance to explain their predictions - Figueroa The discussion continued for about 10 more minutes, with students arguing for each of the different alternatives

Finally, Figueroa walked to the pan balance Has anyone changed their minds?

Scientists often change their minds after discussing with other scientists So, stand up for your prediction one more time.

Do you think the yellow volleyball with 15 pumps of air will be heavier and tip to the left lighter and tip to the right stay balanced?

Once again the students stood up and tilted their bodies, but this time several more voted that the light-colored ball would be heavier

When Figueroa put it on the pan, it tilted to the left • So what have we learned? Figueroa • You can weigh air She added, Does that mean that if I take a big breath of air when I get on the scale at the doctor’s I’ll weigh more? – Mari

Behind the volleyball activity are two important ideas • Air, even though you can’t see it, is something, has mass and can be weighed • Will learn that air is made up of tiny air molecules that are moving around very quickly

• That might cause confusion when thinking about the air in a volleyball bouncing around constantly in all directions to balance each other out, so the ball doesn’t move sideways • But the molecules in the ball are being pulled down by gravity

Core tenets of atomic-molecular theory: • Matter exists in three phases and vary in their properties • Materials have characteristic properties density, boiling point, and melting point.

• Density is quantified as mass/volume • Microscopic level: More than 100 different kinds of atoms each kind has distinctive properties • Each atom takes up space, has mass, and is in constant motion.

• Atoms involves chemical bonds between atoms. to form molecules • Molecules have characteristic properties different from the atoms

Which one is led to greater change in understanding?

• Teaching core elements of the atomic-molecular theory without addressing student misconceptions at a macroscopic level • Teaching of relevant macroscopic and microscopic concepts talked more about how properties of invisible molecules • Ssequencing instructional make sense of science instruction

Science Class grades 6-8 ( the nature of gas) Investigators Club (I-Club) has sought to bridge what students already know about science and what they learn about science in school • Sohmer directs the I-Club program, which meets for 15 weeks each school term

Demonstration and discussion How objects were stationary even though forces acting on them • Explored the difference among the three phases of matter • Investigated the phases of matter stem from the interaction of molecular speed and intermolecular attraction • To help students’ view of how air pressure worked • Analogy ideal gas law with Air Puppies story - Sohmer

• The wall can move easily, to the right or left, if something touches it • If I were standing on the left side of the wall, and—by accident—I leaned against it, what • What happen to the wall?”

Sohmer’s wall-on-wheels.

• Then Mr. Sohmer told the story of the Air Puppies. “Imagine that Air Puppies represent air molecules.

The view from above at the beginning of the Air Puppies story showing an equal number and kind of Air Puppies on each side of the wall

• Air Puppies mindlessly bumbling around and bumping into the walls and each other.

The wall-on-wheels moves whenever a puppy bumps into it • “So what will happen to the wall?”

With an equal number and kind of Air Puppies on each side, the wall-on-wheels is continually bumped from side to side.

• “What will happen to the wall if we have 25 Air Puppies on the left side and 10 Air Puppies on the right side?”

• As the 10 puppies on the right get more and more squished into less and less • space, they’re going to get bounced more, and move faster and faster, and Divided room with 25 Air Puppies on the hit the wall more and more times left side and 10 on the right side.

Mr. Sohmer then added another aspect to the • Asking students to imagine what would happen when each room had an equal number of Air Puppies, but the room on the right had an open door “What if you close the door after a lot of Air

5. Making Thinking Visible: Talk and Argument

Science requires communication and representation of ideas

Scientists Share • Formulas, theories, laboratory techniques, scientific instruments Ideas, observations ďƒź Text, drawings, diagrams, formulas, photographs

Scientists communicate • Presentation, e-mail exchanges, research articles, books, lectures, TV programs or documentaries Scientists participate • Research groups, scientific societies, interdisciplinary collaborations

Collaborate • When there is disagreement about evidence  Scientists challenge with argument  Validate one another’s ideas

Science classrooms • Effective science teaching  Same methods of communication and representation used by scientists in the real world • Talk and argument in science  Role of talk and argument in good science teaching

Talk and argument can • Understand and assess how students are thinking • Provide an motivation to reflect on what they do—and do not—understand • Forces students  Think about and articulate ideas  Describe terms, concepts, and observations in their own words

In science

In normal

• Arguments  In normal, the goals are to make one’s point and win Politicians favors a particular position  In science, the goals are to persuade colleagues on specific idea Scientific argumentation focuses on ideas, resulting Criticism targets ideas and observations, not the individuals  Need to recognize the distinction between Disagreeing with an idea and disagreeing with a person

