Science Methods and Materials

EDU 371 - Elementary Science Methods and Materials
Schedule -Spring Semester 2007
updated: March 12, 2007

Class schedule url: http: www.gac.edu/~mkoomen/edu371/springschedule371/html

February 2007
Date & Time	Topic	Assignments and Resources	Questions to guide your reading and processing of these topics
Class 1 Tuesday, February 6 10:30 am	Intro to Sci/Math	Pre-assessment: dinosaurs, global warming, plants and seeds	Purpose for your reading: To think about math and science teaching and learning in the past and present. Questions to guide your reading: What are your memories of learning about science in elementary school? Why do we need to learn science? What does it mean to do science?
Science Class 2 Thursday, February 8 10:30 am	Five components of cooperative learning. Developing inquiry with dinosaurs and seeds and plants: the inquiry cycle & information and testable questions	Cooperative Learning Center Llewellyn: Chapters 1, 2, 4 & 5 Course packet (CP): pages 1-4	Purpose for your reading: To develop an understanding of the five major components of cooperative learning. Guiding questions for your reading: What are the five components of true cooperative learning? Explain these in your own words. How do you structure accountability. What are the types of positive interdependence?
Science Class 3 February 13 10:30am	Five components of cooperative learning. Developing inquiry with dinosaurs and seeds and plants: the inquiry cycle & information and testable questions Learning Through Inquiry Scientific methods and problem solving	Llewellyn: Chapters 1, 2, 4 & 5 Chapters 6 & 9: Course packet (CP): pages 1-4	Purpose for your reading: These chapters attempt to answer the question: what is inquiry? These chapters ask you to think about the science process skills and the scientific method. Questions to guide your reading: How would you define inquiry? What are children doing in inquiry learning? What are you doing as the teacher? ?
Science Class 4 February 15 10:30am	Developing inquiry with dinosaurs and seeds and plants: the inquiry cycle & information and testable questions (continued). Setting up experiments with plants and seeds Dinosaurs and information questions Scientific methods and problem solving	Llewellyn: Chapters 1, 6 & 9: CP: 3-4 Evaluating Websites	Purpose for your reading: These three chapters attempt to answer the question: what is inquiry? These chapters ask you to think about the science process skills and the scientific method. Questions to guide your reading: What is the difference between information and testable questions? How do the steps of the steps of the Inquiry Cycle parallel experimental design? What is the role of the science process skills in the scientific method? How can we apply descriptive statistics (range, median, mode and mean) to develop inferences about our results) What are different ways that we can use statistics (t-test and Chi squared) to understand the significance of our data?
Science Class 5 February 19 10:30am 10:30 am	Pre-instructional decisions in cooperative learning Inquiry cycle with dinosaurs and research	Llewellyn: Chapters 1, 6 & 9: CP: 3-4 Cooperative Learning Dinosaur illustrations	Purpose for your reading: To develop an understanding of the major pre-instructional decisions that a teacher needs to make. Guiding questions for your reading: What are some of the things that a teacher needs to think about before facilitating cooperative learning?
Science Class 6 February 23 8:00 am	Inquiry cycle with dinosaurs and research. Developing and promoting inquiry with students.	Llewellyn: Chapter 2, 4 & 5: developing and promoting inquiry with students.	Purpose for your reading: To understand the importance of developing positive interdependence and social skills in cooperative learning. To describe the "how to's" of inquiry. Questions to guide your reading in regarding Coop Learning: What are some ways that we can explain academic tasks? How do we structure Positive Interdependence: How do you facilitate desired behaviors? Llewellyn: Questions to guide your reading: How does a teacher invite students into inquiry? What is the difference between teacher and student initiated inquiries?
Science Class 7 February 27 10:30 am	Digging deeper into learning theories: What is contructivism? Inquiry cycle (reviewed)	Assessment and Constructivism Note: Bring in your ED PYSCH book Llewellyn:p. 99-106 & 109-115 Llewellyn: Chapter 3 & 7 Check out this website on Cooperative learning and assessment: http://www.co-operation.org/pages/ assess.html	Purpose for your reading: To build an understanding of how we assess inquiry based learning. To begin to think about learning theories and their application in science (and math) classrooms. Guiding questions for your reading: What are some of the learning theories that are discussed in Llewellyn? What might they look and sound like in a classroom? What does Llewellyn mean by the conceptual change model? How does conceptual change take into account student misconceptions? How do we assess student learning when we use inquiry based methods? How do we assess student learning in the scientific method or science process skills? What is the difference between assessment and evaluation?
