1. Reflect on Duschl and Grandy's notion of inquiry in relation to your personal experiences both as a student and as a teacher.
As a student, I need to "see and do" in order to understand the "how and why". The "hands on" approach works best for me.
Using pre-collected data, in some cases, is sometimes the only way inquiry and analyzing can be done.
Middle school students have a lot of "stuff" going on in their heads. Trying to deal with abstract concepts is difficult at this age. Developmentally the majority are not ready. Therefore, science is usually one of the subjects that gets the bad rap, especially Earth science. Most students' comments are: "science is boring", "I'm not good at science", "science is hard", and "why do we have to study/learn this stuff anyways?"
In order to keep students' attention, hands-on activities are needed to supplement the facts/information they must learn.
Hands on collection of data is important. Middle school students need to "see" where/how the data comes from. Data can also be provided by using a database, from which there are an infinite number to choose.
Some inquiry is best when done with hands on learning. Computer models are cool....but so is playing with "silly putty" and a cornstarch slurry to help them understand the workings of the asthenosphere and plate tectonics. Or, using "play dough" to see how anticlines and synclines are formed.
Using a database such as GIS is a good way for students to interpert data that they would have a difficult time collecting themselves. It provides a ready made selection of information for analysis. It is up to the educator to provide the basis of the inquiry for the students so they have an understanding of why they are doing the analyzing and/or what they are analyzing.
Using features such as Excel for graphing are beneficial if the students understand the concept behind the graphing. Most of the time they are only interested in playing with the pretty colors and designs rather than focusing on the task at hand. If asked to do the same type of analysis on a paper graph where they have to figure out the X and Y axes and the intervals would they be able to do it without a detailed explanation?
2. Reflect on any one of the above trends in relation to your classroom teaching and the DataTools investigations that you are implementing (or will be implementing shortly)
Science is happening all around us. I ask my students if they are scientists. Their first response is "no". We discuss why. We talk about what scientists do and if anything they do is like being a scientist. This leads to the discussion that scientists observe and unless the students live in a "little black box", they too are scientists because they observe.
This activity helps them take a new look at science and inquiry. They begin to understand that maybe science is not so bad after all and can actually be fun and heaven forbid, they might learn something in the process.
Finding and using all the resources/databases available takes a tremendous amount of time. Not only to find what you want, but then to adapt it to the lesson.
As a student, I need to "see and do" in order to understand the "how and why". The "hands on" approach works best for me.
Using pre-collected data, in some cases, is sometimes the only way inquiry and analyzing can be done.
Middle school students have a lot of "stuff" going on in their heads. Trying to deal with abstract concepts is difficult at this age. Developmentally the majority are not ready. Therefore, science is usually one of the subjects that gets the bad rap, especially Earth science. Most students' comments are: "science is boring", "I'm not good at science", "science is hard", and "why do we have to study/learn this stuff anyways?"
In order to keep students' attention, hands-on activities are needed to supplement the facts/information they must learn.
Hands on collection of data is important. Middle school students need to "see" where/how the data comes from. Data can also be provided by using a database, from which there are an infinite number to choose.
Some inquiry is best when done with hands on learning. Computer models are cool....but so is playing with "silly putty" and a cornstarch slurry to help them understand the workings of the asthenosphere and plate tectonics. Or, using "play dough" to see how anticlines and synclines are formed.
Using a database such as GIS is a good way for students to interpert data that they would have a difficult time collecting themselves. It provides a ready made selection of information for analysis. It is up to the educator to provide the basis of the inquiry for the students so they have an understanding of why they are doing the analyzing and/or what they are analyzing.
Using features such as Excel for graphing are beneficial if the students understand the concept behind the graphing. Most of the time they are only interested in playing with the pretty colors and designs rather than focusing on the task at hand. If asked to do the same type of analysis on a paper graph where they have to figure out the X and Y axes and the intervals would they be able to do it without a detailed explanation?
2. Reflect on any one of the above trends in relation to your classroom teaching and the DataTools investigations that you are implementing (or will be implementing shortly)
Science is happening all around us. I ask my students if they are scientists. Their first response is "no". We discuss why. We talk about what scientists do and if anything they do is like being a scientist. This leads to the discussion that scientists observe and unless the students live in a "little black box", they too are scientists because they observe.
This activity helps them take a new look at science and inquiry. They begin to understand that maybe science is not so bad after all and can actually be fun and heaven forbid, they might learn something in the process.
Finding and using all the resources/databases available takes a tremendous amount of time. Not only to find what you want, but then to adapt it to the lesson.
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