Language of science • Be distinguished from nonscientific interpretations • Children and adults alike to confuse specialized science definitions • How they differ from the common forms Ex: Theory • In common guess or a hunch

Encouraging Talk and Argument • Science classrooms  Typically not rich with opportunities to talk and argument  Patterns of discourse in classrooms adhere to a turn-taking format Teacher asks a question with a known answer Student is called on and responds Teacher comment and evaluates the student’s response • 70% of Teacher and Student interaction  Question- Answer- Evaluation  Initiation-Response-Evaluation

I-R-E Sequence • Three-part communication pattern  Begins with the teacher addressing  Student's response with a question  Ends with the teacher's evalution Recitation • Helpful in reviewing prior knowledge or assessing students know • Not work well support complex reasoning  Elicit claims with evidence  Justify or debate a point  Offer a novel interpretation

Dialogue encourages scientific talk and argument What outcome do you predict?

Say more about that Does anyone agree or disagree with what J just said?

Does anyone want to add or build on to the idea?

Thinking or wait time Students have a chance to develop more complex ideas Greater number of students have a chance to contribute, not just those who raise their hands first •     

ď ś Six productive classroom talk

• Productive classroom talk – By research  Lead to a deeper engagement with the content under discussion  Elicit specific reasoning of complex and subject matter may not ordinarily be considered academically successful

Allows students’ prior ideas to surface Improve ability to build scientific arguments and reason logically Allows to reflect and build on scientific thinking Aware of discrepancies between students and others (including the scientific community).  Provide a situation to develop mature scientific reasoning  Provide motivation by enabling students to become affiliated with their peers’ claims and positions    

•     

Productive talk in science classrooms Looks easy for teacher Not easy for student What if no one talks?

What if I can’t understand what they’re trying to say?

What if they make fun of each other?

Position-Driven Discussion • Narrowing down possible outcomes before the experiment is even conducted • Predicting what they believe • Posing several different plausible solutions (1) heavier, (2) lighter, or (3) weigh the same • Engage in scientific processes like predicting and theorizing lead to a productive and learning rich discussion • The students are all working towards the same goal of figuring out

•   

Directed Questions Are based on facts Have one correct response Support the development of deeper understanding

•    

Open-ended Questions Are based on concepts or ideas Have at least one correct answer Encourage all students to participate Require students to research, investigate, or reflect before responding

Directed Questions What is an atom?

Who was the last emperor during the Ming Dynasty?

What is the order of colors in a rainbow?

Open-ended Questions How has the discovery of the atom impacted science?

How did the Ming Dynasty impact Western Civilization?

How do you describe color to someone who is blind?

• Productive classroom environments  Accustomed with extensive student talk  Define and establish classroom rules for discussion

Science Class : Establishing Norms for Discussion • Carter’s 28 sixth-grade students  Over 70 percent of them eligible for free or reduced-price lunches  Six children who recently immigrated to the United States leave the room each day for intensive English language instruction  Four students using individualized education plans (IEPs) one student has been diagnosed with autism

• Carter works hard to establish an environment of cooperation and respect in her classroom  Her mottos are “No single student is as smart as all of us put together” “You have the right to ask for help, and the duty to provide it to other  Established rules for her students for respectful participation in small-group work and whole-group discussion

• Student Rights:  You have the right to make a contribution to an attentive, responsive audience.  You have the right to ask questions  You have the right to be treated civilly  You have the right to have your ideas discussed •   

Student Obligations: You are obligated to speak loudly enough for others to hear You are obligated to listen for understanding You are obligated to agree or disagree (and explain why) in response to other people’s ideas

•     

Carter uses a color-coded discipline system Each student starts the day on green A warning is given for misbehavior Further infraction a change to yellow After one more warning Another infraction puts a student on red and the parent is called after school

Language and culture • •   

Scientific language is foreign for all students Cultural backgrounds affect learn science Different ways of behaving, thinking, and interpreting the world Interact differently with they encounter in their everyday lives Vary in experiences, histories and ability

• Language and culture in the classroom  Can lead to serious problems of equity and access, creating barriers to communication, student-teacher trust  Can result in significant decreases in student motivation, participation, and learning

•  •   

Part-Polynesian students Perform much better in small-group African American students Break into animated discussion Interrupt one another Talk at once

Students’ ways of knowing •   

Haitian Creole students Visualized themselves in problems Regularly evoking analogies Arguments and narratives as a means of making sense of phenomena

