Teaching Science 2.0

Science makes the assumption that the natural world can be understood by using evidence from the natural world.  Scientists create explanations for natural phenomena by interpreting evidence.  The stronger the supporting evidence, the better the explanation!

According to the U.S. National Research Council, the following five features are at the core of teaching through science inquiry:

1. Learners are engaged by scientifically oriented questions.
2. Learners give priority to evidence, which allows them to develop and evaluate explanations that address scientifically oriented questions.
3. Learners formulate explanations from evidence to address scientifically oriented questions.
4. Learners evaluate their explanations in light of alternative explanations, particularly those reflecting scientific understanding.
5. Learners communicate and justify their proposed explanations.

At the core of this, is the creation of evidence-based explanations. These explanations should go beyond a simple conclusion that reports data. Students need to be given frequent opportunities to create evidence-based explanations and evaluate explanations to determine if they are supported by evidence.

The following mini case study is an example of how you can focus students on creating evidence-based explanations.  The case study is Inspired by the Student Self-Test for Chapter 1 of Oxford Big Ideas Science  (ISBN 978 0 19 556715 1, Oxford University Press Australia).

Explanations, Evidence, and Cane Toads

An average cane toad can grow to the size of a softball. Adults have poison glands located behind their eyes and tadpoles are highly poisonous to most animals. Females will lay thousands of eggs. Cane toads have a huge appetite and, unlike most toads, will eat both living and dead matter. Cane toads can recognize their food by smell, but most often identifies prey through motion.  Cane toads’ main diets consists of insects, but they also eat small rodents, amphibians, reptiles, small birds, plants, dog food, and household trash.

The cane toad gets its name because it was commonly used to eliminate pests in sugar cane fields.  Although it is originally from Central America and northern parts of South America, the toad was used in the 1800’s and early 1900’s throughout the Carribean and Australia as a way to control beetles and other pests ravaging farmers’ fields.  Since the skin of adult toads are poisonous to many predators in these areas, they are now considered invasive species.

A Sydney University professor and his student, studying captive cane toads, noticed that they exhibited cannibalistic tendencies.  They observed adults wiggling their toes when around young toads. When the young toads hopped towards them, the adults would eat the youth!  Based on these observations, the scientists developed a laboratory investigation. Adult and young toads were separated by clear glass so they could not eat each other (ethical investigation). They observed that the young toads only approached adult toads that wiggled the middle toe on their hind feet.

Task: There is a lot of information (data) in these three paragraphs.  Scientists go beyond simply reporting observations by creating evidence-based explanations for what they are seeing.

1. Summarize the important data from the text.
2. Write an explanation that explains they scientists’ observations.  Make sure you support your explanation with evidence from your data in #1.  Go beyond a simple reporting!

The Edublogger has a great list of example classroom blogs.  Here are a few to get you started.  See the whole list here.

• Marvelous Math with Mrs. Rose - Math Specialist for elementary schools in our district in Connecticut, USA
• 6th Grade Science and Social Studies - 6th grade science and social studies, Texas USA
• Maths Space - Early Years students during maths centres time as an independent work stationd
• Mr. Borges and the Blog Squad - Gr. 7/8 Special Ed. Class (math and English), ON Canada
• Mr. Jorgensen’s Blog - Grade 8 (ages 13/14) Primarily a science blog but also used for a class of language arts
• Ms. Martino’s Algebra Class Blog - Grade 8, NV USA
• JRO Physics - Physics Classes Year 7-12 UK?
• Mr. Macs Class - Arkansas, USA
• Reflections from our classroom - Biology/Science, Grade 9/10, USA

Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge Production in a Digital Age: John Seely Brown from carnegie commons on Vimeo.

http://commons.carnegiefoundation.org/views/?p=3

From Crappy Graphs:

Effective instruction should introduce new science concepts using an “activity before content” approach.  After actively exploring ideas, reading comprehension strategies can be used to help students connect these ideas to scientific concepts. The January 2009 issue of NSTA’s Science Scope magazine has a great article about using reading comprehension strategies to promote science learning.  Wardrip and Tobey describe how to use a variety of strategies to help students understand mechanical weathering of rocks.  Here are brief descriptions of a few of the strategies that they used.

Pre-reading: Before reading, students should identify (activate) their prior knowledge.  The teacher should also use discussion to preview the reading so that students know the purpose of the text and what they are expected to learn from the text.

Annotation: The authors state that reading with questions in mind, especially their own question, gives a sense of purpose for reading.  This can be facilitated in textbook style readings by identifying section headings.  Students change the heading into a question (Using who, what, where, when, why, or how as question starters). Next, students underline details from the text that help them answer the questions.  Ideally, students should then record the question and their answer in their notes. Students can also circle new words (vocabulary) and construct definitions in the margins or their notes.

EXAMPLE
Header: Mechanical weathering produces physical changes in rocks.
Question: How does weathering change rocks?

T-charts / double entry journals: A T-chart is a type of graphic organizer.  In this article, the teachers had students create a T-chart that included the causes of mechanical weathering (ie: ice wedging, pressure release, plant root growth, abrasion), a description of each type of weathering, and a drawing to illustrate each type.

