Effective Science Teaching

In order to fully develop critical thinking skills necessary to function in the world of science, and the world in general, science teachers must incorporate more robust authentic inquiry activities, as part of their overall science curriculum. However, in my experience as a science teacher (18 years) and a science program director (3 years) in inner-city high schools in Boston, students do not have the opportunity to engage in robust authentic inquiry activities. Using my years’ experience in the public education system, it is clear to me that factors, such as teachers’ inadequate content knowledge, lack of motivation to implement inquiry, pressure to teach to high stake standardized tests, lack of experience

Science is a great way to begin encouraging children to learn observational skills because one needs to be focused. Getting our youth exposed earlier in the education process could potentially open up minds to a greater understanding. Critical thinking is important in all aspects of life. It is critical to science because science only progresses, in the simplest terms, by uncovering the patterns underlying the materials and processes of nature. Loosely speaking, critical thinking requires one to drop biases, prejudices and assumptions for the simple reason that these can all lead one to the wrong conclusion. If a wrong conclusion is reached it is more difficult to face reality. Acquiring these critical thinking skills will allow students to see our society from a variety of perspectives which is how we begin to make change.

The process skills approach to teaching is defined as the educator helping children develop science skills and processes to confidently undertake their own investigations (Campbell, 2012). These skills are developed through: communicating, science language, asking questions, making sense of phenomena, predicting, modelling, conducting investigations, planning, testing, observing, reasoning, and drawing conclusions of science concepts (Campbell, 2012). When the educator assist children’s learning, it is important to put the emphasis on the nature of science and scientific concepts. Guided discovery approach to teaching requires the educator to ask effective questions that encourage children to explore and extend their investigations throughout science learning (Campbell, 2012). This can be developed through play experiences as children explore their world around them. An interactive approach to teaching children is based on questions that lead explorations and the educators to provide essential resources to guide these explorations (Campbell, 2012). It is the educators’ responsibility to support children’s development, ideas, questions, ways of thinking, and develop scientific thinking. Furthermore, an inquiry approach to teaching relates to children investigating the answers to their own

science -inquiry concepts. In the video clip from lesson 4,minute Students will work together to form hypothesis, observe ,follow procedure ,collect and analyze data, write a conclusion. This lab has four stations, with each stations student were dealing with situation involving phenomenon that they see outside of the classroom, likely on daily basis. so, with each station the Students can be seen using data and their observations as evidence to explain why they were seeing this real-world phenomenon. then students need to answer the lab analysis questions that also connect them with real world. video 2. Furthermore, to help students construct their explanations, I asked questions that push students to make connections to the real world. For example, in video 2, minute , I ask students why organic compounds dose not conduct electricity ? and how about if we try using water and salt ?

Integrating other learning areas in our unit of work and exercising more resources that teachers can use in the classroom base upon our science unit is also a crucial element that our group was missing that needed to be included in our presentation. The classroom environment should include lots of books, visual materials, ICT devices and activities to facilitate learning and keep the student’s interests by promoting questioning and discussion to stimulate their science thinking processes and skills in a creative and encouraging environment. (Pitcher, 2014)

These lab equipments and books reflect the scientific knowledge and skills program, which is part of our learning learning framework. “Science learning during the early childhood years encourages children to discover the world around them and refine their understanding of it” (Fuentes, 2010).

During the course of the year, we learned about the Investigation-Colloquium Method (I-CM) of the teaching science which emphasizes that children learn more by interacting with their peers, sharing their thoughts and collaborate information among themselves. As the word colloquium suggests, it is an informal gathering of peers during a discussion, it is during this discussion children expand on their learning experiences. This method is similar to what Vygotsky would have considered as the “Zone of Proximal Development.” His theory suggested that during a colloquium children tend to sharpen their perception which will, in turn, promote mental growth. As a future teacher of science, my goal is to base my lesson plans on the I-CM method by using it as a benchmark for my instructional practices. Some of these approaches would include concepts, materials, investigations, use of data charts, creative dramatics, and closure to name a few. Each of these subcategories of I-CM further enhances the concept of this method which will be discussed later in further detail. However, in my opinion, the role of a teacher is the pinnacle entity for a successful colloquium among children and an even more successful pedagogy of science.