All common strategies among scientists

Strategies for Inclusiveness Make the rules of participation visible in the science classroom Provide roles to play in discussions Equitable participation Not every student must participate in every conversation Access to every conversation must be equal  Requires that everyone hear what is being said  Have equal time to develop their ideas and be heard • • • 

• Creating an environment supports equitable participation ďƒź Express not certain thoughts Fear being seen as bookish Shy away from expressing their thoughts Worry about expressing ideas that are not fully formed

• How to develop students’ ideas and arguments  Have an opportunity to clarify their initial ideas Ideas may be flawed in some way but the goal is to Listen Build on ideas Adjust or improve on ideas • Practicing draft thinking or exploratory talk  Students’ communication is sometimes halting, with pauses, repetitions, hesitations, and false starts  Yet critical comments is required

Science Class : Successfully Supporting Diversity Wright taught In Massachusetts Spoke quite a bit of Haitian Creole herself Valued the linguistic and cultural resources Combined third- and fourth-grade multiethnic class Large number of Haitian Creole–speaking children in her school

How balance would behave Introduced to the formula multiply weight times distance already practiced solving balance problems of this type still some confusion when to multiply and when to add Approximately four weeks into the unit Students had progressed through a series of balance problems Predicting, debating, and changing their minds

• Sabrina

• Current speaker nominate the next speaker • Josianne asked to report next. Josianne, a native speaker of Haitian Creole, had moved to Wright’s class two months earlier from a transitional Haitian bilingual classroom.

I agree with Sabrina because I was thinking it will balance - Josianne And what made you think that? - Teacher Because, I think it will be balanced - Josianne She asked a colleague to give first in Creole and then in English Can you tell me why you thought it would balance? - Teacher I say because I was thinking in my brain. And my brain think it will be balance - Josianne Okay. Can you say more about why? - Teacher Say more about why? - Josianne Why do you think it will be balanced? What did your brain think to get you to think it would be balanced? - Teacher I don’t know because I didn’t ask my brain - Josianne

I agree with Sabrina because I was thinking it will balance - Josianne And what made you think that? - Teacher Because, I think it will be balanced - Josianne Ms. Wright thought that Josianne’s answer might reflect her limited proficiency with English. She asked a colleague to work one on one with Josianne to try to determine whether she could explain her reasoning. All of Josianne’s answers were given first in Creole and then in English

Ask your brain about Why does it have to balance - Teacher Because I make multiplication in my head! I say, here it’s two, and this five, two times five here and three time three is nine plus the one point is ten.” - Josianne Josianne had clearly known the reasoning behind her answer all along but had not understood what the teacher was asking her to explain.

When Ms. Wright’s colleague asked her why she didn’t explain “all that multiplication stuff” in the first place, Josianne responded, “I didn’t understand your question.”

•

What’s instructive in this example?

6. Modeling and Representation

Representation

Models • Essential and inseparable part of scientific activity ďƒź Scientists Make thinking visible with models Invent, revise, contest models Build and test theories • Ways to think about the natural world

• Students do not recognize  Relationships and separations between the real world and models Abstraction, simplification for better understand a particular part

Modeling • •    

Construction and testing of representations Forms of symbolic representations Graphs Tables Mathematical expressions Diagrams

•   

A key concept for students to understand Models are not meant to be exact copies Models are deliberate simplifications of more complex systems No model is completely accurate

• In modeling air molecules with air Puppies  Air molecules  Move constantly without intention  Air Puppies

Air Puppies represent air molecules Dots depict Air Puppies

Students need guidance in recognizing • What characteristics are included in a model • Which aspects of Air Puppies are useful for understanding  How air molecules work • How this helps further their understanding  How a system works When first introduced to the Air Puppies model • Students often ask  Do Air Puppies breathe air?  Do they sleep?  Do they die?”

Mathematics • Mathematics provides scientists to ďƒź Sharing, communicating, understanding science concepts ďƒź Understanding science ideas Space and geometry, measurement, data and uncertainty

• Measurement  Ubiquitous part of the scientific enterprise  Educators overestimate children’s understanding of measurement

• Students are usually taught  Procedures for measuring  Rarely taught a theory of measure  Fail to understand Measurement entails the use of repeated constant units Repeated constant units can be partitioned  Believe measuring with rulers Merely entails counting the units between boundaries Holds boundary-filling conception of measurement

•

Shoots and roots grow at the same rate?

