1 Doing Good Science: Making it happen in your classroom Dr. Rick Vanosdall Science Teacher, Co-Author, & Researcher

2 Questions / Dialogue What are the “burning questions” you bring with you to this program? Why are you here today? What do you expect to get out of this hour with our presenter? We will un-mute all the phone lines at this time for a couple of minutes so that you can easily respond.

3 How did you learn about Doing Good Science? Poll Question:

4 How long have you been teaching? 1 st year 6-10 years 2-5 years years Over 20 years

5 Focus Question: Assessment How do you assess student learning? Working with students… Working with other teachers… Working with administrators… Working with parents… Working with others…

6 Metacognition as an Assessment Outcome Where are you trying to go? Where are you now? How can you get there? From: Atkin, J.M., P. Black, and J. Coffey, eds Classroom assessment and the national science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

7 Big Ideas / Concept Based Instruction and Learning “Enduring Learning” What are the 3-5 major concepts that unify the entire learning process for the school year? How do these 3-5 concepts align to the standards assessed by your school district and state?

8 Congruency: Alignment of Pedagogy and Standards The assessments that are used to indirectly/directly evaluate me are aligned with inquiry-based science? The assessments that are used to indirectly/directly evaluate me are aligned with didactic, fact based recall science instruction?

9 Question Stems What other information do you need? What do you see? What else do you see? What do you want to find out? What data do you need to answer the question? How can you collect the data? …and more questions on p

10 Experts Experts see patterns and meanings not apparent to novices. Experts have in-depth knowledge of their fields, structured so that it is most useful. Experts' knowledge is not just a set of facts -- it is structured to be accessible, transferable, and applicable to a variety of situations. Experts can easily retrieve their knowledge and learn new information in their fields with little effort. (The list above was adapted from "How People Learn," published by the National Research Council in 1999.)How People Learn

11 How people best learn? reading watching a demo simulationdoing the real thing

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13 Beyond Question Stems Wait for answers, and ask follow-up questions to prompt students to articulate what they have learned, or know at that point in time. Empower students to ask questions and seek answers using evidence from their experience.

14 Focus Question: Practical Steps How do you make inquiry work in “real” classrooms? Working with students… Working with other teachers… Working with administrators… Working with parents… Working with others…

15 Invitation to Inquiry Grid Teacher Demo Activity Teacher- initiated Inquiry Student- initiated Inquiry Posing the question Tchr Stdnt Planning the Procedure Tchr Stdnt Formulating the results TchrStdnt Source: D. Llewellyn Inquire within: Implementing inquiry-based science standards. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Page 12

16 Changing Emphasis to Promote Inquiry Less Emphasis On…More Emphasis On… Activities that demonstrate and verify science content Activities that investigate and analyze science questions Investigations confined to one class period Investigations over extended periods of time Process skills out of context Process skills in context

17 Changing Emphasis to Promote Inquiry Less Emphasis On…More Emphasis On… Emphasis on individual process skills such as observation or inference Multiple process skills— manipulation, cognitive, procedural Getting an answerUsing evidence and strategies for developing or revising an explanation Science as exploration and experiment Science as argument and explanation

18 Changing Emphasis to Promote Inquiry Less Emphasis On…More Emphasis On… Providing answers to questions about science content Communicating science explanations Individuals and groups of students analyzing and synthesizing data without defending a conclusion Groups of students often analyzing and synthesizing data after defending conclusions

19 Changing Emphasis to Promote Inquiry Less Emphasis On…More Emphasis On… Doing few investigations in order to leave time to cover large amounts of content Doing more investigations in order to develop understanding, ability, values of inquiry and knowledge of science content Concluding inquiries with the result of the experiment Applying the results of experiments to scientific arguments and explanations

20 Changing Emphasis to Promote Inquiry Less Emphasis On…More Emphasis On… Management of materials and equipment Management of ideas and information Private communication of student ideas and conclusions to teacher Public communication of student ideas and work to classmates Source: National Research Council National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

21 Guidelines to facilitate student discourse:

22 Guidelines to facilitate student discourse: “What does it mean?” “What happened?” Poll Students & Follow Up Explanations Ask students to affirm or suggest revision by adding clarity Focus Questions on “Big Ideas” …then ask for evidence. Poll Students & Follow Up Explanations

23 1) Think & Write 2) Pair 3) Share

24 NSTA Web Seminar Evaluation

25 Upcoming NSTA Web Seminars: Force and Motion: Stop Faking It! November 17, 2005 Watershed Dynamics December 8, 2005 Picture-Perfect Science December 14, :30 PM Eastern Time