Summaries: After reading, it is important for students to summarize the text in their own words.  If you use the questioning technique described above, students can write a summary paragraph(s) as answers to their questions.  Alternatively, students can write a summary based on teacher supplied questions or write a “minute paper” on the topic.  In addition to helping students synthesize the information from the text, this summary can be used as an assessment of student understanding.

Here are two additional strategies that I like-

Two Words, Two Sentences: This strategy requires that either the teacher or student sections the text into “chunks” of a paragraph or two.  After reading, the student creates a two word title and writes a two sentence summary for each chunk.

3-2-1: This is a flexible strategy that can easily be used with chunks of text.  In general, students identify 3 things they learned, 2 things they found particularly interesting, and 1 question they have after reading the text.  The 3-2-1 strategy can be modified based on the purpose of reading the text.  For example, if students are reading to learn about plant and animal cells, you could ask students to identify 3 similarities between plant and animal cells, 2 differences, and 1 question that they have.

Additional Resources:

• Reading Strategies: Scaffolding Students Interactions with Text
• The Clarifying Routine: Elaborating Vocabulary Instruction

Exposing students to high quality non-fiction is critical to fostering a love of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The journal, Science Books & Films, reviews print and non-print materials in science for all age groups.  Additionally, each year they award SB&F prize for Excellence in Science Books.  This prize is given in four categories (Children’s Picture Books, Middle Grades Science Book, Young Adult Science Book, and Hands-On Science Book) that are very useful for K-12 educators.

Last spring, I worked with Tim Gerber (UWL Department of Biology) to expose K-8 preservice teachers to many of these books through a Mock SB&F Prize project.  During this project, preservice teachers read and evaluated each book in a category (either Children’s Picture Book or Middle Grades Science Book).  Small groups of preservice teachers then came to consensus on the book that they felt was the best.  This same model can be used to engage middle school students in reading high-quality “STEM” non-fiction while improving reading comprehension skills..  Modifications to the evaluation rubric could also allow this model to be used with elementary students.  An overview of the Mock SB&F Prize model was published in the September / October 2008 issue of Science Books & Films.

“Discourse in science, mathematics, and technology calls for the ability to communicate ideas and share information with fidelity and clarity and to read and listen with understanding.” This quote taken from Science For All Americans (p. 192), which contains a series of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education recommendations produced by Project 2061 (http://www.project2061.org/publications/sfaa/online/sfaatoc.htm), succinctly identifies the importance of communication in the STEM disciplines. The development of these communication skills should begin early in the elementary years and progress throughout life. To assist students in developing these skills, K-12 teachers should be able to effectively evaluate quality STEM trade books and educational materials. This article describes the development of a Mock Science Books and Films (SB&F) Election project as a mechanism for improving elementary / middle level pre-service teacher’s abilities to evaluate STEM non-fiction.

• Read the entire article
• Get rubrics and details for the Mock SB&F Prize project.
• See previous winners and finalists for the SB&F Prize.

A great quote to think about–

“A teacher that can be replaced by a computer should be.”

— Arthur C. Clarke

Measurement is an important concept and skill in both math and science.  In elementary school, students are expected to be able to measure distances (and length, width, etc.), weight, volume, time, etc.  They are asked to measure in both standards (ie: feet, meters, pounds, etc.) and non-standard (ie: paperclips, straws, pennies, etc) units.  In middle and high school, students are expected to be able to make precise measurements, use a variety of units, and convert between units.

Next time you teach your students about measuring, use the story of the Smoot!

Teachers often struggle with engaging students in deep discussions about content.  The typical dialogue pattern is – teacher asks, one student responds, teacher confirms, teacher asks the next question.

Student learning is increased when they are given a larger voice in the discussion.  One strategy for doing this is the “Volleyball Technique.”  This technique is described in Page Keeley’s book, Science Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning.

In this technique, the teacher “serves” a question. Several students respond to the question as if “setting the ball” up for each other.  Eventually, the “ball” goes back to the teacher who “serves” up the next question.

When you first start using this technique, it is helpful to have a SOFT prop.

Teaching should be about building on student’s ideas.  Here is a great “opinion” article fro Matthew Kay, a teacher at Philly’s Science Leadership Academy.

I really liked this excerpt about helping students to open up and share their ideas.

So it is with the inquiry based learning that we model for the other schools in Philadelphia. Our ninth graders come to us shy about asking questions that are often scattered and incoherent. When encouraged, they open up, and then incessantly offer their ideas. (I illustrate this for all classes on the first full day of every year, when I put a big rubber ball under my shirt and pretend to give laborious birth to it. We name this child “my idea.” I pass it around nervously, and when someone drops it, I snatch it up and curl into the fetal position. They laugh. I eventually get over my shock and learn to trust again, slowly passing it, then throwing it around the room for everyone to touch. There are two morals: first, you can’t protect your idea forever, and second, our ideas grow when, by dialogue and debate, others are allowed to get their fingerprints on them.)