• Students noticed immediately  Rates of growth were not the same  Curves for both the roots and the shoots showed the same S-shape

Data • • •

Observation is the process of gathering data Central in science Stand for concrete events Artemisia annua save millions of lives throughout the world

• Required to build models • Recorded and structured

•    

Data may take many forms: Linear distance may be represented by a number of standard units Video recording can stand in for an observation of human interaction Bar graph of height may provide a quick visual sense of heights Thermometer represent a heat

•    

Collection of data often requires the use of tools Microscope Ruler Pan balance Interface and sensor

• Students  Need help to understanding the purpose of tool and measurement  In using pan balance Accustom to sensory observations of weight Confuse using one object to determine the weight of another

• Students often fail ďƒź Consider more than one relation present Weight are disadvantageous to survival Weight of adult finches is likely to be a nonlinear relation Number of weights in the middle are fewer than both ends

Scale Models, Diagrams, and Maps •   

Scale models Visualize objects which cannot observe or handle directly Extremely large and small-scale models often pose serious challenges for students Solar system, are widely used in science education

• Middle school students may struggle to work out the positional relationships of the earth, the sun, and the moon ďƒź Change over days and months

Diagrams • Sometime difficult to understand  Desired information is missing  Not appear in a familiar or recognizable context

Create confusion common misconception that the earth is closer to the sun in the summer than in the winter •

• Maps ďƒź Challenging to understand Preserve relative position and distance Omit or alter features of the actual landscape

Modeling and Learning Progressions In a study involving biological growth Characteristic shifts in the understanding of modeling  Early elementary: A focus on difference  Middle elementary: A focus on ratio  Late elementary: A focus on distribution - Lehrer and Schauble observed •

• Young student try to create models  Closely resemble real or known objects  Paper strips be adorned with flowers • Repeatedly attention on differences in the lengths of the strips  Students began to make the conceptual transition  From strips to height

• First-Grade Representations  A display with detailed drawings of individual plants that include flowers and colors  Displays of plant height depicted in bar graphs

• Third-Grade Representations ďƒź A display of plant height over time depicted in an S-shaped curve.

• Diversity in types of students’ representations increased  New question emerged Growth of roots and shoots the same or different?

Growth of two different plant parts take the same form on the graph?

Growth of the roots and shoots the fastest?

What was the functional significance of those periods of rapid growth?

•

Students became competent at using a variety of representational forms as models.

• Fifth-Grade Representations  Students explored relationships between growth factors different food sources • Students’ ability to use different forms of representation grew  Focus on the diversity of characteristics within populations Circumference, weight, and days to pupation

Students learn to use representations Progressive from symbol to mathematic • Teachers need to encourage this process over multiple grades •

Science Class Representing data • Students had previously  Assigned to seven working teams of three to four students each  Worked to construct a data display that they believed would support answers • Fifth-grade classroom in which students are studying species variation.  Tracked the growth of Wisconsin Fast Plants over a period of 19 days  Graphed with the best way to represent their data  Posted a list of unordered measures that the students had taken over the previous 18 days on chart paper at the front of the class

• Asked students to consider two questions:  How organize the data in a way to show height on the 19th day  How spread out the data on this day • Teacher asked to invent displays  Rather than assigning student particular data displays  Push to wrestle with the notion of typicality and articulate their understanding through creating and critiquing data displays  Force to grapple with the intervals between data and sampling distribution

• Developed a scale to include all the observed heights of the plants • Drew lines to representing the height of each plant, ordered from the shortest to the tallest

• • • •

Ordered the values from lowest to highest Stack the values when occurred multiple times Ran out of room along the bottom of the page Placed the remaining four values on the upper left

• Values in ascending order from left to right • Starting at the top left and moving down the page in rows, with repeated values stacked together

• The students’ solutions were surprisingly varied  Over the next two days, students debated the advantages of their representational choices  Mr. Rohling assigned pairs of students to present displays  Not easily or simply adopt conventions suggested by others  Long process of negotiation, tuning, and eventually convergence

• Supporting Good Data Collection

7. Learning from Science Investigations

34% of students failed their course under traditional lecturing, compared to 22% of students under active learning National Academy of Sciences.

