cosee california communicating ocean sciences session 4: building towards inquiry
TRANSCRIPT
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Communicating Ocean Sciences
Session 4: Building Towards Inquiry
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Session 4 objectives 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 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
• For a K-12 student, what do you think the most difficult part (or stumbling block) of the inquiry process might be? Please refer to one or more of the inquiry processes discussed in the reading.
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Introduction to the essential features of inquiry science
You will be participating in a 3rd grade, hands-on, inquiry-based activity
Purpose: doing this activity will help you get familiar with what an elementary school inquiry-based activity might look like
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Crayfish Investigations
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Crayfish Investigations
Inquiry Journal
Crayfish Investigations
Observations: “I notice”
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Crayfish Investigations
Sketching the Crayfish Touching the Crayfish
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“I wonder”--generating the questions
Share your “I wonder” list with your small group
Write questions on sentence strips; tape on wall
Categorize your questions Teacher adds questions if students
don’t include some key questions independently
Categorize the entire class’s questions on the wall
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What happens next?Rules for Investigations 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
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Class Rules About What We Can Investigate
1. Animals are not harmed in any way.2. The question isn’t too big--it can be answered by just
one investigation and within one class period3. The materials needed are easy to get, inexpensive or
already available in the classroom4. The investigation is a what-happens-if, comparison or
measuring question, not a why or how5. The question is interesting to the investigator6. The question is important (or relevant) to the crayfish in
its real life7. The question isn’t a “Lookup” question8. The question can be answered by something you can
do in this classroom
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About the Class Rules
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)
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Looking at our questions?
Travel around the room with a partner to pick 2 questions with the following criteria: One is a “Lookup” question One is not investigable according to the
class rules
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The Lookup Questions
Students use resources to learn more about crayfish --> more information for their own investigations
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Which questions can we answer from the wall?
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!
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? 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?
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 Feature Variations1. Learner engagesin scientificallyoriented questions
Learner poses aquestion
Learner selectsamong questions,poses new questions
Learner sharpens orclarifies questionprovided by teacher,materials, or othersource
Learner engagesin questionprovided byteacher, materials,or other source
2. Learner givespriority to evidencein responding toquestions
Learner determineswhat constitutesevidence andcollects it
Learner directed tocollect certain data
Learner given dataand asked to analyze
Learner given dataand told how toanalyze
3. Learnerformulateexplanations fromevidence
Learner formulatesexplanation aftersummarizingevidence
Learner guided inprocess offormulatingexplanations fromevidence
Learner givenpossible ways to useevidence to formulateexplanations
Learner providedwith evidence
4. Learner connectsexplanations toscientificknowledge
Learnerindependentlyexamines otherresources andforms the links toexplanations
Learner directedtoward areas andsources of scientificknowledge
Learner givenpossible connections
5. Learnercommunicates andjustifiesexplanations
Learner formsreasonable andlogical argument tocommunicateexplanations
Learner coached indevelopment ofcommunication
Learner providedbroad guidelines touse sharpencommunication
Learner givensteps andprocedures forcommunication
More ---------------Amount of Learner Self-Direction --------------- LessLess ------------- Amount of Direction from Teacher or Material --------- More
Essential Features of Classroom Inquiry and Their Variations
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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?”
Teacher Identified Benefits of Shifts Toward Inquiry
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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 inquiry-based means?
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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
Reading from course reader:
Bransford & Donovan (2005). Chapter 9: Scientific inquiry & how people learn.