Linguistic and Scientific Activities for Learning to Teach*

Linguistic and Scientific Activities for Learning to Teach* Freire1,Martin2,Baptista1, Cruz1, Perez2, Sierra2 & Vilela1 (afreire@fc.ul.pt) (mcvilela@hotmail.com) 1-Universidade de Lisboa Centro de Investigação em Educação, Faculdade de Ciências Campo Grande 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal. 2-Universidad Alcalá, Departamento de Orientación Plaza Cervantes, 10, Alcalá de Henares, España * Profesorado Europeo de Ciencias: Conocimiento Científico, Destrezas Linguisticas y Medios Digitales (PEC) COMENIUS 2.1 Action Financed by Projecto Socrates 226641-CP-1-2005-1-ES-Comenius-C21

Purpose • To present the project PEC and their aims • To describe activities designed to emphasise reading and writing in science classes through Internet

Project Aims • To promote initial (pre-service) Science Teacher Education • To elaborate/implement activities and learning material to facilitate learning in science • To develop reading comprehension and written expression skills concerning scientific texts through linguistic activities • To use internet as an information source in secondary school pupils’ activities (scientific web pages as authentic material to develop didactic activities) • To demonstrate how common/scientific language can contribute to scientific literacy in Science Education • To promote mobility actions of science student teachers • Evaluate/disseminate obtained project outputs

Project Partners Spain (University of Alcalà – coordinator) United Kingdom (University of Leicester) Portugal (University of Lisbon) Sweden (University of Gavle) Finland (University of Helsinki) Slovakia (University of Komenskeho) Turkey (Technical University of Karadeniz)

Project Products • Report – Comparative study of the science curricula in participating countries • Web pages analysed and selected • Mobility actions • Course addressed to in-service science teachers • Report - Conclusions CDs addressed to teachers and pupils

Criteria to design CDs activities • Activities are design to improve scientific knowledge and promote comprehension of reading and writing skills • Web pages’ research is valued in two different ways, some times the pupils can begin with the web page’ exploration another times, during the activity, they can consult the web page to get more information concerning the topic under study • Pupils are involved in a wide variety of actions • Activities are flexible enough to allow teachers to introduce modifications to match the pupils’ needs at different levels

Linguistic and scientific activities (PEC, 2006) Scientific activities • Being aware of scientific concepts • Being aware of scientific procedures • Establishing, relationship among different concepts • Comparing different scientific procedures • Data interpretation • Graphic interpretation • Solving problems • Drawing evidence-based conclusions

Linguistic and scientific activities (PEC, 2006)

Activities for Middle School • Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage (Portuguese activity) • States of Matter (Spanish activity)

Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage • Goals • To learn about life at sea during the era of sea travel. • To formulate questions about 16th century sea travels based on text readings. • To record and to select information from the Internet relevant to the questions raised. • To record and to summarise the information selected. • To compose written texts about the subjects of study. • To communicate the final work using tools like PowerPoint. • To select and perform practical activities available in web pages about food preservation. • To learn about both past and present methods for preserving food. • Background • Promotion STSE approach • Constructivist focus, values the scientific inquiry approach • Preparation for public understanding of science and scientific literacy • Evaluation for learning

Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage • Read carefully the following text: In 1519 Magellan and his fleet set sail from Seville, Spain, to find a sea route to the Spice Islands in Indonesia, where the most sought-after commodities — cloves, pepper, and nutmeg — flourished. Most important, they were looking for a passageway, a strait, through the great landmass of the Americas that would lead them to these fabled islands. (…) With a fleet of five ships and more than two hundred men, they set out in search of the Spice Islands. Three years later they returned with an abundance of spices from their intended destination, but with just one ship carrying eighteen emaciated men. They suffered starvation, disease, and torture, and many died, including Magellan, who was violently killed in a fierce battle. (FromOver the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen, 2004: Harper Collins)

Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage • Write down some questions about themes in the text. • Share your questions with your colleague. • Choose one of them and use the Internet to find out information that will help you to write an essay. Consult the following web pages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan http://www.mariner.org/educationalad/ageofex/magellan.php# http://www.vidaslusofonas.pt/fernaomagalhaes.htm http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descobrimentos_portugueses • Based on the information you have assembled, write a summary of the main ideas related to the question you choose. • Use the PowerPoint software to present your findings to your classmates.

Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage(Extension Activity 1) Food preservation was one of the biggest problems in sailors’ long trips. Imagine that you are part of a scientific team that is studying food preservation at the time of Portuguese discoveries. To go deep into this subject you have the opportunity to do a trip in the time of discoveries and become a vessel captain assessor. Your mission is to guarantee the food preservation during this trip. • To prepare yourself for the trip, you are going to do some research about this theme. Consult the following web site and describe the food used on these trips and the food preservation methods at the time of discoveries. http://epoca.globo.com/especiais/500anos/990705.htm • Explore the following website to learn more about food preservation. Write the main ideas that will help you in the role of Captain assessor. http://www.understandingfoodadditives.org/

Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage(Extension Activity1 (cont.)) • If you want to be more prepared for your trip you can do one of the activities available for pupils under the title – for teachers – classroom activities. • Choose an activity and present the reasons for your choice. • Carry out the activity and prepare a summary about your work. • Share your work with your teacher and class colleagues and write the main ideas that come from all the class. • Prepare some written guidelines to help with your trip. These must be focused on alternative ways to improve food preservation during the 16th century. • Complete your study about food preservation, searching and assembling information about the traditional food preservation process in your country. You can include this information in the text you had prepared previously. • Share your work with your class colleagues and write down the main ideas reported by the whole class. • Look at the new words you have learnt while you have done this work. Make a list of these words and their meaning.

