LeaPS Learning in Physical Science

January 21, 2010

Welcome!

Supported by University of Kentucky PIMSER Math and Science Outreach

Presentation Provided by the

P-12 Math and Science Outreach

Division of PIMSER

Project Goals for LeaPS

• • • •

Overall goal : Students will learn targeted physical science concepts (structure and transformation of matter, force & motion) Goal 1 : Enhance teacher content and pedagogical knowledge of targeted physical science concepts Goal 2 : Improve Teacher Instructional Practices Goal 3 : Enhance Administrator Support

Group Norms

• • • • • • • • •

Stay on schedule; be on time Put cell phones on silent and computers closed Stay present, giving full attention Listen actively as others are speaking Be engaged —Be IN the work Avoid sidebar conversations Keep name tags visible Rule of 2 feet Any others?

REVIEW of December ‘09

Understanding Student Thinking FnM Progression Models And Representations Content Building

Roadmap for Today

Developing Scientific Understanding Conceptual Change Student Test Data Content Building:

Forces and Change in Motion

Community Building

Teaching for Understanding

• Learning Targets: • I can explain the role of vocabulary in building scientific understanding. • I can use research to explain effective vocabulary instruction.

Science and Vocabulary

• What is the role of vocabulary in assisting student’s understanding of science concepts?

• What are some myths about vocabulary and understanding of scientific concepts?

• What does research suggest about effective vocabulary instruction in science?

Let’s Learn Some Vocabulary

• You have been given a list of the essential words to understanding middle school force and motion concepts. • Take about 3 minutes to study these words….you will have a vocab test after.

• Place the vocabulary list out of view when ready to begin • Now…..let’s test!

We learned it, right?

• You have been given an 8 item multiple choice test surrounding force and motion concepts. • ON YOUR OWN and without discussion, please complete the test.

• What impact did the knowledge of the vocabulary words play on your success on this 2 nd exam?

Science and Vocabulary

• “Students must learn scientific vocabulary

after

they have had a

concrete experience

…Ideas develop from experiences, and technical terms develop from the ideas and operations that are rooted in those experiences. When terms come first, students just tend to while.”

Writing in Science

memorize pg. 30 so much technical jargon that it sloughs off in a short • “Place a word card in the science word bank after the students have had a concrete experience with something and have a need to know the appropriate term.”

Writing in Science

pg. 30

Science and Vocabulary

• “

Word learning in science can and should be approached as conceptual learning

. Even though it is true that words are labels for concepts, it is better to think of them as inherently conceptual in order to prevent ourselves from teaching them as a set of labels and definitions. If we assert that words are concepts, we are more likely to help students understand how they connect to other concepts to form rich conceptual networks.”

Linking Science and Literacy in the K-8 Classroom

pg. 235 • “…create opportunities for students to encounter and use a focused set of core concepts words in discussion and in print.”

Linking Science and Literacy in the K-8 Classroom

pg. 236

Science and Vocabulary

• Characteristics of effective direct vocabulary instruction from

Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement

by R. Marzano pgs. 70-90 – Effective vocabulary instruction does not rely on definitions.

– Students must represent their knowledge of words in linguistic and nonlinguistic ways.

– Effective vocabulary instruction involves the gradual shaping of word meanings through multiple exposures.

– Teaching word parts enhances students’ understanding of terms.

– Different types of words require different types of instruction.

– Students should discuss the terms they are learning.

– Students should play with words.

– Instruction should focus on terms that have a high probability of enhancing academic success.

• “The point is to emphasize the goal of understanding concepts, which is very different than merely memorizing vocabulary or definitions. By not emphasizing technical terms in the early grades, the teacher avoids sending the counterproductive message to students that science is about memorizing terms and definitions for phenomena that they fundamentally don’t understand.” –

Ready, Set, Science!

pg. 65

What does research say?

• Students need to be exposed to a word at least 6 times before they have enough experience to recall its meaning.

• Focus vocab instruction on words that are CRITICAL to new content. Achievement can increase as much as 33%.

• No single method of instruction will result in optimal learning.

• Flexible vocab instruction respects students’ diversity.

• The chances of learning a word in context is 19% for high ability students and 8% for low ability students. • Multiple methods and contexts ensure repeated exposure and aid learning.

3 Tiers of Words

• • •

Essential

—These are the words that are CRITICAL to understanding the content. These words must be

EXPLICITILY

taught during the unit —10-12 wds max.

Nice to Know —

These are content words but ones that

do not

require explicit instruction for understanding.

Supporting

—These are non-content words but are necessary for student success such as summarize, analyze, evaluate, etc.

Take Home Message

• Developing students’ understanding of force and motion requires providing numerous experiences, making observations, organizing evidence, and explaining the evidence from K-12 th grade.

Time to Reflect

Foundational Knowledge & Conceptual Change

Chapter 3 • I can describe conceptual change and reasons for students’ difficulties.

• I can use information about student naïve understanding to inform instructional decisions.

Reciting interesting facts, especially about dinosaurs….and “knowing” a lot is helpful for playing

Trivial Pursuit

…it hardly constitutes knowing or understanding science.

Powerful Learning pg. 156

Knowing vs. Understanding

• What’s the difference between

knowing

science and

understanding

science?

• What do our standards suggest we should strive for through our teaching?

• Complete the comparison frame for knowing and understanding.

• How would you explain

conceptual change

?

A and B are similar because they both ________________ ________________ ________________ A and B are different because A is __________, but B is ___________.

A is __________, but B is ___________.

A is __________, but B is ___________.

Questions from Chapter 3….

• How does one recognize the knowledge that children bring to school?

• How does one build on this knowledge in ways that specifically support science learning?

Types of Conceptual Change

• Elaborating on a Preexisting Concept – Extending a foundation of conceptual understanding with new evidence, knowledge or experiences; e.g., structure and function.

