January 30, 2013
Inquiritize your Teaching!!
Who is a scientist?? What makes a scientist???
We are all scientists!! Especially our curious
little children!!
Science is social: hands-on,
trial and error, guessing / predictions (educated observations, use of prior
knowledge)
Some in class experiments:
- • Film canister with mystery items inside. Students must use their senses to guess which of the listed items (and how many items) are inside their canister. Students are then given the opportunity to recreate their canister with the items they believe to be inside their canisters. (Trial and Error!!)
-
• “Wonder Stew”- Questions- Household items create a chemical reaction that would extinguish a lit match that is held over the stew. (vinegar and baking soda- the order of how the ingredients are added does matter)
In-Class Notes:
- § Cookbook lab work: materials, directions (the traditional science lessons and experiments that we are used to conducting. Versus=
- § Inquiry Base: allows students to create their own science notebook. Students form questions and answer them by providing evidence.
- § Post-teach vocabulary: (anchor)
- § Hands-on does not necessary = inquiry based
- § Inquiry based instruction is an Attitude
- § Nature of Science: is based on evidence, exploration for explanation, interested solely in the natural world, knowledge is tentative (must change with evidence, simple explanations are the best explanations, science is social.
- § Science is a set of ideas/ a process/ a set of attitudes
- § Picture science- involves models (cars, 3-D cells, viewable models)
- § The 5 E's:
- Explore
phase- explore-able question (it is possible to make alterations to almost
any science lesson in order to make it an Inquiry Based lesson.)
- Engage
Phase- (engage after explore) focus students on the explore-able question and
how the investigation will attempt to provide answers.
- Explain
Phase- begin a discussion of student results.
- Extend
and Apply Phase- relate newly acquired knowledge to prior
knowledge
- Evaluation
Phase-
Important Safety Rules to Review with Students:
• Can I
smell it? – “waft” wave hand to get smell to you.
• Can I
taste it?
• Can I
touch it?
• What do
you do if you are scared and you are going to drop _______ ? (Where is a safe
place to drop the mixture, flame, etc.)
Reading Notes:
Young Questioners***
- • How can we develop and support questioning skills in students?
- practice
while reading stories- ask students what so you predict will happen next? Then
model “I wonder if Ned is going to be able to get to the party?”
- give a
set time for thinking- question board- Journal pages where students post
questions for future consideration
- “you can
really find out about things when you ask questions and try to answer them.”
• How do you Know That? ***
- “build observation skills, develop a knowledge base, and practice age appropriate science skills like comparing, describing, and drawing
- • National Science Ed. Standards – recommend that students engage in scientific inquiry (NRC 2000).
- use
direct observations of animals as primary source of evidence
- grouped
ideas into categories then, as a class, compose and analyze how the scientific
terms used to describe what they observed meant the same thing as their
observations ex: “protection” = “to keep from being eaten”, stay out of the
wind”, and “to find a home.” Students learn how one word means so much.
- Study
“humans” as animals- create categories- humans basic needs water, food, air,
protection.
Ø How do
you know that? What makes you think that way?
- Evidence
is important for the students’ answers: Teachers then paraphrase their
knowledge/ shared info from class
Ø Ex:
little girl says that clothes provide protection for humans because one time
she went outside without sleeves on and she got sunburned.
- use this
same process for studying a variety of animals/ creatures
- • When studying snails- the students made claims as if they were facts due to their preconceptions (incorrect info)
- Ex: “the
snails sucked the food into their shell and ate it inside”
- Teacher
response: “how do you know that?” and directs the students back to using observations
as source of evidence.
- • This is an example of how to "hold students scientifically accountable for their explanations without simply correcting their ideas” (22).
- • While the students observed/ analyzed they said the biggest snail was the daddy snail.
- Teacher asks:
Why do you think that?
- Student:
Because he is the biggest?
- T: and
you think boys are bigger than girls?
- S: yes.
- T: Well I
am a girl, and I am bigger than you”
- S: Well
you are older.
- T: So
could we maybe say that the snail may be the oldest of the group? ….
- • Conversation/ questions led students to ask/state that they “need to know” how to tell a female and male snail apart in order to determine if the biggest snail is indeed a “daddy snail”…. Students learn that they need evidence in order to find the correct answer.
- • With practice and guidance, students adjust to using evidence-based answers during science time.
- • Learning through inquiry
“Inquirize” Your Teaching***
•
- You can shape/mold any science lesson to encourage inquiry
- begin
with an explore-able question that is appropriate for the lesson
- The 5 E’s
Science Stories: ***
- • “By cultivating scientific attitudes, we can help students improve their abilities to explore a problem from many perspectives, confer with their classmates and their teacher, and become knowledge builders and meaning makers” (Koch, 7).
- • Key Tenets of Constructivist Theory:
- “basic to
constructivism is the idea that all knowledge is constructed. This means that knowledge
is not passively received. Rather, it is actively constructed by the learner as
he or she comes to experience the world” (Koch, 8).
- “…this
describes a complex and recursive process by which learners engage in
experiences, think about those experiences, see how they fit in with their
prior constructions, and then, sometimes, formulate new constructions” (Koch, 8).
- Piaget
and Bruner: “Children are active learners, Children construct their ideas on
the basis of their experiences of the world. Children’s prior knowledge – that it,
what they have learned form all their previous experiences—plays a crucial role
in determining how they integrate a new concept” (Koch, 10).
- Active
Learner
- Social
Learner
- Creative
Learner
- • Implications for Teaching:
- Connections
to the students’ own lives
- Opportunities
for the students to actively reflect on their experiences
- Clearly defined
conceptual goals for the students
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