March
Science Class 8 March 7 10:30 am	Presentation of experimental results Begin: exploring challenging subjects with kids: Global warming Research in Global warming	Llewellyn: Read The Tools of Classroom Talk Chapter Academic Controversy	Purpose for your reading: To understand the importance of developing positive interdependence and social skills in cooperative learning. To describe the "how to's" of inquiry. What is academic controversy?
Science Class 9 March 12 1:30 pm	Exploring challenging and complex subjects with kids: Global climate change with academic controversy Bringing the science of dinosaurs, seeds and plants and global warming together	In course packet: What we know about teaching phonics, page 105-110 are the most important parts for math and science. Preparation for Academic Controversy: *Is human impact responsible for global climate change?* Llewellyn:p. 99-106 & 109-115	What is your understanding of cognitive clarity? What are some examples used in by the author's that help you to understand how CC promotes learning with kids?
Science Class 10 March 13 10:30 am	Developing as a teacher of inquiry and constructivism	Academic Controversy Llewellyn: Chapter 3 What is Constructivism?	Read about constructivism in your Educational Psychology book; bring this book to class on Thursday. How do you teach and develop teamwork skills? What is the role of classroom observations in monitoring and intervening?
Science Class 11 March 20 10:30 am	Lesson Planning	Classrooms That Work (Reading Text): Chapter 7 Directions for Science Practicum Lesson Plan 1 & 2 Developing as a Teacher of Inquiry	Purpose in your reading: How do we incorporate research based reading strategies into science or any other subject matter?
Science Class 12 Tuesday, March 27 10:30 am	Peer teaching	Peer Review and Feedback of Science Lesson 1 Due: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 by 2:00pm to your peer and Michele
April
Science Class 13 Wednesday, April 25 8:00 am	How do we teach science and math to students with diverse needs	Montis, K. K. (2000). Language development and concept flexibility in dyscalculia: a case study. Journal for Research in Mathematics 31, 541-556. Read Teaching Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Students (hand out from class: Chapter 10) Read in your inclusive classrooms book about teaching students with special needs in a subject specific classroom. Bring this book to class.	Thinking about Kristine Montis’s article: Dyscalculia: A case study. Questions for processing and reflection: Who is Kay? What are Kay’s strengths? What are the challenges and difficulties as determined by the researcher for Kay in learning mathematics? What are the conclusions of Montis? Interventions used by the researcher and results: What are challenges for teachers of students like Kay?
Science Class 14 Thursday, April 26 8:00 am	How do we teach science and math to students with diverse needs	In your course packet read: Stockall, N., & Gartin, B. (2002). The nature of inclusion in a blue ribbon school: a revelatory case. Exceptionality, 10 (3), 171-188. Bring Inclusion text book to class. Read the Overview and Chapters 1-2 in Teaching Science for Scial Justice	Thinking about Stockall & Gartin's article: Questions for processing and reflections was the purpose of this research study? What is (or are) the research question(s)? What was the study design? How did they go about collecting data? What are the main findings of their study? What do their findings mean to us?
Class 15 Thursday, April 26 10:30 am	Teaching for social justice	Calabrese-Barton (Chapters 1-3)	Science Text: Teaching Science for Social Justice by Angela Calabrese Barton These questions are meant to start your conversation and give you common ground: How do we get students to see that science is more than just dissecting frogs and other animals, that it is in everything we do? How do you provide hands-on experiences when resources are not available, particularly in poor schools? How is this book going to help you to be a better science teacher? At the elementary level, should science be more focused on what interest students or are there areas of study that should be taught that can help students, particularly those in poverty? What do they think of the statement: "More important than the science to be learned is the practice of science itself and how youth both engage in that practice and learn to do so” (p. 33)? Impressions of the book so far? What questions do you have about the book?
May
Class 16 Monday, May 14: 8:00 am and 10:30 am	What is teaching against the grain?	Calabrese-Barton: Finish
Friday, May 18	Small group final exam		1-2:30 or 2:45-4:15pm

Updated: March 12, 2007