What Do Students Get from PBI?  They get the opportunity to think like scientists  They get to actively participate  They begin to experience the teacher as a “facilitator” and as a learner instead of a “disiminator” of information  They have the opportunity and encouragement to take ownership for thinking & learning Permission to Think For Themselves

A Chance to Learn “HOW” To Learn What Do Students Get from PBIS?  Engagement in the higher levels of thinking: Analyzing data, Synthesizing data, Application of data  Participation in a culture that promotes collaboration, reasoning, reflection

How Do Good Friends Make Me Sick? (The Spread of Diseases) This activity illustrates : :  How quickly a disease can spread through a population  How a disease can spread through a population without any symptoms  How good friends can make you sick without your knowing it

What is Inquiry ? “An active learning process in which students answer research questions through data analysis.”* * National Science Teacher’s Association Students :  Conduct the analysis  Draw their own conclusions

Most students need substantial scaffolding before they are ready to develop scientific questions and design effective data collection procedures to answer these questions. They recognize this fact and “...seek to provide experiences that help students progress to greater inquiry skills through series of graduated steps.” This is where PBIS “hits a homerun”.

Many worthwhile science activities traditionally do not involve a research question or data analysis Inquiry based activities must start with a scientific question: How does temperature affect the rate of a chemical reaction? How does the amount of load affect the rate of fall of a parachute? How does light affect the germination of a seed? EXAMPLES:

Students need practice in inquiry, building up to increasingly open and complex levels of inquiry PBIS gives an excellent progression of activities to accomplish this

What Is Going To Be Hard? As a teacher, keeping quiet! Letting kids do the talking “Hands off” approach Rubrics and assessment Grades Managing the pace

What Benefits Do You Get? A chance to inspire students to grow and improve Science skills A chance to produce Student Scientists, not just Science students A chance to meet your Science Curriculum goals in a more engaging way An opportunity for students to better retain what they learn A chance to set a culture of collaboration, learning, and rigorous thinking. A structure for “easing” in to Inquiry method A chance to dramatically reduce undesirable behaviors

Hey Mrs. Tenenbaum, It’s Samantha from your old 7th/8th grade Science class!! …I felt it would be exciting to tell you what the Riverwood kids have done with the knowledge you have taught us! Do you remember the coaster cars? I never thought I would ever make use of that information! (No offense) Last Friday I was proved wrong. Some students were invited to participate in a special technology/physics contest in a day long school event. It involved engineering and related skills. Our first challenge was to build and An air jet car. We looked at each other and laughed. Needless to say,we blew away the competition and won first place. Just thought you’d like to know! Your student, Samantha

Parachute Activity