Agenda for the afternoon

1. Agenda for the afternoon • 2:00 pm – 2:45 pm: Learning theories (constructivism, behavioral and cognitive) • 2:45 pm – 3:30 pm: Supporting key pedagogical practices (Part 1): Addressing students’ everyday conceptions and misconceptions across grades 5-10.  • 3:30 pm – 3:45 pm: Break • 3:45 pm – 4:30 pm: Supporting key pedagogical practices (Part 1): Levels of representations in science (macroscopic, microscopic, symbolic) – examples from biology, chemistry and physics.

2. How do we learn? • Work in groups of four or five. Write in the middle of the paper “How do we learn? • For 2 minutes each person writes down what she/he thinks how we learn. • Then move clockwise one place. Read what your colleague has written and add a comment. • Repeat step #3 until you be back at your first statement. Read what has been written. • Sharing with all groups in whole group. How do we learn?

3. Learning via Conceptual Change • Conceptual Change: A context-appropriate change to the target science concept and a broadening of the learned scientific concept. (Duit, 1996) • Learning: A process of active construction which is shaped, helped or hindered—by the students’ prior knowledge and conceptions. • Students choose selectively from the whole host of teacher’s information, including all conscious and unconscious comments and statements. • Students choose information to which they can give their own meaning based on their previous conceptions.

4. Learning via Conceptual Change • The brain actively interprets the selected information and “draws inferences based on its stored information” (Nakhleh, 1992, p. 191). • Previous cognitive structures will either be: • partly supplemented or broadened (conceptual growth), or • rearranged, newly structured, and their area of application and status of importance changed (conceptual change) (Duit, 1996). • Student creates her or his cognitive structures, which represent sensible, coherent, and conclusive understandings of events and phenomena in her or his surroundings (Osborne & Wittrock, 1983).

5. Has learning happened? • Quote of a 17-year old student in his third year of chemistry: “When I look at the formula for carbon dioxide (CO2) then carbon must be gotten out of it. But in reality it is not possible to extract a solid, black substance from an invisible gas” (Pfundt, 1975, p. 158). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkEJTiodg-Qhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkEJTiodg-Q

6. Addressing everyday conceptions/misconceptions • What do students know about a scientific concept” • Elicit their prior knowledge: Probe 13, 2012, pp. 69-74 • Doing science – engage students in scientific inquiry

7. Scientific Inquiry How do we do inquiry? In groups of four do the following task: Using the handout create a helicopter and explore the properties of a helicopter. Share your work, ideas and experiences with the whole class.

8. Types of Inquiry

9. Essential Features of anInquiry-based Classroom • Learners engage in scientifically-oriented questions • Learners give priority to evidence in responding to questions • Learners formulate explanations from evidence • Learners connect explanations to scientific knowledge • Learners communicate and justify explanations (NRC, 1996, p. 29) (Probe #12, Vol. 3, pp. 93-100)

10. Related Ideas about Doing Science Grades 5 to 8 • Understanding about Inquiry: • Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of investigations • Observing and describing objects, organisms, or events • Designing and conducting experiments • Seeking information • Making models • No fixed set of steps but scientific investigations usually involve: • Collection of relevant evidence • Use of logical reasoning • Application of imagination in devising hypotheses and explanations to make sense of collected evidence

11. Related Ideas about Doing Science Grades 5 to 8 • History and Nature of Science • Scientist formulate and test their explanations of nature using • Observations, • experiments, and • theoretical and mathematical models

12. Related Ideas about Doing Science – Grades 9, 10 and higher Understanding about scientific inquiry • Investigations are conducted for different reasons including • To explore new phenomena • To check on previous results • To test how well a theory predicts • To compare different theories • Controlling of condition in order to obtain evidence • Observe as wide range of natural occurrences as possible to be able to discern patterns

13. Levels of Representations

14. Levels of Representations • Go into subject groups and discuss examples of scientific concepts on the three levels of representations: macroscopic, explanatory or microscopic, and symbolic. • Share examples with whole class • For technology educators: see next slide

15. Levels of Representations • Multimedia simulations allow learners to view and interact with models of phenomena and processes. • Such simulations provide learners with visual representations of dynamic theoretical entities that are difficult to represent in the static environment of the science textbook but are critical for understanding why matter behaves as observed. • Such simulations encourage active learning by giving students opportunities to manipulate complex systems and discern patterns through their own investigations. • Your task is to design a multimedia simulation reflecting the three levels of representation of a scientific phenomena. What simulation design questions would you have?

16. Macroscopic level • Overarching Understandings for ContentObservable (Macroscopic/Phenomenological/Everyday Experience/Everyday Conceptions) • Example: • Water boiling • Students everyday conceptions(Probe #8, Vol. 2, pp. 65-70) • Observed phenomena can be explained by the behavior of particles: The observed pressure of a gas arises from the combined effect of many particles

17. Explanatory (Microscopic) Level • Explanatory (Models, Theories) • All matter is made up of tiny particles called atomsThe particles in solids, liquids and gases are always moving (never still). • The properties of matter you see are a result of how those atoms behave.

18. Symbolic Level • Symbolic (Graphs, Formulas) • A variable is something that changes • Relationships between variables can be plotted on a graph • Relationships between variables can be interpreted from a graph

19. What can boiling water teach us?Content Understanding Kinetic molecular theory • Gases are composed of particles that are constantly in motion • There is empty space between the particles of a gas • The average speed of particles in motion is related to the temperature of the gas (higher speeds correspond to higher temperatures) • Internal pressure is directly proportional to temperature Internal pressure is directly proportional to number of particles

20. Content Understanding • Gas laws • Diffusion • Internal pressure is directly proportional to temperature • Internal pressure is inversely proportional to volume • Volume is directly proportional to temperature • Mass of the particles affects their rate of diffusion • Temperature affects the rate of diffusion

21. Content Understanding • Phase change • Adding heat energy changes state • Interactions between particles affects the amount of heat energy needed for phase change • Phase change requires energy change but no change in temperature

22. Summary • Everyday conceptions vs. misconceptions • Conceptual change and constructivist learning theories • Addressing everyday conceptions/misconceptions • Inquiry-based learning • Levels of Representations