Investigations • Pursuit of scientific answers • Typically unfold over several weeks or months • Students engage in practices similar to real scientist  Posing scientific questions  Using data to examine complex phenomena  Generating explanations to account for their observations

Investigations process • Thinking • Planning • Conducting • Analyzing and concluding • Explaining and publishing • Evaluating and assessing • Integrating ICT

Investigations activities • Difficult even professional scientists  access to well-resourced labs  access to complex social networks • Persuasive evidence  when classrooms function to support real scientific practice students’ understanding of science can flourish

Simply doing science investigations activities • Often leaves an inaccurate sense  what science is  how science works earning scientific explanations generating scientific evidence reflecting on scientific knowledge participating in the social processes of science • Scientific investigations requires careful and consistent instructional efforts

Creating Meaningful Problems Science investigation are complex and compelling problems • Students see the problem as meaningless  little chance to engage in the scientific practices • Problems must be meaningful both discipline and student

Scientifically meaningful problems • Framed by core concepts • Typically focus on the smaller concepts within core ideas Students may be less motivated when investigation is not easily linked to • Students’ experiences • Students’ existing knowledge • Students’ familiar issues

Slime: A new way to protect plants from slugs

Grey garden slug chows down on all kinds of young garden plants • Katie found these slugs are territorial Means they try to keep other slugs away from favorite menu items • Katie hypothesized Slugs marked territories with mucus Mucus to deter slugs from her plants • To test the idea Collected slugs from garden Purchased strawberry plants........

The software developed by Han sourced data from publicly available databases to examine characteristics across different mutations of BRCA1, a gene that helps to suppress tumors.

Han's software was able to learn how to differentiate between mutations that cause disease and those that do not with an 81 percent accuracy rate.

Recently researchers results • Sequence lessons Investigate over the course of several weeks or months gradually build students’ knowledge and skill over time

Sequencing Meaningful Instruction

Traditional approach to sequencing investigations • Teach the content related to the investigation first • Do the investigation in order to validate the content

• Fails to give why a particular investigative strategy is being used for particular problem • Emphasizes the false dichotomy between content and process • Leaving students “scientific practice is algorithmic or procedural” • Fails to recognize the importance of  Reflecting on scientific knowledge over the course of an investigation  Role of peers in building scientific arguments

Sequencing investigations : Struggle for Survival • • • •

Six- to seven-week classroom science investigation Supports the learning of core evolutionary concepts Biology Guided Inquiry Learning Environments (BGuILE) project Unit is designed to support the learning of core concepts in evolutionary biology

Students engage in BGuILE project • Understanding through reading • Posing questions • Data analysis • Presentation • Debate

BGuILE project • Using software that depicts a drought • Learn background information about the island • Students investigate how the drought affects the animal and plant populations on the island • Examine quantitative data about the characteristics of the island’s species at various times

Sequencing a Unit on Natural Selection Four Phases of Learning Phase 1 General Staging Activities(10 classes) • Probing students’ existing knowledge • Providing knowledge about ecosystems and theory of natural selection • Building student motivation Phase 2 Background for Investigations(5 classes) • Learn about the Galapagos Islands and methods scientists use to study ecosystems • Generate initial hypotheses and learn about the computer system they will use in the major investigation

Phase 3 Software Investigations(10 classes) • Explore the data set • Generate explanations for observed patterns of change in the finch populations • Critique the explanations of their classmates Phase 4 Presenting and Discussing Findings(6 classes) • Prepare reports • Present findings • Analyze key points of agreement and disagreement

Inter-connectedness of Curricula, Skills & Competencies and Motivations that energize teacher and learner alike

Constructing and Defending Explanations The science curriculum in most school focuses narrowly • Collection of scientific findings • Experiments with predetermined steps and findings • Investigations take the form of activity mania • Students complete activities Lack purpose and input from teachers

Productive investigations • Not sequentially scripted, not simply unfold, not unguided • But structured and regulated by the teacher Teacher plays an active role in the investigative experience •   

Teachers work Make student activity Build social interaction that supports cognitive processes Focus their efforts on pushing students’ thinking about science toward increasingly sophisticated levels

Investigating and Questioning Our World through Science and Technology (IQWST) • •    

Project-based scientific inquiry Learn complex scientific ideas by engaging in practices Working with models Constructing explanations Engaging in argumentation and debate Analyzing data

Framework of IQWST includes three components: • Claim : What happened, and why did it happen?

• Evidence : What information or data support the claim?

• Reasoning : What justification shows why the data count as evidence to support the claim?

Science Class Two week project Students investigate a database holding information about the finch population on the Galapagos Islands.

Students work in pairs interpret the computer data and determine • Why so many finches died during the dry season of 1977 • Why some were able to survive Excerpt from a student group presentation • Evan: The question is: in 1977, why did 40 percent of the finch population die in the Galapagos Islands, and why did the ones that survive?

