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7/28/2019 Derivation and Implementation of a Model
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Summer 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1 51
AbstractThis paper introduces a model for
using informal science education ven-
ues as contexts within which to teach
the nature of science. The model was
initially developed to enable university
education students to teach science inelementary schools so as to be consis-
tent with National Science Education
Standards (NSES) (1996) and A
Framework for K-12 Science Education:
Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and
Core Ideas (2011). The model has since
been used in other university courses and
professional development workshops
for elementary, middle school, and high
school teachers.
Learners experience the Nature of
Science (NOS) rsthand and develop
their own understandings of NOSthrough interaction with exhibits and
museum patrons. During experiential
learning opportunities (Kolb, 1984),
learners use the strategy of using your-
self as a learning laboratory (Burkett,
Leard, & Spector, 2003, p. 3) to gather
data on how they learn science content
information, experience NOS, and con-
struct strategies for teaching science.
Through reection, face-to-face debrief-
ings, and online discussion, learners
incorporate experiences into their cogni-
tive structures thereby constructing theirown conceptions of NOS consistent with
understandings commonly used in the
science education enterprise (Lederman,
2003; McComas, Clough, & Almazroa,
1998). Examples are given of learners
statements indicating understanding of
the NOS constructed during their work
in the museum. The model for science
education leaders use of informal set-
tings with educators learning about NOS
is included.
Introduction
The introduction of National ScienceEducation Standards (NSES) in 1996
focused science education leaders atten-
tion on ways to enable teachers to con-
struct understanding of the nature of
science (NOS) for themselves and for
students. The need for attention to NOS
was reiterated in 2011 by the National
Research Councils document, A
Framework for K-12 Science Education:
Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and
Core Ideas. A wide range of settings
and techniques have been proposed as
sites and means by which individuals
can learn something of NOS. The model
described herein illustrates a way in
which museums and similar informal sci-
ence education venues, also referred to
as free-choice learning environments,
can assist in communicating aspects of
the NOS. Informal settings that may
be used for this model include natural
physical sites (e.g., forests, beaches),
human-enhanced (e.g., nature centers,
preserves), or human-made (e.g., sh-
ing wharfs, industrial settings, or theme
parks). Venues to be considered may
also be places in the community speci-cally designed for education of the pub-
lic, including museums, aquaria, zoos,
libraries, botanical gardens, and natural
areas set aside as outdoor classrooms.
The impetus for moving university
courses for prospective science teach-
ers to informal science education venues
was the students observed resistance to
learning science through inquiry pro-
cedures consistent with the culture of
science (including NOS) while they
were in a university classroom set-
ting. Becoming disposed to, and able to
accommodate to, the culture of science
(including NOS) were the primary mea-
sures of success for use of this alterna-
tive venue.We provide a theoretical base for
the role of informal education set-
tings in science teacher education and
their potential to contribute to teachers
understandings of NOS. A description
of a methods course for teaching sci-
ence in elementary schools conducted
in an informal setting, the Museum of
Science and Industry (MOSI), is shared.
Procedures used in the museum setting
discussed here are the basis for a model
readily adapted to other informal set-
tings. The model has been successfullyused to develop other methods courses;
science, technology, and society inter-
action (STS) courses; and professional
development workshops for second-
ary teachers. All these learning oppor-
tunities embrace the current focus on
science, technology, engineering and
mathematics- STEM.
NOS as used for a conceptual frame-
work here includes how learners under-
stand what science is, how it works, how
scientists operate, and how the scientic
enterprise inuences and is inuencedby society (McComas et al., 1998, p.
4). Objectives for teaching NOS syn-
thesized from the work of McComas
(1998), Lederman (2003), and Osborne,
Collins, and Ratcliffe (2003), follow:
scientic knowledge is tentative; scien-
tic knowledge is empirical, or based on
theory laden observations, experimental
evidence, rational arguments and skep-
ticism; there are many ways to do sci-
ence (there is no one scientic method);
Barbara S. Spector, Ruth Burkett and Cyndy Leard
Derivation and Implementation of a Model
Teaching the Nature of Science UsingInformal Science Education Venues
Keywords: nature of science, inquiry,informal science education, education,teacher education
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52 ScieNce educator
science is an attempt to explain natural
phenomena; theories and laws have dif-
ferent relationships and roles; science
is embedded in culture, i.e. the culture
inuences science, science is part of
social and cultural traditions, and sci-
ence affects and is affected by the social
and historical milieu; science requires
the clear and open public reporting of
new knowledge, accurate record keep-
ing, peer review, and ability to replicate
ndings; creativity has an important
role in science; science and technology
impact each other; and the evolutionary
and revolutionary nature of science is
revealed in its history.
Science education sources, e.g.
the U.S. National Science EducationStandards (1996), note that scientists
historically have operated within ethi-
cal traditions that reect NOS, including
using empirical standards, respecting the
rules of evidence, making work public,
being open to criticism, valuing peer
review, and desiring knowledge. Science
is, therefore, a way of knowing about
the natural world. This way of know-
ing requires that scientists use habits
of mind, including values and attitudes
(curiosity, honesty, openness to new
ideas, and informed skepticism), com-putation and estimation, manipulation
and observation, communication skills
and critical response skills (American
Association for the Advancement of
Science, 1993). These are learned pat-
terns of thinking, behaving and com-
municating. Collectively these patterns
form what anthropologists call a culture,
the culture of science, a distinguishable
part of the general culture of society. The
label, culture of science, is used herein
and encompasses the nature of science
elements identied above.Theoretical Base
Science as a way of knowing and
thinking and science as it is taught
and learned in schools are not congru-
ent (Riedinger, Marbach-Ad, Randy
McGinnis, Hestness, & Pease, 2010).
