1. Process Skills

2. Day 1 Review

3. Taking Science to School
Engagement with Phenomenon
Hands On and Minds On
Evidence Based Explanations
Social Construction of Knowledge
Interpretation of Evidence
Arguments Presented
Conceptual Understanding
Linking facts, ideas and concepts
Connecting these to the real world through experience
Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8. (2007) Available at:

4. Process Skills Objectives
Participants will experience and identify the tools needed to carry out inquiry…the process skills
Examine the role that these skills play in the learning process

5. Goals
To enable participants to construct a more complete and accurate understanding of the process skills of science and the central role these skills play in the learning of science concepts
To further abilities to identify the developmental levels of the process skills and begin to think about the re-design of science activities in ways to promote students’ continuing development of these skills

6. Part 1: Identifying Process Skills
What are the process skills of science?

7. Part 1: Identifying Process Skills
What are the process skills of science?
Observing
Questioning
Hypothesizing
Predicting
Planning and Investigating
Interpreting
Communicating

8. As science teachers, we try to…
Develop scientific attitudes
Increase students’ content understanding
Strengthen processing skills

9. Exploring Process Skills

10. Process Skills Circus Instructions
Select partner (s) – teams of 2 or 3
Follow instructions at each station
Please be sure to record detailed observations in science notebook
Reflect on the process skills identification chart and record the process skill used at the station
Proceed to another station

11. Process Skills Identification
Candle
Velcro
Hinged
Mirror
Ice Can
Wet Paper
Wind up Toy
Observing
Inferring
Classifying
Measuring
Collecting Data
Predicting
Hypothesizing

12. What process skills did we use?
Discuss what you identified as the main process skill at each statement?
Please note areas of agreement and disagreement?
Mark your teams thoughts on the overhead – please use a different color pen and fill in the key

13. Process skills considered..
Are these skills practiced discretely?

14. Discrete skills?
Someone who is observing, for example, may be doing some predicting and hypothesizing and interpreting…simultaneously
Pulling the skills apart and distinguishing them from one another can be tricky! Process skills are not individual skills so much, but are combinations and blends of skills.
As teachers, can we work to address these skills separately so that we can identify where students are in the their development of each skill and to work on strengthening specific skills?

15. Hypothesizing v. Predicting v. Interpreting
Answers the question why?
Answers what will happen in this particular instance if?
Answers the question, what does the data tell me?
Example?

16. Clarifying Process Skills
What are learners doing when processing?

17. Developing Process Skills
“Student Learning – Condensation”
Identify the process skill on the identification chart
Cite evidence (quote, data, etc.) from the reading

18. As students develop and understand more science concepts and processes, we would expect explanations to become more complex, more sophisticated….
Reflecting a rich scientific knowledge base, evidence of logic, high levels of analysis and greater tolerance of criticism and uncertainty.
National Research Council. (1995). National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

19. Levels of Processing?
Can we increase the depth of understanding in the process skills?
Can we modify the circus activities, change instructions, new materials, and/or redesign completely?
Post your re-design! How did you change the activity? What process skills are new that were not there before?

20. Strong process skills are essential to inquiry
Strong process skills are essential to inquiry. Students use process skills to build conceptual understanding of “new” science content
Students of all ages can use process skills and these skills can be practiced at simple and increasingly complex levels
Process skills are an intertwined, coherent set of skills
Redesign of activities can challenge process skills of students, and develop stronger processing skills

21. This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. EHR Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the granting agency.