• Leona: There were 167 centimeters of rainfall in the wet season of 1976, but there were only 20 centimeters of rainfall in the wet season of 1977 The lack of rainfall caused a decrease in plant life This is the chart that shows  Wet season in 1977 there were 20 portulaca seeds  Dry season in 1977 there were none  Wet season of 1978 and went back up to 380 seeds

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Evan: What we did next was approximately 61 percent overweight finches survived the drought only 40 percent underweight finches survived the drought overweight finches tended to be male underweight finches tended to be female

Scripting Student Roles Students’ engage in scientific investigations is to define and assign particular roles for students to play during portions of the investigation Case study, learners are taught and assigned particular roles to play during an investigation

Science Class Differentiating mass and density Wilson, public school teacher in the South Bronx • Used a software program called Modeling with Dots • Unit on mass and density  box represents a volume unit  dot represents a mass unit  number of dots per box represents the density of the

• Students engaged in some preliminary baseline activities ďƒź Making predictions about objects plastic spoon apple piece of graphite

• Assign rotating procedural roles reporter, scribe, and poster designer •   

Students in the audience were assigned checking predictions and theories checking summaries of results assessing the relationship among predictions, theories, and results

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Three important intellectual practices in science predicting and theorizing summarizing results relating predictions and theories to results

Question chart • Checking predictions and theories, What were some of your predictions?

Can you support your prediction with a theory?

Is your theory intelligible, plausible, and fruitful?

• Checking summaries of results, the student might ask: I’m not completely clear on what you found.

Can you explain your evidence more clearly?

• Relating predictions, theories, and results, the questions read: Did you find what you originally predicted?

Did your results support your theory?

What evidence do you have that supports or challenges your theory?

For instance, why the wood floats? Why did you predict that the wood would float? - T Because I’ve seen it float - Deana Explanation of why something would sink or float? - T I think it is - Dean: You think it is? Can you say more about that? - T Because if you’ve seen it before, then it’s a theory - Deana

Wait, Our experience doesn’t explain why something happens? - Jody [Christina waves her hand.]

Christina, do you have something to add? - T A theory is why something happened - Christina It’s not just a guess or a prediction.

I know what a theory is. A theory is like all wood floats - Cale: That means all wood has to float or else your theory is wrong.

Okay, so let me see if I’ve got what you’re saying. You’re saying that ‘all wood floats’ is a theory? - T Yep, a theory that’s been proven right. - Caleb Does that tell me why wood floats though? - T Uh, not really. - Caleb

Some of us have seen in our experiments that wood floats. We have evidence that wood floats. But why does wood float? What makes it float? Can you give us a theory? - T My theory is that you can trap air underneath the wood - Caleb “Your theory isn’t really intelligible to me I don’t get what you mean by ‘wood traps air underneath it Actually, it’s not really plausible to me either It’s not like a cup or anything, so how would wood do that?

Do you have any evidence to support that theory?

Did you see air bubbles?

Or did you just come up with that theory from your mind? - Elinor I just sort of flashed on it. But I like it. I mean it might have something to do with air.” - Caleb

In the Science Class • Students playing roles in a presentation • Christina pushed Deana to add an explanation to her prediction • Later, as Caleb asserted that all wood floats, • With the support of a teacher  Who understand how to play meaningful roles in scientific discussion  Students successfully work on clarifying, supporting, and refining their ideas

Science Class Looking at our Scientific Thinking Sister Hennessey, a science teacher in a small, rural school • First-grade classroom, a large, transparent container of water is placed on an overhead projector • Students are asked to predict what they think will happen when various objects are placed in the water • The objects in question are two stones—a small granite stone, and a large pumice stone • The students did not have the opportunity to handle the stones prior to the demonstration

T: Would anyone like to predict what he or she thinks will happen to these stones?

Brianna: I think both stones will sink, because I know stones sink. I’ve seen lots of stones sink, and every time I throw a stone into the water, it always sinks.

T: You look like you want to say something else.

Brianna: The water can’t hold up stones like it holds up boats, so I know the stones will sink.

T: You sound so sure, let me try another object.

Brianna: No, you have to throw it in, you have to test my idea first.

She reveals her current thinking about how that particular stone will behave in the water, based on her past experience

[T places a small stone in the tank; it sinks.]

Brianna: See, I told you it would sink.

[T puts aside a larger stone and picks up another object.]

Brianna: No, you have to test the big one, too, because if the little one sunk, the big one’s going to sink, too.

[T places the larger stone in the tank and it floats.]

Brianna: No! No! [Brianna shakes her head.] That doesn‘t go with my mind. That just doesn’t go with my mind.

Brianna’s reaction to having the larger stone float indicates that she is aware that the outcome is anomalous, and that this anomaly is inconsistent with her current view of both water and stones.

Essay class in Sister Hennessey • Assessment process in class • Assigned task was to focus on “the element of change” in her thinking  Do you think your ideas about force or forces acting on various objects have changed?  If so, in what way have your ideas changed?  Why do you think your ideas have changed?

