Final Flashcards
Planning for Teaching
Requires long, medium and short term plans
Science Concepts
You must be able to get at science CONCEPTs in order to teach with intent.
- A science concept is an important scientific idea phrased as a statement
- you may have to do research to find, identify and make sure you understand science concepts
Conceptual frameworks for planning
The first step in planning a science unit involves identifiying the conceptual goals for the unit:
- what are the specific SLE’s for the unit?
- what are the main science concepts for the unit?
- how do the main science concepts relate to each other?
- how might these relationships influence sequencing of the lesson in the unit?
Long-term planning
- planning shouldn’t just be be for one subject, should look at planning cross-curricularly
- sequencing is a challenge in both long and short term planning
- LT plans are built from conceptual frameworks, PoS and available resources
5E Learning Cycle
Instructional design model for sequencing activities in inquiry-based lessons
- Based on constructivist approaches to learning
ENGAGE
EXPLORE
EXPLAIN
ELABORATE
EVALUATE
Engage
- teacher driven
- focus students’ attention on the topic
- PRE-ASSESES students’ prior knowledge
- inform the students about the lesson’s objectives
- remind the students of what they already know they will need to apply to learning the topic at hand
- Pose a question/problem for the students to explore in the next phase of the learning cycle
Exploration
- More student driven
- Students active, EXPLORING PROBLEM, COLLECTING AND ORGANIZING DATA to solve a problem/answer question
- teacher facilitating process as needed
Explanation
- Students use collected data to make conclusions and report what they did
- Teacher introduces new vocabulary, phrases or sentences to label and reinforce what the students have already figured out
- ASSESS REASONING; COMPREHENSION OF CONCEPTS, VOCABULARY
Elaboration
- Extends learning by posing more questions or problems (teacher or students)
- TEACHER MAY POSE PROBLEMS/ASK QUESTIONS THAT STUDENTS SOLVE/ANSWER BY APPLYING WHAT THEY HAVE LEARNED (May include more formal evaluation).
EVALUATION
- Occurs throughout the cycle, it is both formative and summative/formal and informal
Variables
- DV: the factor that represents the results
- IV: the factor that is changed to see how it impacts the result (or DV)
- CVs: anything that is kept constant
Experiments
- fair tests that involve identifying and manipulating variables to demonstrate their effect
- Experiements allow for the identification of causal relationships
- Experiments should include replication in order to increase the reliability of the results
Teaching about experimentation
- recognize that experimenting involves a variety of inquiry skills (observing, inferring, collecting data, analyzing data, making predictions)
- Students cannot be expected to learn how to do all things things at once
- Move from more teacher guided to more student guided experiments over time
Productive Questions
- productive questions take a student forward in his or her thinking
- There are six types of productive questions: (attention-focusing, measuring and counting, comparison, action, problem-posing, reasoning)
Attention focusing
What have you seen?
What do you notice?
What is it doing?
What you can hear, feel, smell…?
Measuring and counting
How many/often/long/much…?
Comparison
How are these the same/dif? How do they do together?
Action
What happens if…?
What if?
What would happen if…?
Problem-posing
Can you find a way to…?
Can you figure out how to…?
Reasoning
Why do you think…?
What is you reason for..?
Can you develop a rule for…?
Keys to effective questioning…
PLAN specific questions prior to teaching
ASK questions as simply, concisely, and directly as possible
PRACTICE using wait-time (push beyond 5 seconds)
LISTEN CAREFULLY to your students’ responses, and be prepared to ask follow up questions that push them to think more deeply or clarify their answers
- use a variety of types of questions
Other ways of categorizing Qs
Blooms, based on science skills
Activity VS Inquiry
There is a dif.
Activity
- Activity-focused classrooms are often teacher led and teacher defined
- hands-on activities by themselves are not inquiry
- too much focus on activities can lead students to think this is all acience is about
- activities do no necessarily connect to science concepts or help students develop understanding of science concepts
- students may be active and excited, but without a clear goal related to the science concepts and the PoS, they may not be learning anything
Inquiry
- Requires knowing your students, their interests, the PoS and related science concepts prior to choosing activities
Focuses on:
- engaging students
- skills development
- idea expansion/modification
- students demonstrating understanding
- students being able to apply understanding to new situations
Inquity
Inquiry lessons are generally based around investigatible questions generated by the student or teacher
- Many of the “productive question” types can be investigatable
The soap bubble
- sublimation of the CO2 is sped up when it is placed in hot water
- The CO2 gas is trapped inside the container by the film of the soap
- the soap film is expanded, to breaking point (lots of things contribute to bubble bursting, often it is evaporation of water)
- the CO2 gas is no longer separated from the air, and because it is denser that air, falls to the ground
What do we assess in science class?
