Conclusion Module
Goals:
- Consider which science practices will require the greatest shift in your current science instruction.
- Explore how the science practices typically occur synergistically and not just one at a time.
- Reflect on the importance of students engaging in the science practices, and not just the teacher demonstrating the science practices.
- *Create a representation of the relationships among the eight science practices.
- *Evaluate a lesson plan from existing science curricula to consider what science practices are included.
Agenda:
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Materials:
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1. Science Practices Card Sort
The Task:
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Discussion Questions:
- What science practices do you currently incorporate most frequently? Why?
- What science practices do you currently incorporate least frequently? Why?
- What are some strategies you could use to include some of the more rare science practices in your instruction?
2. Examine a Classroom Vignette
Although we have been focusing on one science practice at a time, often students engage in multiple science practices in one lesson
The Task:
- Planning and carrying out investigations
- Using mathematical and computational thinking
- Analyzing and interpreting data
- Constructing explanations
- Developing and using models
- Engaging in argument from evidence
- Obtaining, evaluating and communicating information
The Task:
- Read the classroom vignette, which comes from the Instructional Leadership for Science Practices (ILSP) website.
- Identify which of the science practices you see students engaged in. Remember, the science practices include:
- Planning and carrying out investigations
- Using mathematical and computational thinking
- Analyzing and interpreting data
- Constructing explanations
- Developing and using models
- Engaging in argument from evidence
- Obtaining, evaluating and communicating information
- Afterwards, share out which science practices you saw students engaged in and where in the vignette you saw them.
3. Analyze a Video
- One key difference in the new science standards is that students should be doing the science practices (not just the teacher)
- New science standards show a shift in describing students "learning about" to "figuring out" science phenomena
- The NGSS Implementation Guidelines handout describes this shift in more detail
The Task:
- What are the roles of the teacher and the students?
- How well do you think this video encompasses the shift from “learning about” to “figuring out”?
- What are some ways the initial discussion could have been revised to include a greater focus
on a science practice?
- Watch the first few minutes of the video below, which is from a middle school science classroom. This video is from a lesson on decomposition in which students are providing their initial explanations of what is occurring to strawberries that have been left in a bag.
- As you watch the video, keep in mind the following questions:
- What are the roles of the teacher and the students?
- How well do you think this video encompasses the shift from “learning about” to “figuring out”?
- What are some ways the initial discussion could have been revised to include a greater focus
on a science practice?
- After watching the video, discuss the questions above.
4. Discussion
Some key points about the science practices:
Discussion Questions:
- Science practices are a significant shift in instruction that will take time and support to implement into current instruction.
- This shift includes a greater focus on student directed instruction in which students use evidence to make sense of the natural world (i.e. “learning about” versus “figuring out”).
- The science practices work synergistically together and not in isolation.
- The potential gain is greater when one does not try to do too much – students cannot attend to all of the practices at the same time. It is okay for a lesson to focus on one or two science practices.
Discussion Questions:
- What questions do you still have about the science practices?
- What supports might you need to better integrate science practices into your instruction?
*Extension Activity - Creating a Representation of the 8 Science Practices
The Task:
- Work in small groups to develop a representation of the eight science practices. Consider the relationships between the practices and how you might convey these relationships to teachers less familiar with the science practices.
- Share out your representations
- Afterwards, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the different representations
*Extension Activity - Analyze a Current Lesson Plan
The Task:
- Share a lesson plan from your current science curriculum to evaluate in terms of the science practices. Make copies of the lesson plan for others to read.
- While analyzing the lessons, consider:
- What science practice(s) are included?
- How student directed is the lesson?
- You may choose to use the Science Practices Continuum from the ILSP website to focus your analysis and evaluate the level of opportunities for student engagement in the science practices.
©2016 Boston Public Schools Science Department