Transcript COS goals

Communicating Ocean
Sciences
Session 9:
Designing a Lesson
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Session 8 objectives
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Learn that misconceptions/preconceptions in
science are common and can be hard to
change
Gain an understanding of effective strategies
for uncovering and addressing students’
misconceptions in science
Apply what you have learned in the course
thus far to designing a lesson addressing a
specific common misconception
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Quick Write
Discuss your classroom
experiences so far--what have
you discovered about your
students? the school? the
teacher? yourself?
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The Learning Cycle
Invitation
Application
Exploration
Concept Introduction
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Lessons from Thin Air
Annenberg Foundation
video series,
Minds of Their Own
Identify strategies (cite examples) of when the
interviewers:
 Uncover misconceptions
 Address the misconceptions
Strategies Used to Uncover
Misconceptions
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Asked questions to find out what the student
already knew before instruction
Asked questions to find out what the student
remembered after instruction, one month later
Asked questions to find out what the student was
thinking
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Strategies Used to Address
Misconceptions
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Identified a more basic idea that the student did
not understand
“Adapted the curriculum” and presented new
activities with new materials to address the
specific needs of the student
Asked questions to prod the student into thinking
more deeply about the subject matter
Brought in information and evidence that conflicted
with the student’s ideas, through the use of more
focused questions, forcing the student to rethink
ideas
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Common Misconceptions
in Science
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Density: Some students think that big things sink and little things
float.
Some students think the majority of what makes up the mass of
plants comes from soil, water, and nutrients.
Some students have trouble defining what is living—some, for
example, think fire is alive.
Some students don’t think humans are animals.
Some students think every structure on an organism has adaptive
value.
Some students think individual organisms adapt.
Some students think the seasons are caused by the Earth moving
closer or farther away from the Sun.
Some students believe that the concentration is greater at the
bottom of the container in a solution.
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Constructing a Lesson
Goal: What is the goal of the lesson?
1)
Invitation: What would you ask to get students interested?
2)
Discussion of initial ideas: What would you ask to draw
out ideas?
3)
Exploration: How would you use materials to get students
to think further?
4)
Discussion of concepts: How would you guide students
to new ideas?
5)
Application: What challenge or application would you use
to give another opportunity to learn the new ideas?
6)
Assessment: How will you find out if students have
adopted new ideas as their own?
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Selected Ocean Science Concepts
Grade 1
— Some materials tend to float, other materials tend to sink.
— Whether or not something sinks or floats depends on the material, not on
the size of the object.
— Water drops seem to have a “stretchy skin”.
— Water drops are attracted to one another.
— Rocks, shells and other beach drift become sand as they are broken into
smaller pieces by the crashing waves.
— There are different kinds of seashore––some are sand, some are gravel
and some are rocky.
— Different types of animals and plants are adapted to live at different types
of seashores.
— The name for the very special home where animals find the shelter, food,
and water that they need is called a habitat.
— The creatures of the rocky seashore habitat have special adaptations to
survive the crashing waves and changing tides.
— Crayfish have special adaptations to survive in their aquatic habitat.
— Crayfish have many parts and behaviors in common with other
crustaceans, but they are also very different.
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Selected Ocean Science Concepts
Grade 2
—Objects found on a sandy beach can be grouped into: evidence
of plant and seaweed life, evidence of (non-human) animal life,
evidence of humans, and non-living material.
—Sand is made up of tiny bits of everything that is found on a
sandy beach.
—Sand grains can be made of animals, plants, seaweed, rocks,
or minerals.
—Sand grains come in many different shapes, sizes and colors.
—Differences between sand grains can be clues about where the
sand came from and how it got to the beach.
—Oil spilled at sea can travel with currents, tides, and waves to
the sandy beach where it can harm the plants, seaweed and
animals that live there.
—Oil spills are almost impossible to clean up. People can help to
prevent them by reducing their use of oil.
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Selected Ocean Science Concepts
Grade 3
—Estuaries are special wetlands where salt and fresh water mix.
—Estuaries include open water, mud flats and salt marshes.
—Many different kinds of organisms live in an estuary. Each organism
lives in a particular part of the estuary.
—Estuaries provide habitat for many different types of living things.
—Human impact may harm estuary communities.
—Scientists need to make careful observations and communicate them
clearly in order to learn about the natural world.
—Each animal has special body parts and ways of behaving, which are
adaptations to survive and be successful in their habitat.
—Scientists use dissection as a way of learning more about an animal’s
body parts and how the parts work together. These body parts are
called structures.
—Crayfish have many adaptations to survive and thrive in a wetland
habitat.
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Selected Ocean Science Concepts
Grade 3
—Scientists learn about the world through an inquiry process.
—Inquiry science consists of making observations about the world, asking
questions about the observations, doing investigations to discover answers to
questions and making new observations leading to new explanations and
questions.
—Scientists communicate about their own and their peers’ investigations and
explanations.
—Salinity is a measure of the amount of salt dissolved in a liquid.
—Fresh water will float on top of saltier water.
—Fresh water is less dense than salt water.
—Salinity currents can form when fresh water from the land and salt water from
the ocean meet in an estuary.
—Different types of shorebirds can feed together in one area because each type is
adapted to feed on different types of prey. (This is called resource partitioning.)
—Adaptations are features or behaviors that improve an organism’s chance for
survival.
— Scientists often use math when they gather data about animals. Graphing the
data helps us to discover patterns and explain observations.
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Selected Ocean Science Concepts
Grade 4
—Different kinds of fishes have many similarities since all are adapted to be
survivors in a water habitat.
—Fish come in a great variety of forms, colors, and shapes and these
adaptations can be used to predict their habitat and lifestyle.
—The white light that comes from the sun is actually a mixture of the seven
different colors seen in a rainbow.
—Each color of light has a different wavelength, and carries a different
amount of energy.
—The ocean acts as a filter and allows only certain colors to pass through to
the deep, while it absorbs other colors in the top few meters.
—Some fish hide from predators at depth by using camouflage color.
—Different kinds of seaweed (red, brown or green) grow at different depths in
the ocean because they use specific colors of light for photosynthesis.
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Selected Ocean Science Concepts
Grade 5
—Most of our planet is covered in ocean, but only a small fraction of the ocean supports large
concentrations of life.
—There is only one ocean! Our Earth is covered by one interconnected world ocean that
circulates around all the continents.
—Things dumped into the ocean may be distributed by currents throughout the ocean.
—Wind and the temperature differences between masses of water are two factors that cause
currents.
—Winds blowing across the surface of the ocean--combined with other factors--cause major
circulating currents, or gyres.
—Salinity and temperature differences create masses of water with different densities.
—Gravity causes more dense water to sink below less dense water. As a result, the less dense
water rises.
—Plankton have adaptations that help them avoid sinking below sunlit photic zones.
—Pelagic creatures are organism living in the open ocean.
—Looking closely at an animal like the squid can tell us a lot about the adaptations needed to
survive and thrive as a pelagic creature.
—Many people depend on squids for food or for their livelihood. More discussion among these
people will help create solutions to the problem of diminishing squid populations.
—Evolution is change in an organism over time.
—Over the last 50 million years, whales have evolved from land mammals into ocean mammals.
—The open ocean is home to many different organisms that interact with one another as
predators, prey or competitors.
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Addressing a Specific
Misconception
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What was difficult about this assignment?
What caused you to think the hardest?
What did you need more information about?
How did this experience help you to prepare you
science activity and teaching strategy?
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Peer Review of
Lesson Ideas
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Share your lesson plan with a
partner
Use the Constructing a Lesson
handout as a guide for advising
each other