- what students already know (prior knowledge) and already can do (skills)
- how students are developing understandings, skills (cognitive, manipulative and procedural)…and attitudes
- how students able to apply understanding and skills to new situations
- we are also assessing - at all times - our own teaching
- GOOD ASSESSMENT PROVIDES FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS AND TO THE TEACHER. IDEALLY, EVERYONE SHOULD BE LEARNING FROM ASSESSMENT.
What are the purposes of assessment?
- providing studnts with information about their progress, stengths and areas for improvement
- report on student progress to other groups (parents, admin, etc - and the importance of having documentation).
- modifying instructional strategies to better support student learning
- making decisions regarding what to teach and how to sequence teaching
- determining student placement in streamed and other programs
What are the purposes of assessment?
- assessment FOR learning (what you need to know in order to differentiate and modify teaching and learning, feedback to both students and teachers)
- assessment AS learning (metacognition, how am I making sense of this? where am I having trouble making sense of this? students monitor their own learning and use the feedback from this monitoring to make adjustments, adaptations and even major changes in what they understand)
- assessment OF learning (tends to be summative in nature and focus on what student know - have learned 0 and what they can do.
Types of assessment
- diagnostic assessment
- formative assessment
- summative assessment
Science Assessment Strategies
- Oral discussion (questioning, KWL, think-pair-share, small group dis)
- Written products (probes, journals, portfolios)
- Special activities/tasks (concept cartoons, concept maps, performance assessments)
- Student self-assessment
- Paper and pencil tests
Grade 6 Achievement Test
- to determine if students are learning what they are expected to learn
- report to Albertans how well students have acheived provincial standards at given points in their schooling
- assist schools, authorities, and the province in monitoring and improving student learning
Assessment considerations
- make sure that the assessment is aligned with your objectives and instruction
- choose assessment strategies that are appropriate for the stage of the 5Es where you are using them and that they are appropriate for the knowledge or skills that you are assessing
- multiple forms of assessment may be necessary to assess the range f skills and knowledge that are intended outcomes
Conceptual Probes
Here is the scenario: …. Which of the following options are best describe the result?
Trees grow from seeds. Seeds has much less mass than a tree. Write a paragraph explaining where the extra mass comes from
Concept/idea maps
- Show student understanding of relatiosnhips between concepts
- compare the student samplels of before and after concept maps (identify the nature of the changes).
- have students brainstorm terms related to a main topic and then create a concept map from the terms they came up with
- provide students with a list of terms and allow them to add additional ones
- provide a partially completed concept map and have them fill in specific concept or linking terms.
Performance assessments
Requires a demonstration of students’ knowledge and skills to a particular context
Technology
Technology is a creative human activity focused on wants an needs and is based on our desire to constantly improve our condition and adapt to our environment
- Focused on the manufactured world
- Has technical, organizational and cultural aspects
Simularities B/W science and tech
- human pursuits
- involve collaborating with others, constructing ideas, generating alternative, and representing ideas
- value-laden and influenced by society
- change over time
- involve knowledge, skills and attitudes
Elegant Solutions
- Solve the problem and product reliable, durable designs that balance things like cost, resource use, environmental impact, etc (ipods, bridges, pop lid lights)
Engaging with the problem
- What is the problem?
- What do we need to consider?
- What info would help you develop a solution to the problem?
Rockets and Planes
- requires life, drag, thrust and gravity
- airplanes require air, rockets do not.
- airplanes 12km altitude limit
Classroom Management
The beeter you manage ideas, the less you have to manage students
- Engagement is key
- You need to manage students, ideas and yourself, materials and resources, routines, class set up, groups, flow, time
Managing teaching and learning
- Know your students
- Know their communties
- Believe (and expect) they can learn ( but not necessarily all at the same pace or time)
- Teach from a place of relationship
Managing science teaching and learning
- clear expectations
- safety (allergies, first air, how to handle equip)
- let them make noise
- let them make a mess
- let them break things
- they should be actively involved in learning
- STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO TAKE COGNITIVE RISKS
Planning a fair test
Experiments (manipulating variables to demonstrate their effect, allow for identification of causal relationships, should include replication for reliability)
Conceptual Framework Map
Certain scientific concepts are examined at multiple points in the elementary program. Understanding where these concepts might arise and whwere there might deepened and expanded upon can help you determine what prior knoweldge students are (ideally) bringing with them from previous grades or expected to have in order to examine and idea in more depth at a higher grade level.
- SLEs, concepts and sub-concepts
