Big Ideas in ScienceSED 573

Where I started…

Definition• Big idea – helps students make sense of lots of confusing ideas

and experiences and seemingly isolated facts.

Big ideas are not..• Practices such as experimentation, developing hypotheses, or

evidence-based arguments• Safety in the classroom• Learning how to calculate things like molarities, how much

force is needed to move an object, or where the epicenter of an earthquake is located

• Creating and interpreting graphs• Using conceptual tools like Punnett Squares, vector diagrams,

or half-life tables• Building technological solutions to everyday problems

These should be taught in the context of some larger big idea with conceptual content

Big ideas in use…• 1999 TIMSS video study: U.S. classrooms

30% 44%

27%

The issue• “Teachers rely on textbook activities, often aren’t

clear about their lesson goals, and even if they are, do not share these learning goals with their students. As a result, students are unclear about what they are supposed to learn and focus their learning on details and memorization of facts rather than on in-depth understanding of science concepts.”

• “Much of what students learn in science classrooms is new to them – they are science novices. Without thinking explicitly about all of the concepts that underlie the big ideas of science, teachers, whoa re science experts, might forget to address and connect all of the concepts that science novices must experience to learn science.” (DESI, p. 25)

• Curricula/textbooks are rarely about big ideas

• In kits? The big ideas get lost in the slew of activities that are presented

• In textbooks? Encyclopedic tidal wave of information and vocabulary

• You have to construct Big Ideas

Common curricula are not sacred things

Our goal• “To design lessons within a unit of study that present science

as a coherent body of knowledge, organized around big ideas that connect and give meaning to other concepts, facts, and details.” (DESI, p.27)

Identifying and using big ideas• Step 1 – Understand exactly what needs to be taught• Step 2 – Develop your content knowledge and understandings

of the topic• Step 3 – Move from topics to big ideas

Step 1 – Understand exactly what needs to be taught• What does your CT say?• What do the standards say?• Oregon science education

standards• Next Generation Science

Standards• Where does your unit fall along

the k-12 continuum?• Atlas for Science Literacy• E.g., DESI p. 36

Step 2 – Develop your content knowledge and understandings• Start reading and talking to others!• Resources to start with:• Science for All Americans• New NRC Framework

• Then move to:• Wikipedia• Textbooks• Conversations with others• General readers• Popular magazine articles• Etc.

• Remember, you’re looking for connections!

Step 3 – Move from topics to big ideas• Translating the things, concepts, processes, or theories/laws

into big ideas.• Relevant questions:1. What about this thing/concept/process/theory is so

important for students to understand beyond knowing definitions and examples? (What about it is important?)

2. Does this thing/concept/process/theory have a more fundamental or underlying idea that should really be the target of instruction? Or your topic could be a smaller part of a larger system of activity that is really what is important to teach.

3. What aspects of this thing/concept/process/theory might be relevant to kids’ lives? Why?

Then what?• “Unpack” the big ideas to identify the individual concepts,

facts, vocabulary, and processes that need to be studied. These are your lesson objectives.

• But remember: It’s the big ideas that are important and are the target of instruction. The rest is just in service of getting to the big idea.

• Teach to the big idea! Make it explicit. Make everything you do relate back to it. Make students relate everything you do back to it.

• Use your Big Idea as a lens to make judgments about activities in a curriculum

Examples?• Step 1 – Understand

exactly what needs to be taught• Step 2 – Develop

your content knowledge and understandings of the topic• Step 3 – Move from

topics to big ideas

• Gas laws

• Sound

• Fungi

And your new unit topics?