• Restructuring a Network of Concepts – Thinking about a preexisting set of concepts in new ways and/or uniting concepts thought to be different or separate; e.g., air is matter.

• Achieving New Levels of Explanation – Reorganizing and placing existing concepts within a larger explanatory structure; e.g., using AMT to understand biological processes.

Categories of Students’ Ideas

• Scientific Ideas • Preconceptions • Conceptual misunderstandings • Nonscientific beliefs • Vernacular misconceptions • Factual misconceptions

Begin with Prior Knowledge

• Activate, don’t ignore prior ideas. • Realize that students have notions about how the world works that make sense to them, but does not agree with scientific explanations.

• Recognize that teaching for understanding requires conceptual knowledge that is organized in a schema, not unconnected knowledge.

»

Powerful Learning

by Linda Darling-Hammond

Creating Conceptual Change

• Research has shown that a simple “

confront-and-replace

” model of science learning does not allow deep understanding of science content. (Strike & Posner, 1982) • • This only works about

5%

(Chinn & Brewer, 2001) of the time.

Real

conceptual change requires that deeper reorganizations of knowledge occur.

• “If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle I would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.” • David Ausubel, 1968

Take Home Message

• Instruction has to be adjusted when confronted with different levels of conceptual difficulty.

• Merely telling students the correct answer or having them read about it will seldom, if ever, help to develop deep conceptual understanding. • Conceptual change requires time—some more than others.

• “Students who are proficient in science know more than mere facts. Their proficiency arises from the organization of their knowledge. Developing expertise in science means developing a rich, interconnected set of concepts – a knowledge structure – that comes closer and closer to resembling the structure of knowledge in a scientific discipline.” –

Ready, Set, Science!

Pg. 41

Take a Moment to Reflect

Examining Student Test Data

What do we currently know about “our” students?

1423 students in grades 6, 7, and 8 were given the test sometime in late October and Early November.

The range is from 0 to 14 (max 15).

The mean is 6.65.

Item 12 was omitted after examination of question wording suggested it was not clear enough Items 4 and 9 were the most successful.

Purpose of Administering

• Goals – Examine preliminary results for patterns – Discuss implications to instruction by question (at grade levels and across grade levels)

Selected Relationships for 6 th grade from POS and Core Content to Items 2, 3, and 4

SC-6-MF-S-2

: Students will use graphical and observational data to make inferences, predictions and draw conclusions about the motion of an object as related to the mass or force involved.

SC-06-1.2.1

:Students will describe friction and make inferences about it’s effects on the motion of an object.

Selected Relationships for 7 th grade from POS and Core Content to Items 2, 3, and 4

SC-7-MF-S-5

: Students will make inferences and draw conclusions about the motion of objects, and predict changes in position and motion as related to the mass or force

SC-07-1.2.1

: Students will explain the cause and effect relationship between simple observable motion and unbalanced forces.

Selected Relationships for 8 th grade from POS and Core Content to Items 2, 3, and 4

SC-8-MF-U-1

: Students will understand that Isaac Newton developed a set of rules that can be used to describe and predict virtually all observed motion on Earth and in the universe….

SC-08-1.2.1

: Students will describe and explain the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on motion as found in real-life phenomena.

Questions to Consider

1. What patterns do you observe in the data?

2. Would you expect your students to answer this question correctly before/after instruction?

3. What do the distracter options imply about prior instruction? 4. What do the results imply about future instruction?

Time

A.

B.

C.

D.

Which graph would best describe the motion of the cat when it was speeding up?

Results for Question 2: Motion of a Cat Speeding Up Grade Omits A B

C

D Total 6 6 (1.42%) 53 (12.6%) 143 (33.9%)

195 (46.2%)

25 (5.92%) 422 7 8 3 (0.65%) 40 (8.60%) 189 (40.6%)

220 (47.3%)

13 (2.80%) 3 (0.56%) 42 (7.83%) 221 (41.2%)

255 (47.6%)

15 (2.80%) Total 12 (0.84%) 135 (9.49%) 553 (38.9%)

670 (47.1%)

53 (3.72%) 465 536 1423

Time

A.

B.

C.

D.

Which graph would best describe the motion of the cat when it was moving with a uniform motion?

Results for Question 3: Cat with Uniform Motion Grade 6 7 8 Total Omits A

B

C D Total 7 (1.66%) 88 (20.9%)

133 (31.5%)

95 99 (22.5%) (23.5%) 5 (1.07%) 77 (16.6%)

180 (38.7%)

111 (23.9%) 92 (19.8%) 4 (0.75%) 80 (14.9%)

223 (41.6%)

131 98 (24.4%) (18.3%) 16 (1.12%) 245 (17.2%)

536 (37.7%)

337 (23.7%) 289 (20.3%) 422 465 536 1423

Time

A.

B.

C.

D.

Which graph would best describe the motion of the cat when it was not moving?

Question 4: Cat When it is Not Moving Grade Omit 6 8 (1.90%) 7 8 Total 3 (0.65%) 3 (0.56%) 14 (0.98%) A B C

D

Total 78 (18.5%) 68 (14.6%) 83 (15.5%) 229 (16.1%) 30 (7.11%) 29 (6.87%)

277 (65.6%)

422 15 (3.2%) 7 (1.3%) 52 (3.7%) 18 (3.9%) 21 (3.9%) 68 (4.8%)

361 (77.6%) 422 (78.7%) 1060 (74.5%)

465 536 1423

Time to Reflect

Forces and Changes in Motion

Content Building

Please Reflect

For Next Time

• Our next meeting will be

February 12, 2010

• Read Ch 4 from

Writing in Science

• Read Ch 5 in

Ready, Set, Science!

• Complete the reading guides.