Book on the table(essay of student) In the past I thought only 1 force, and that force was gravity I couldn’t see that something that wasn’t living could push back I thought that this push back force wasn’t a real force but just an in the way force or an outside influence on the book

However, my ideas have changed since the beginning of this year. Sr. Hennessey helped me to see the difference between the macroscopic level and the microscopic level.

I found out that I had no trouble thinking about two balanced forces.

Balanced forces are needed to produce constant velocity.

The book on the table has a velocity of zero; that means it has a steady pace of zero I have expanded my mind to more complicated ideas! Like molecules in a table can have an effect on a book, that balanced forces and unbalanced forces are a better way of explaining the cause of motion

Strategies for Teaching How to Construct Scientific Knowledge Teaching for conceptual change focus • Making students aware of their initial ideas • Encouraging them to apply new understandings in different contexts • Providing time for students to discuss the nature of learning and the nature of science • Promoting metacognitive understanding • Engaging students with deep domain-specific core concepts

Pedagogical Practices • Helping understand, test, and revise ideas • Establishing a classroom community that negotiates meaning and builds knowledge • Increasing students’ responsibility for directing important aspects of their own inquiry

Student roles • Taking responsibility for representing ideas • Working to develop ideas • Monitoring the status of ideas • Considering the reasoning underlying specific beliefs • Deciding on ways to test specific beliefs • Assessing the consistency among ideas • Examining how well these ideas extend to new situations

8. A System That Supports Science Learning

System Supports Science Learning • • • • • • • • •

Teacher preparation program Teachers Opportunities to Learn Curriculum Books Headmaster School District Administration Offices Partnership etc

What it takes to teach and learn science effectively Today students different than 20 or 30 years ago • Bring a strong foundation of knowledge and skills  Prior experience and learning  Interpretation of observations • Emotionally attached to their worldviews  Will not give up their worldviews easily  Never challenged by an exam, experiment, or homework problem • Can do complex reasoning  Apply their thinking to a particular scientific domain  Can work collaboratively with classmates and teachers

• In medicine there's a term iatrogenic disease • In education there's a similar phenomena  Teacher and textbook-caused misconceptions didaktikogenic misconceptions The two leading causes of death are 1. Heart disease and 2. Cancer.

3. Iatrogenic illness.

Iatros = Physician Genic = to cause

• Define inconsistently in different situations W = mg at the surface of the earth Astronaut said that he experience the weightlessness

Gravitational force at that height (200 miles) is only about 6% less than at the earth's surface

• Misidentified Consider a book lying on a table. The reason it doesn't fall through the table is because the table exerts an upward force on the book equal to the book's weight

That's the way all the books were: They said things that were useless, mixedup, ambiguous, confusing, and partially incorrect. How anybody can learn science from these books, I don't know, because it's not science. —Feynman, in "Surely you're Joking, Mr. Feynman" My students prefer an incorrect explanation they can understand rather than a correct one they can't understand. —High school chemistry teacher

Typical practices in today’s science classrooms • Based on an outdated understanding of how children learn • Not reflect the most recent findings regarding effective science teaching and learning • Not build on the core ideas of science in a progressive • Cover too many disparate topics in a superficial manner

New knowledge about science learning • Standards should be revised to stress core scientific concepts • Curricula should enable these goals  Instruction engage in Understanding Scientific Explanations Generating Scientific Evidence Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge Participating Productively in Science  Assessments provide Teachers and students with timely feedback  Teacher preparation program should focus on Understanding how students learn science Helping teachers understand core scientific concepts how they connect

Good teaching •   

What is Be challenged to think about the natural world in different ways Be guided in building explanations and supporting claims Be presented challenging and well-designed problems Meaningful from both a scientific standpoint and a personal standpoint

• Why need  To understanding and mastery of scientific ideas and practices

Many ways to build teachers’ knowledge • School-level efforts • University or museum based courses • Teacher study groups, and mentoring

Case Rosa Parks Community School Nearly 900 students in pre-K through grade 8 More than 80% of the students received free or reduced-price lunches More than 40% spoke a language other than English at home Students’ abilities in science varied widely • Decide to make science learning a primary focus of their school improvement plan • Work together to change how they teach science • Focus more attention on student learning  How students learn  What supports student learning  Examining student work and performance

Teachers are working together • None of the teachers majored in the sciences in college  Only a few took advanced science or mathematics courses in undergraduates  Wary of teaching science  Not easy creating a confident, fearless staff of teachers

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Working together To deepen their knowledge To create linked instructional activities Follow the school district’s science standards • Learn from planning lessons together?