States of Matter • Goals • Reading Comprehension • Extracting the main idea • Skimming • Scanning • Extracting secondary ideas • Locating information • Background • The main aim of this activity is developing reading comprehension and developing the abilities of skimming and scanning. The activity is based on true-false questions. The activity also tries to develop writing as the pupil has to justify his-her answer using his-her own words. The main aim of this activity is developing reading comprehension and developing the abilities of skimming and scanning. The activity is based on true-false questions. The activity also tries to develop writing as the pupil has to justify his-her answer using his-her own words.

States of Matter(Activity 1) • Visit the web-page ' Matter: States of Matter' and read the three paragraphs about ‘solids', ‘liquids' and ‘gases' . Then, classify the following statements in true (T) or false (F), justify your decision finding the correct answer in the text. • The molecules of solids move from time to time. • When the temperature of a solid is increased, the amount of vibration increases though the solid keeps its volume and shape. • Molecules can move in liquids but they stay close to each other. • Liquids always keep volume and shape. • Molecules move rapidly and freely in any direction in gases.

States of Matter • Goals • Understanding procedures within an experiment. • Being aware of scientific concepts and procedures included in the experiment. • Transposing symbolic language into textual language • Background • This experiment can be worked in groups of two. Making pupils aware of the importance of materials used in the experiment, and of their own responsibility in working in laboratory.

States of Matter(Activity 2) • We are going to study the behaviour of solids, liquids and gases when a force is applied to them. In the web page three experiments ( EXPERIMENTA) with a solid, a liquid and a gas are found. Visit and carry out the three experiments. To perform the experiment you should increase force in macroscopic vision pressing + continuously. Press the thinker to activate microscopic vision, and then you will be able to see how molecules behave as force is increased. Fill in the following table, indicating if the physical magnitude increases, it does not vary or it diminishes Write a text that represents the meaning of the information written on the table.

These activities explicitly address: • reading comprehension skills as extracting main and secondary ideas, scanning text, inferring information, predicting information • acquiring and reinforcing vocabulary as knowledge of scientific words and their meanings and precise use of scientific words • Using writing skills as summarizing, paraphrasing, drawing conclusions and describing devices

Conclusions • Activities focusing on reading and writing, facilitating learning and discouraging the use of mechanical copy-paste techniques • Activities described show how a science teacher can guide their pupils to read and write and use Internet • Activities were designed to allow learning the new concepts in context and deepen the meanings these concepts acquire. • Activities require a new role for teachers, rethinking assessment and transforming schools as learning communities

Changes in Teacher Role • Teacher as guide and facilitator of pupils’ learning while supporting inquiry activities • Using open questions that promote the critical thinking, relating explanations and evidences, and promoting the use of different cognitive strategies • Promoting collaborative learning • Evolving pupils in inquiry process • Promoting the development of projects • Encouraging the learners to use their current knowledge to predict outcomes or solve problems • Creating the classroom culture where pupils feel they can reveal current understanding and be helped to firmer understandings • From presenters of content to leaders of an exploration and development of ideas in which all pupils are involved • ICT is transforming knowledge and learning to an extent that demands a radical review of present curriculum and methods of teaching and learning

Assessment for learning • To serve the purpose of promoting pupils’ learning • Assessment activities can help learning if it provides information to be used as feedback, by teachers, and by their pupils, in assessing themselves and each other, to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged • Formative assessment when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching work to meet learning needs

Classroom as Learning Communities • Teacher as researcher • Integrating research and action • Teachers' role is more focused on learning rather than management, and is more professionally rewarding • Pupils develop more competences which are transferable to non-school contexts • Provide a good preparation and a good model for many aspects of a better future life for all

Moving beyond Secondary school science teachers course University of Lisbon 3rd – 9th July 2008 The course intends that the participants are able to: • Analyse and evaluate some experiences already done with the Materials (CDs) elaborated by PEC Project members • Use Internet to introduce authentic science materials and real situations in Secondary School lessons. • Analyse and discuss the criteria used for selecting web pages • Analyse and discuss the criteria used for elaborating the didactic activities • Analyse, study and discuss didactic aspects of the CDs • Try to select a web page • Try to design some didactic activities both linguistic and scientific • Transfer this methodology to other educational levels and contexts (including self-learning) and dissemination of this methodology • Promoting distance learning in Science Education The course will be available in Comenius database

Linguistic and Scientific Activities for Learning to Teach*