In the past week, I have had an opportunity in our class to explore past, current, and future views on science curriculum and programming in the early childhood setting. Through our different readings, class discussions, and activities I have also gained some new insights to my own understanding about “science” as student and educator. For example, the readings from Worth and Grollman (2003) enhanced my perspective me about moving away from a narrow focus when thinking about teaching science. Worth and Grollman (2003) state, “Given the importance of community and family, and the individuality of each teacher and child, there is no single best science curriculum or program” (p. 3). What I took from this, is educators should avoid thinking …show more content…
I found these suggestions by Worth and Grollman informative because I was previously unaware of these strategies in helping to create and structure science lessons. As someone who struggles with science content, this provides me with some helpful suggestions for my practice. I recognize it is tools and strategies like the ones offered by Worth and Grollman that can make a difference in my future science curriculum development. I understand I need to continue to develop my science content knowledge through searching out reading like Worth and Grollman. In addition, I also found two interesting points in the reading by White and Stoecklin (2008), I believe will inform my teaching of science to children. First, I found intriguing White and Stoecklin’s (2008) introduction of the concepts of biophilia and biophobia. These two concepts were completely foreign ideas to me. In other words, students have an inability to find comfort or pleasure in natural environments, experiences, wonders or things unless they are exposed to nature. I recognize this issue may have a more significant influence with the use of technology to teach science. More and more, students are using the smartphones, computers, and IPads to learn science. Yet, I agree with White and Stoecklin’s idea that students need to learn sciences in natural environments. I recognize that as an educator I need to engage
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
The WebQuery, the 5E lesson plan, and the field trip guide, are examples of through which students engage in investigations that enhance learning and that helps them meet the NGSS. These artifacts also indicate my ability to develop lesson plans that promote the learning of science; that align content to the NGSS; that demonstrate the use of assessment to ensure that the students are meeting the standards; and that showcase the use of literature to support grouping strategies and lesson rationale
Study Guide Week 22 Science today and for the future Howe, A., Davies, D., McMahon, K., Towler, L., Collier, C. and Scott, T. (2009) Science 5–11: A Guide for Teachers (2nd edn), London, Routledge
In my role as secretary for Science National Honor Society (SciNHS), I was responsible for keeping an accurate record of the attendance and event credits of the members. However, while keeping this record I noticed that many members were struggling to meet their membership requirements. Some lacked the attendance requirements, while others lacked the science event credits. As one of the leaders of SciNHS, I knew it was my responsibility to solve the problems that arose in the club. However, we were all having difficulty finding a solution for how to help out the struggling members without losing integrity or being unfair. Since we did not want our members to struggle to continue in the club, we brainstormed with the leadership team about possible
When teaching natural sciences and technology, teachers need to promote an understanding of seeing these subjects as activities to promote curiosity and enjoyment about the world and that what we encounter around us. The history of science and technology should also be integrated with other subjects. Science and technology should be seen as a contribution to social justice and societal development (Motshekga, 2011). A growing need of discovery in science and technology needs to be promoted in order to form interest in ourselves, society and
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).
Denny Clifford (ID) has identified resources such as numerous published articles related to children learning based on Dr. Oakes problem-centered science curriculum, a list of 24 teachers with experiences in the problem-solving technique, a box of videotapes of teachers applying the problem-solving technique in their classrooms, a list of local teachers interested in learning about Dr. Oakes problem-centered science curriculum, and a copy of the grant proposal that funded the development of the materials for science teachers (Ertmer and Cennamo, 2007).
In 9th grade, I began tutoring every Tuesday after school and this continued through 10th grade. During that time, I discovered that my students had a negative disposition towards science. Many saw science as "boring." I wanted to change that idea, to help them realize the wonders of science, to prove that science is fascinating and entertaining. The following summer, I prepared my proposal and pitched my ideas to Mr. Terrence Davis, Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Hopkinsville.
Wheelers said that when kids are little they love science and find all aspects of it extremely fascinating, however, when many students get to middle school and high school, then the science information gets drilled out in lectures and tests all while students are competing against one another to get the best grade.
This framework builds on previous high quality works in science education: Science for All Americans (1989), Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1993), and NSES (1996). Unlike these previous standards, the importance of having the scientific and educational research communities was taken into the process for developing the framework. Thus, the most current research on science and science learning was grounded when identifying the science that all K-12 students should know, which increased its scientific validity and accuracy. The second step was facilitated by Achieve, Inc. with the recognition of the importance of state and educator leadership in the development of the actual standards. Thus, state policy leaders, higher education, K–12 teachers, and the science and business community were involved when developing Next Generation of Science Standards
Scientific-based instruction is something that teachers use all the time in their classroom. Teachers are consistently assessing and evaluating students’ performance, creating and amending individual education plans, lesson plans, and reflecting on their practices. As teachers, we should be doing rigorous research and building hypothesis to base further teaching practices on.
The National Curriculum for Science (2013), anticipates to advance all pupils’ scientific knowledge and conceptualise understanding through the segmented scientific approaches; biology, chemistry and physics. In addition, pupils should have an awareness of the nature, processes and approaches used within science, through the various scientific enquires that enable pupils to answer questions related to the world and life. Finally, the aims of the science curriculum also consider that children must have the resources to fund the knowledge that is necessary to use science in the, present and future tense states the Department of Education (2013).
This research focuses on science in early childhood education, because as an educator I have always had an interest in science and I often wonder whether I am teaching this topic effectively and correctly for the children. I will define ‘What is science? And I will use a minimum of six articles relating to my topic. What is Science? Duschl, Schweingruber, & Shouse, defines science, Science is both a body of knowledge that represents current understanding of natural systems and the process whereby that body of knowledge has been established and is continually extended, refined, and
Science is, by its nature, inquiry based and science knowledge is built through processes in which discoveries of the natural world are made (Abruscato, 2000). It utilizes discovery and scientific thinking process to explore and learn knowledge and skills. Learning by doing is the new efficient method in teaching science. For kindergarten, this method leads to better understanding of science concepts and builds skills that children will use in future life .What a child can do with assistance now, they can later do on their own (Vygotsky, 1978). John Dewey (1916) stated that children must be engaged in an active quest for learning and new ideas. Inquiry is important in educating kindergarteners because it not only keeps them interested in lessons but also helps them retain more information when performing exploration and investigation. Children are naturally motivated to learn and actively seek out information to help their understanding (Piaget, 1950).The success of students who participate in hands- on inquiry activities suggests that if students have first hands experience with science, concepts are easier to understand and apply and students are generally more favorable to science and have better understanding of the nature of science .Within a conceptual framework, inquiry learning and active learner involvement can lead to important outcomes in the classroom. In kindergarten, students who are actively making observations, collecting results and drawing