Science Lab Remodeling Proposal

The Concerns The Concerns Testing Science Reasoning, Not Content –The ACT and SAT stress the ability of students to think scientifically, asking them to interpret data rather than recalling facts related to the different branches of science. State Standards –Understand the processes of scientific inquiry and the technological design to investigate questions, conduct experiments, and solve problems.

The Concerns Student Misconceptions –Unlike other subjects, where most of the content is first taught in the classroom, students are introduced to a large amount of scientific knowledge before entering the classroom. –Students begin developing explanations for the “laws of nature” they experience daily. These self-developed explanations generally lead to inadequate, incomplete, and incorrect concepts of how the world around them works. –These misconceptions are stored in the student’s memory and usually act as a starting point when the student is confronted with a science problem. This makes it more difficult for the student to learn the correct concepts.

The Proof The Proof Over the past 9 years, Lake Park students have increased 0.3 pts on the science reasoning portion of the ACT. Over the same time period, the state average has increased 0.6 pts. During the 6 years in which the IGAP test was given, Lake Park students consistently scored lower on the science subtest than other students with the same socio-economic background.

Addressing the Concerns Addressing the Concerns Situation 1 –Mr. Anderson delivers a lecture covering the concepts of friction. Upon completion, he assigns several problems from the book to check the students’ understanding of friction. At the beginning of the next class period, Mr. Anderson goes through the answers to the homework questions to ensure the students will have the correct answers for the test later that week.

Addressing the Concerns Situation 2 –Mr. Wilson delivers a brief introduction to friction, after which he asks his students to develop tests to determine what variables affect friction. The students divide into smaller groups, do research, and develop experiments to investigate friction. During the next several class periods, the students conduct their experiments. After the experiments are complete, Mr. Wilson leads a discussion with the students regarding their observations and the conclusions they made.

Comparing Situations Comparing Situations Mr. Anderson’s students would most likely be able to define friction, explain the different types of friction, and possibly calculate the force of friction if given the appropriate information. In addition to learning these facts, Mr. Wilson’s students were actively involved in the scientific process: developing problems, testing hypotheses, data analysis and scientific reasoning. The common misconception of surface area affecting friction would also be more likely to be addressed.

The Department’s Suggestion The Department’s Suggestion The science department proposes that remodeling our classrooms and shared lab to develop seven combined classroom/labs would provide us the opportunity to improve our student’s understanding of science and its processes. “To appreciate fully the methodology of science(the development and testing of hypotheses), one must learn science as a problem solving process; that is it must be constructivist in nature rather than a prepackaged curriculum.”(Tobin,et al.)

How is it different from what is currently done? How is it different from what is currently done? The lab activities that are done now are seldom open ended exploratory activities that confront students with evaluating the evidence that is used as a base in understanding the major concepts of science. Do to time constraints and the inability to leave apparatus set up for even two days, it is difficult to encourage the use of scientific methods to solve problems relevant to their perception of the world.

Support for change Support for change The best way to eliminate naïve beliefs or misconceptions is to expose them and confront them directly. By involving students in inquiry-based activities, we ask them to test what they believe to be true. If the student’s belief is proven to be incorrect, we have confronted the misconception and the student will continue to search for the truth. Instruction in science must be experience-based within the context of the classroom and must provide a motivation to change.

What Other Professionals Are Saying… What Other Professionals Are Saying… " In science education I think there are three very important points that we need to get across. First of all, I believe that we need to believe in science knowledge as a tool, not as a group of facts the students are going to learn. We need to show them that what they're learning is useful to them, so consequently, we can't simply teach process, we have to teach them the content or we have to teach them the process when they need it. If they can see science as a tool and science is useful to them, they'll be able to use it in their lives to make sense of this world that they're living in.” –Barbara Neureither, science teacher at Holt High School in Holt, Michigan

What Other Professionals Are Saying… A study done at the University of Northern Iowa to evaluate their own activity-based physics curriculum indicates that their students show greater achievement gains than students taught by the more traditional lecture, demonstrations and verification laboratory experiments format. When students are confronted with making observations of phenomena, finding patterns, developing ideas and testing hypotheses they are constructing their own understanding to know why something works the way it does. The same study uses the following analogy to describe the need for lab activities: Students have the experience of becoming engaged in the mental processes that are characteristic of science. You can't depend on learning these mental operations by reading about science any more than basketball coaches depend on students learning how to play basketball by reading Sports Illustrated.

What Other Professionals Are Saying… Professor James M. Bower, co-director of Caltech’s Precollege Science Initiative further specifies the use of lab activities: – “real science whether in the laboratory or the classroom depends substantially on the application of good scientific process. By scientific process I do not mean the famous four steps in the scientific method that are drilled into the heads of children from grade 3. Instead I mean the real scientific skills of investigation, critical thinking, imagination, intuition, playfulness, and thinking on your feet and with your hands that are essential to success in scientific research.”

What Other Professionals Are Saying… Beau Fly Jones, member of the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory explains her thoughts about science learning: "First of all, science education really has to build on student interest and prior knowledge. That's just vital. Secondly, it has to promote the less is more perspective and give depth rather than breath. Thirdly, it must provide hands on experiences that have real life applications. And fourth, it should interact with the mini-communities that form the learners in the science community, a school within a school, so you're talking about teachers and the students and the administrators at the school, the local community and that broad based national community of science learners."

In Summary In Summary To improve the education of our students, they need to have more in-depth, inquiry- based experiences in their science education. Research has shown that these types of experiences are beneficial to the students. Additional lab space is needed to facilitate the increased use of hands-on activities.

We need your support We need your support A project like this cannot be done without your support. We hope that we have proven to you that the use of inquiry-based activities is not only a way to improve our students performance on standardized tests, but will also help them develop the true inquisitiveness that comes from real scientific research. The creativeness and natural curiosity of the world around them that science is based on is being replaced by definitions and rote memorization of facts. We are asking for your help in re- establishing the use of creativity and discovery that is true science.

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