• Foster effective teacher collaboration?

• Learn from mentoring a new teacher?

• Create grade by grade learning trajectories  Physics—the nature and structure of matter  Life sciences —biodiversity, biological variation, and change within and across populations.

Purpose of the "ins and outs" as described in the video?

Principal •   

Wants teaching science both challenging and fun Teachers trust her and feel comfortable sharing problems with her Former special-needs teacher and science coordinator for the school Considers as important as getting the right answer Questioning Theorizing Modeling Collecting data Examining evidence Changing one’s mind important

• See teachers as investigators and learners • Focus on a few central science concepts in faculty meetings  Try to master a few key concepts than covering many concepts superficially at a fast pace.  Built a coherent and increasingly sophisticated set of units around a central concept in science

• Principal proposed the monthly faculty meetings ďƒź Science breakfasts, plus afterschool science symposium per month

Study groups meeting and entire faculty meeting Provide a chance to communicate with colleagues Source of serious new learning or a means of translating research into practice Present both problems and successes to each other Compare notes Focusing on a multi week unit, examining what their students know and can do in each successive grade  Track what worked and what didn’t, sharing materials and techniques • Read articles and curriculum reports • Share reactions to new curricula, standards • • • • 

Body of knowledge • Knowledge of science • Knowledge of how students learn science • Knowledge of how to teach science effectively

Knowledge of Science • Two recurrent patterns in undergraduate science curricula  Tend to emphasize conceptual and factual knowledge  Process and results are clearly spelled out Rarely emphasizes reflection on scientific and participation in science • Teacher knows about science  Influences the quality of instruction  Effect on the success and type of discussions

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Teachers’ view Science narrowly as a body of facts Scientific practice as an application of a sequential scientific method Superficial knowledge of science

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Why Inadequate undergraduate courses Inadequate teacher education programs Insufficient professional development opportunities

Teacher •  • •

Have Level of knowledge number of science courses, degrees, certificates Know teach science Know how students learn

How students learn science • Common beliefs  Not able to reason abstractly and so should learn about science as observation (not theory building)  Science content and process should be isolated and taught discretely  Student's ideas about the natural world are primarily misconceptions  Immersing in unstructured exploration and investigation will teach them scientific principles and concepts

• Effective teaching requires  Understand students’ cognitive, linguistic, and emotional resources Students use language and other representations of their thinking to communicate and build knowledge Out-of-school experiences influence their thinking about science

Knowing how to teach science effectively • Scientist  Understand scientific theory and its historical origins  Investigate in his or her field  Need not know how to convey scientific knowledge to student

• Teachers  Know the subject matter  Know how to teach the subject matter

Providing opportunities to learn • Teachers learn  Experiences in the classroom  Interactions with colleagues •   

Teachers develop Knowledge of science Knowledge of student learning How to teach science effectively

Types of support teachers need to teach science well • High-quality curriculum or supplementary materials • Means to teachers questions answered (texts, colleagues, outside experts) • Time and support to work through science tasks as learners • Opportunity to explore a variety of materials and experience problems that students might have • Time to think about and assess the knowledge their students bring to class

• Partnership between University and School ďƒź Provide research-based learning opportunities for teachers

 Support R&E programs  Support Advanced Placement (AP) Credit program  Support commissioned instructor training course analysis and revisions of inquiry-oriented curriculum knowledge for teaching - help children construct big ideas  Support international and domestic exchange program  Sharing an educational environment

• Professional development opportunities ďƒź Invest in the resources of specialized science educators

• Educational Administrators  Important role in encouraging teachers, students, curriculum and assessment professionals, teacher educators  Critical role in creating the space, time and incentives  Create a school community that actively supports science  Build understanding of what early adopters are doing and encourage others to join and support them

Science teaching and learning •    

Classrooms today Pose good questions Find ways to explore those questions Investigate and evaluate alternative models Argue their points of view

• Diverse student and gaps in science achievement  Come to school with a strong foundation of basic reasoning skills, knowledge of the natural world, and innate curiosity  Goal of scientific proficiency for all students may seem difficult to achieve • To tap into these  Teachers need to be willing and able to acquire or deepen their science content knowledge  Teachers need to be supported to take calculated risks in embracing instructional approaches that have been shown to benefit all students

Much work still needs to be done to identify the best ways describe in this book But enough is known now begin to move forward in the right direction Research has shown how much students can achieve in effective science learning environments It has shown us what science education can and should be where it needs to go ď ś So let’s get going! Ready, set, science!