Transcript Communicating Ocean Sciences Session 4: Building Towards Inquiry

Communicating Ocean
Sciences
Session 4:
Building Towards Inquiry
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Session 4 objectives
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Become aware of how inquiry science looks in the
elementary and middle school classroom
Gain experience with kit-based curricula
Experience inquiry-based, hands-on ocean science
activities used in elementary school classrooms
Practice designing lessons to become more aware of
looking for the presence of inquiry and learning
cycles within hands-on activities
Determine which grade level you would like to teach
during the course
See examples of the kinds of materials that are
available for use when designing your own lesson
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Quick write
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Have you had a chance to experience
inquiry science in your academic career
as described in the reading? If so,
please describe.
If you haven’t had a first hand inquiry
science experience, what do you think
the value of such an experience might
be?
What do you think the most difficult part
(or stumbling block) of the inquiry
process might be for students including
grad., undergrad., K-12?
Introduction to the
essential features of
inquiry science
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You will be participating in a 3rd
grade inquiry-based activity
Purpose: doing this activity will
help you get familiar with what an
elementary school inquiry-based
activity might look like
Crayfish Investigations
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Crayfish Investigations
Inquiry Journal
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“I wonder”--generating
the questions
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Write questions on sentence strips
Categorize your questions
Teacher adds questions if students
don’t include some key questions
independently
Categorize the entire class’s
questions on the wall
What happens next?
Rules for Investigations
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Determine criteria for investigations-what can you actually investigate?
Small group discussions regarding
what would make good rules
Whole class discussion with teacher
recording student comments
Teacher circles rules that everyone
agrees on
Class and teacher go through
sentence strips to find questions that
fit and don’t fit the rules
Class Rules About What We
Can Investigate
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Animals are not harmed in any way.
The question isn’t too big--it can be answered by just one
investigation and within one class period
The materials needed are easy to get, inexpensive or
already available in the classroom
The investigation is a what-happens-if, comparison or
measuring question, not a why or how
The question is interesting to the investigator
The question is important (or relevant) to the crayfish in its
real life
The question isn’t a “Lookup” question
The question can be answered by something you can do in
this classroom
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About the Class Rules
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If a question or investigation fits within
the class rules it is investigable
If a question does not fit within the
class rules it is not investigable
Just because a question is not
investigable in this class does not
mean it could never be investigated
Students copy the class rules down
(page 5)
Looking at our questions?
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Travel around the room with a partner
to pick 2 questions with the following
criteria:
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One is a “Lookup” question
One is not investigable according to the
class rules
The Lookup Questions
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Students use resources to learn
more about crayfish --> more
information for their own
investigations
Which questions can we
answer from the wall?
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Using the information they just learned and
prior knowledge, which questions can they
now answer from the wall?
Students record answers together in their
journals (page 5)
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Our questions to investigate!
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Students pick the question they would like to investigate
They may have the chance to turn non-investigable
questions into investigable ones if possible
Students stand in front of the category in which their
question is located
Students discuss the question they selected with other
students who have chosen that category
Students at each category decide together which question
they would like to investigate
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So, you chose a question…
now what?
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Students write down the question they have
chosen in their inquiry journals. Questions may
need to be revised to make them more focused.
(page 6)
Students also describe their hypothesis (page 6)
Students explain if their questions fit the Class
Rules About What They Can Investigate and then
explain why (page 6)
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So, you chose a question…
now what?
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Why is your question interesting?
Relevance to crayfish? Feelings about the
inquiry process? (page 7)
Materials and procedures (pages 8 and 9)
Students would continue with the
investigation
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Essential Features of
Classroom Inquiry
• Learners are engaged by scientifically oriented questions
• Learners give priority to evidence, which allow them to
develop and evaluate explanations
• Learners formulate explanations from evidence to
address scientifically oriented questions
• Learners connect their explanations to scientific
knowledge
• Learners communicate and justify their proposed
explanations
Inquiry and the National Science
Education Standards, p. 25
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Essential Features of Classroom Inquiry and Their Variations
Essential Feature
Variations
1. Learner e ngages
in scientifically
oriente d questionsК
Learner pos es a
questionКК
Learner se lects
among que stions,
pose s new questionsК
2. Learner give s
priority to evidence
in r es ponding to
questions
3. Learner
form ulate
explanations from
evidenceК
Learner de term ine s
what constitute s
evidence and
collects itК
Learner for mulates
explanation after
sum marizing
evidence
Learner directed to
collect cer tain dataК
4. Learner connects
explanations to
scientific
knowle dgeК
Learner
independently
examines other
resources and
forms the links to
explanations
Learner for ms
reas onable and
logical argume nt to
com municate
explanations
5. Learner
com municates and
jus tifies
explanations
Learner sharpens or
clarifies question
provide d by teache r,
materials , or other
source
Learner given data
and ask ed to analyze К
Learner engages
in ques tion
provide d by
teacher, m ate rials,
or othe r source
Learner given data
and told how to
analyze
Learner guide d in
proce ss of
form ulating
explanations from
evidence
Learner directed
toward are as and
sources of scientific
knowle dgeК
Learner given
poss ible ways to use
evidence to form ulate
explanations
Learner provided
with evidence
Learner coache d in
development of
com munication
Learner provided
broad guidelines to
use sharpen
com munication
Learner given
poss ible connections
Learner given
steps and
proce dures for
com munication
More ---------------Amount of Learner Self-Direction --------------- Less
Less ------------- Amount of Direction from Teacher or Material --------- More
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Teacher Identified Benefits of Shifts Toward Inquiry
Shifted
Cookbook
Sense of freedom and focus when asked to
design own data sheets
“Another Worksheet”
We didn’t know what we were looking for so
there was a broader range of what we could
discover
Gives results before you even have the
experience
Higher order thinking skills required
Didn’t have to think, just look and write
Detailed descriptions, analysis and
summarization
Record, list, describe
I wound up writing more than I expected
Four lines on the worksheet equals four
sentences
Student ownership--empowering
Teacher ownership--”When the teacher tells
you what to discover you don’t have
ownership”
Discovery oriented
Kids don’t want to be told what to discover
Kids have to think for themselves
Not asked to think, just do
Anticipation kept us involved
“Oh, do we have to do all this work?”
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What about what we do in
the classrooms?
• Why do you think that they
are not full open-ended
inquiries?
• What do you think inquirybased means?
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The Learning Cycle
Invitation
Application &
Reflection
Exploration
Concept Invention
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Reviewing the
Learning Cycle
• How would the lesson start?
• What would the students be asked to do
next?
• How would new content information be
presented?
• How would the lesson end?
• What materials would be used and are
they easily accessible?
• What are the learning objectives-- what
do we want the students to understand
and be able to do?
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What’s important for
students to know and
understand?
• What’s important for students to
know about the content area?
• What do we want the students to
learn from the activity (the student
learning objectives)?
• Compare to the National Science
Standards
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Jigsaw Activity
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Invitation
Exploration
Concept Invention
Application
Reflection
Kit Carousel
• Look for evidence of the Learning
Cycle, learning objectives, and
inquiry
• Think about which grade you
would like to focus on
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Quick Write
• What are your overall impressions
of the kits and curricula?
• What was the most intriguing
activity to you and why?
• What grade level do you want to
focus on?
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Homework
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Ask at least 3 friends, classmates
or faculty the following question:
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What causes the seasons?
Write down their responses and
bring the notes to class next week
to turn in