Transcript Slide 1

American Chemical Society
Using Stories to Teach
Chemistry
Patrice Pages,
Editor of ChemMatters magazine
American Chemical Society
Washington, DC
AACT Webinar
Oct. 9, 2014
Purpose of presentation
Use magazine or newspaper articles to:
•
improve students’ understanding of scientific concepts
•
improve students’ scientific literacy
•
improve reading comprehension
•
encourage critical thinking
•
encourage evidence-based argumentation.
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A few definitions:
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Scientific literacy: Knowledge and understanding of scientific
concepts required for personal decision making, participation in civic
and cultural affairs, and economic productivity (U.S. National Center
for Education Statistics)
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Reading comprehension: Ability to read a text, understand it, and
analyze it; in other words, reading ideas, not individual words.
•
Critical thinking: Careful, deliberate determination of whether one
should accept, reject, or suspend judgment about a claim (Moore &
Parker).
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Evidence-based argumentation: Use of scientific facts (instead of
opinions or guesses) to discuss a topic and make decisions.
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Stories and science?
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Stories:
– use metaphorical truth to help us to connect to and care about the
world
– usually answer “why” and “so what?” questions and connect with our
emotions.
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Science:
– usually answer “how” questions and speak to the logical side of our
brains.
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Stories in the chemistry classroom
Main benefits:
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Hook listeners while teaching abstract ideas
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Provide a different perspective on hard facts by putting them in everyday
context
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May allow to remember facts/concepts more easily.
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Provide an opportunity to earn extra credit!
A science story will work when students:
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know why they are being asked to read a given text
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apply prior knowledge and experience to the story
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ask themselves questions while they reading.
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Where to find articles that read like stories:
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Magazines: Examples:
– Discover
– Science World (Scholastic)
– ChemMatters (American Chemical Society)
• Newspapers: Examples:
– The New York Times’ Science section
– The Washington Post’s Health & Science Section
– The Los Angeles Times’ Science & Health section.
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•
Magazine for high school chemistry students and
teachers published by the American Chemical
Society.
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Goal: To demystify everyday chemistry
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Started 30 years ago (Feb. 1983)
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Published 4 times during school year
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Subscription (or AACT member benefit):
$16 per year (4 issues)
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ChemMatters article
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Attention-grabbing introductory section
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Questions throughout the article to guide the flow of the story
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Chemistry concepts “woven” in the story
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Figures, illustrations, pictures, infographics, and video/podcasts
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Characters (usually teens), as much as possible.
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Critical thinking, reading comprehension, scientific
literacy, and evidence-based argumentation:
• Common Core State Standards: Expectations for:
– Mathematics
– English language arts (ELA)
– Literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects.
• Expected outcomes for ELA/Literacy standards:
–
–
–
–
Critical thinking and reading comprehension.
Attentive reading of literary and informational texts.
Ability to write arguments to support claims in a text
Ability to write text that conveys information clearly and accurately.
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Examples of articles that could be used to achieve critical thinking,
reading comprehension, scientific literacy, and evidence-based
argumentation:
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Performance-Enhancing Drugs: Is Winning Everything? (Oct. 2014)
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Skin Color: A Question of Chemistry (April 2014)
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Sinkholes: Chemistry Goes Deep (April 2014)
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It’s Not Easy Being Green… Or Is It? (February 2014)
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Global Climate Change: A Reality Check (December 2013)
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Why Cold Doesn’t Exist (Oct. 2013)
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CCSS and NGSS
Next-Generation Science Standards (NGSS):
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Articulate students’ learning goals and performance
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Focus on:
 Scientific Practices
 Disciplinary Core Ideas
 Crosscutting concepts
CCSS-ELA/Literacy, CCSS-Math, and NGSS overlap in
their expectations.
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Achieving critical thinking, reading
comprehension, scientific literacy, and
evidence-based argumentation
1. Choose articles that read like stories
2. Connect new ideas and information to existing knowledge
3. Develop vocabulary
4. Identify and summarize new content in the story
5. Identify multi-step processes and cycles
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Achieving critical thinking, reading
comprehension, scientific literacy, and
evidence-based argumentation
1.
