Ready, Set, SCIENCE! Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms (2008) / Chapter Skim
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1 A New Vision of Science in Education
1 A New Vision of Science in Education
Pages 1-16
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From page 1... ...
While she'd enjoyed her previous job, she wanted to do something that would make a real difference in the lives of children. So she enrolled in a highly regarded university teaching master's program, became certified in middle school science, and took a job in the city near her home.
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From page 2... ...
Science is a powerful enterprise that can improve people's lives in funda mental ways. Teams of scientists participate in developing treatments for diseases, technologies for distributing clean water in arid environments, building systems for enhancing national security, and building computer models that help track the impact of human behavior on the environment.
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From page 3... ...
New research points toward a kind of science education that differs substan tially from what occurs in most science classrooms today. This new vision of sci ence education embraces different ways of thinking about science, different ways of thinking about students, and different ways of thinking about science education.
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From page 4... ...
They exchange e-mails, engage in discussions at conferences, and present and respond to ideas via publica tion in journals and books. Scientists also make use of a wide variety of cultural tools, including technological devices, mathematical representations, and methods of communication.
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Observation, even in the elementary and middle school classroom, may be direct or may involve inference or technological assistance. For example, students may begin by conducting unaided observations of natural phenomena and then progress to using simple measurement tools or instruments, such as microscopes.
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From page 6... ...
In the process, they have uncovered much richer stores of knowledge and reasoning skills than they expected to find in young chil dren. Studies show that even children in kindergarten have surprisingly sophisti cated ways of thinking about the natural world based on direct experiences with the physical environment, such as watching objects fall or collide, and observing animals and plants.
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From page 7... ...
Children from all backgrounds and all socioeconomic levels show evidence of sophisticated reasoning skills. Although they may lack knowledge and experience, they can and do engage in a wide range of subtle and complex reasoning processes.
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Kindergartners enter school with little understanding of the deeper reasons for using instruments or of how to judge what makes a good measurement. Measurement introduces students to the importance of generating data that can be described in reproducible ways (so they can be verified)
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From page 9... ...
"It no make of himself or herself, and a tape measure was no difference." attached to the wall. Before they got started, Ms.
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From page 10... ...
In Ms. Martinez's class, the chil dren arrived with some sense of measure but little understanding of the methods of standard measure, the purposes for develop ing standard measure, or the ways of checking the quality of a measurement (e.g., developing reproducible results)
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From page 11... ...
Dolens, who had a FIGURE 1-1 friend who taught first grade in Anchorage, Alaska, Student heights recorded on graph paper. hoped to exchange height charts with his friend's class as a way of demonstrating the importance of sharing scientific data.
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From page 12... ...
Martinez and Mr. Dolens knew that if their students were simply told to measure length in a unit such as a centimeter or an inch, they would develop very little understanding of the principles of measurement.
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From page 13... ...
They measured the entire back of the shoe, ment the day the Alaskan height data arrived in the the height from the heel to the top edge of the shoe, mail. It turned out that the Alaskan students were and then from the heel padding inside the shoe to the almost an inch taller, on average, than the students bottom of the sole.
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From page 14... ...
Martinez's and Mr. Dolens's classrooms, students were propos ing and designing empirical investigations to make arguments and claims about appropriate measurement techniques.
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From page 15... ...
Effectively changing science teaching and learning will require dramatic change on the part of those involved in the education system. This book urges the many educators who shape K-8 science learning to reexamine their work in light of current thinking about teaching and learning science.
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From page 16... ...
Chapter 2 in Committee on Science Learning, Kindergarten Through Eighth Grade, Taking science to school: Learning and teaching science in grades K-8 (pp.
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