Teaching Science 2.0

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.)

You can add audio to a presentation by creating a Slidecast at Slideshare.

Here is a screencast (using Jing) that shows how to do it. It takes a little work to get comfortable and takes some time for uploading and processing. However, I think it has a ton of classroom applications.

Here is an example Slidecast.

| View | Upload your own

You can use Audacity or Gcast to create the audio.

Children’s books can be used in many ways during instruction.  They can engage students, get kids started asking questions, or be a content resource. However, it can be difficult to find books at just the right reading level for your topic.  Scholastic’s  new “Teacher Books Wizard” widget can help.  Try it out-