Choose articles with the following elements:
– Relationships among human beings
– Relationship of individual to society
– Relationship of individual to nature
– Human survival, courage, hardships.
Source: 7 Actions that Teachers Can Take Right Now: Text Complexity, Text Matters:
http://textproject.org/professional-development/text-matters/7-actions-that-teachers-cantake-right-now-text-complexity/
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2. Connect new ideas and information to existing knowledge
After reading the article:
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Show how the text connects to students’ prior knowledge.
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Support students in organizing new knowledge.
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Create an anticipation guide that compares students’ ideas with
information in the text.
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Widen students’ knowledge with additional sources of information.
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Encourage students to share their knowledge.
Source: 7 Actions that Teachers Can Take Right Now: Text Complexity, Text Matters:
http://textproject.org/professional-development/text-matters/7-actions-that-teacherscan-take-right-now-text-complexity/
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Anticipation Guide (example)
Directions: Before reading, in the first column, write “A” or “D,” indicating
your agreement or disagreement with each statement. As you read,
compare your ideas with information from the article. In the space under
each statement, cite information from the article that supports or refutes
your original ideas.
Me
Text
Statement
Graphene is the thinnest material known to exist,
yet it is stronger than steel.
Allotropes of the same element have the same
chemical and physical properties.
The first samples of graphene were made using
sticky tape.
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3. Develop vocabulary
– Encourage use of dictionary for unknown words.
– Have students create word walls for new vocabulary.
– Remind students to look for the origins of words.
Sources:
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Teaching Today, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill:
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/reading_skills.phtml
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7 Actions that Teachers Can Take Right Now: Text Complexity, Text Matters:
http://textproject.org/professional-development/text-matters/7-actions-that-teachers-cantake-right-now-text-complexity/
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4. Identify and summarize new content in the story
– Ask students to identify titles, subheadings, graphics, and
summary statements.
– Ask students to write down questions or ideas while they read.
– Teach students to look for terms that imply relationships (since,
because, if, although, etc.).
– Ask students to describe new content through a diagram,
graphic, or table to extract relevant information.
(Source: Teaching Today, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill:
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/reading_skills.phtml)
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Example of a table showing reading
comprehension
Directions: As you read the article, complete the chart below describing the
properties of graphene that may make the device available in the future.
What properties of
graphene are
important for this
application?
Advantages of using
graphene
Flexible solar panels
Foldable cell phones
Bionic devices
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5. Identify multi-step processes and cycles
Many science concepts revolve around a sequence or cycle of events
– Identify the sequence or cycle of events described in a text and how
such events follow each other (in various steps).
– Have students create flow charts, diagrams, or sketches and
encourage them to share them with the rest of the classmates.
(Source: Teaching Today, Glencoe/McGrawHill:http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/reading_skills.phtml)
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ChemMatters Teacher’s Guide
For each ChemMatters article, a Teacher’s Guide provides lots of
additional information, including:
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An anticipation guide: compares students’ ideas with information
from an article.
•
Reading strategies: encourage students to summarize the main
information in the text in the form of tables, charts, and diagrams.
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ChemMatters video podcasts
• Support ChemMatters articles by explaining
concepts with animations and graphics
• Help students visualize chemistry concepts and
understand them better.
Available at: www.acs.org/chemmatters (under “videos”)
Example: Video podcast on graphene based on article:
Graphene: The Next Wonder Material? by Michael
Tinnesand, ChemMatters, Oct. 2012, pp. 6-8.
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ChemMatters online (www.acs.org/chemmatters)
• One free article from each
issue.
• Articles from past issues
organized by chemistry
concepts.
• Free teacher’s guides.
• Free video podcasts.
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Contact information
Patrice Pages
Editor, ChemMatters
American Chemical Society
Education Division
1155 Sixteenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel.: 202-872-6164
E-mail: [email protected]
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