Encourage teachers in your school district to move to more hands on learning for student in preschool through high school. Middle and high school students can benefit from doing experiments. “Encourage your child to study in several short blocks of time, instead of one extended time period” (Hutton).

Based on the NSTA Position statement, the curriculum of science from kindergarten through 12 grades has kept changing during the century of rapid development of science. Those changes increase the complexity of teaching and learning science. Teachers are required to design the science class that provides sufficient and effective activities of science to students. In addition, students are expected to complete the task by following the instruction and to adopt the factual knowledge replacing the superficial information or isolated facts. The importance of science programs is to assist students to adapt the community of the well-developed science, and develop student’s self-assessment skills.

Since I am in a kindergarten class doing the communicating in scientific ways poster was not very proper for their age. Missy came up with a friendly kindergarten scientific poster that we could use to do the lesson plan with our students. It was not easy to do this lesson plan because my CT kept changing the date I could do the lesson plan. The day of the lesson plan I had all of the students present. I had all the students make a circle in the carpet area. I ask students, how do scientist think? I let them think first about the question by themselves, then share with an elbow partner, and lastly we share as a whole group. Students had a very good general idea of how a scientist thinks. Of course since it was a kindergarten class some of

This assignment is a case study of a child’s engagement, inquiry skills and understanding of physical or chemical understandings. There are two parts to the assignment that build to the final case study report. Part A is to design a science inquiry activity suitable for engaging a child at junior primary with physical or chemical science understandings that uses materials like water, sand, ball or tubes. At the next, it is needed to figure out how the planned inquiry activity links to the Australian Curriculum and the early Years Learning Framework. This report also needs to explain and justify the learning theory that underpins the activity and the proposed teaching and learning approach. At the last

As part of the science curriculum, it is mandatory to introduce the concept of enquiry through experiments and investigations. The practical element of science promotes the idea that children need to develop a certain level of scientific enquiry through a wide range of activities suggests, Cross and Bowden (2014). Some examples of scientific enquiry can range from; nature walks in order to observe the numerous mini beasts amongst the school

In Science, teachers serve as the facilitator of learning, guiding them through the inquiry process. Teachers must ask open-ended questions, allow time for the students to answer, avoid telling students what

In Te Whariki (Ministry of Education [MOE], 1996), it is reported that science creates opportunities for children to learn strategies for active investigation, thinking and reasoning (p 98). Children are naturally scientists” is one we hear often. There curiosity and need to make the world a more predictable place certainly drives them to explore and draw conclusions and theories from their experiences. Kilmer & Hofman (1995, p 44), cited in Eliason & Jenkins (1999, p 263), stated the benefits of science for young children include the promotion of intellectual growth, greater potential for success in school, and opportunities for development. Science in early childhood education for young children should be encouraged to develop them as they participate in science. Therefore, children need guidance and structure to turn their natural curiosity and activity into something more scienctific. They need to practice science – to engage in rich scientific inquiry. Scientific inquiry provides the opportunity for children to develop a range of skills, for example; explore objects, materials, and events, describe (including shape, size, number), identify patterns, share and discuss ideas and listen to new perspectives.

I believe that Science is a very important part of the New Zealand Curriculum, because it provides children with valuable knowledge that they can use in their lives, while also helping to develop critical thinking. Teaching Science in primary schools can be broken down into two different parts, the Nature of Science strands and also contextual strands. The Nature of Science is the core strand of science in the New Zealand Curriculum. The strands include investigating, communicating, understanding, and participating and contributing. The contextual strands are the topics that can be taught, which are the living world, planet Earth and beyond, physical world, and material world. In this essay, I will discuss my current understanding of teaching Science in New Zealand primary schools, both through my own experience and knowledge gathered from selected articles, I will also discuss my understanding of the Nature of Science strands, and finally talk about the Nature of Science strands referring to the Building Science Concepts book, Where’s the water?.