Yager reported, Most science courses in
school are devoid of any of the features
that characterize real science (2008, p.
xiii). One way to bring the two domains
together is through rst hand experien-
tial learning (Kolb, 1984) based on the
work of Dewey (1938). Because science
is a culture that is often the antithesis
of learners own culture (Table 1), the
learners must experience it rst hand.
Features of this antithetical culture were
derived from an emergent design quali-
tative study of ve successive preser-
vice elementary science methods classes
modeling inquiry. Data from the ve
classes were treated as a single database
with ve different analytical frameworks
used to compare the students culture to
the culture of science (Spector & Strong,
2001). Table 1 provides excerpts from
that study.
One way to explain why informalsettings are productive for preservice
and inservice teachers to learn NOS is
to combine Kolbs experiential learn-
ing theory with an anthropological per-
spective (Cobern & Aikenhead, 1998;
Duit & Treagust, 1998; Maddock, 1981)
and the psychological theory related to
context and state dependent learning
(Bower, Monteiro, & Gilligan, 1976;
Chance, 1994; Grilly, 1989; McGeoch,
1932). Learning a culture occurs in a
context, an environment of a given pat-
tern of physical and social stimuli. These
stimuli become cues that elicit the corre-
sponding culture, including expectations
for acceptable behaviors in the culture.
Changing the cues makes it difcult
to elicit the culture, thereby providing
an opportunity to develop a new cul-
ture with new expectations for accept-able behaviors. Subsequently, Spector
and Strong (2001) generated grounded
Table 1: Examples of Science Culture as the Antithesis of Student Culture
Science Culture Student/Learner Culture
Ethical Traditions Make work public Keep work private between studentand instructor
Desire knowledge for knowledge sake Do not express desire for knowledgefor knowledge sake. Satised withextant knowledge
Respect the rules of evidence Individual personal experienceoverrides evidence in a research base
Value peer review Dont value peer review. Only reviewfrom instructor matters
Be open to criticism (of ideas andproducts)
Criticism (of ideas & products) isoffensive and not permitted in a groupor class
View science as a way of knowingand understanding
View science as a xed body ofknowledge.
Strive for best possible explanationthat is subject to change as newevidence becomes available
Explanation should be xed. Stopseeking or ignore new evidence so asnot to change explanation
Learners rewards Identifying problems Stating answers
Divergent thinking Compliance and conforming to agroup think
Taking intellectual risks Staying intellectually safe. Not
speaking unless I am rightExpectations forlearners
Ask questions Not ask questions
Have opportunity to investigate Be told the one correct answer by anauthority
Hold decisions in abeyance andtolerate ambiguity
Jump to conclusions. Bring immediateclosure
Psychological proles: High need for achievement-low fearof failure
Low need for achievement- high fearof failure
Process of achieving is reinforcing Not doing anything more than isnecessary to get by is reinforcing
(Spector & Strong, 2001, pp. 13, 14.15)
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Summer 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1 53
theory indicating, To the extent that we
can change characteristics of the context
in which traditional preservice teachers
learn science (and how to teach science),
we should be able to inuence their abil-
ity to accommodate to the culture of sci-
ence (p. 16). Barnes and Spector (1999)
developed recommendations for charac-
teristics of contexts having potential to
help uncertied teachers develop expec-
tations for learning consistent with the
culture of science and the NSES. These
characteristics, when combined in one
setting, describe contexts unlike those
commonly found in university class-
rooms and school district staff develop-
ment centers and more like what occurs
in novel settings, such as informal learn-ing environments constructed for free-
choice learning (Spector & Burkett,
2002). The combined ten characteristics
of a context with potential to inuence
preservice and inservice teachers ability
to accommodate to the culture of science
are shown in Table 2.
A major aspect of the culture of sci-
ence is that learning occurs through
open-ended or full inquiry (National
Research Council, 1996), a technique
resisted by many new and experienced
teachers. Such inquiry involves the pro-cess of generating questions, planning
an investigation, collecting and orga-
nizing data, analyzing and interpreting
the data, sharing with others interpre-
tations and supporting evidence, and
generating new questions. In the model
described here, the teacher education
students inquire into what and how they
are learning in both the informal set-
ting and other course experiences. They
simultaneously construct understanding
of the extent to which they are function-
ing within the culture of science.
An informal setting in the community
provides a collection of resources that
reduce the time and energy teachers need
to invest in inventing, designing, imple-
menting, and cleaning up a classroom.
These settings commonly exhibit more
complex events than teachers ordinarily
are equipped to illustrate in a traditional
classroom. Thus, if the informal setting
is in close proximity to the school, both
money and time can be saved. Further,teachers derive personal satisfaction
from interaction with community mem-
bers when arranging for use of informal
settings (Spector & Barnes, 1988).
The aforementioned theoretical base
supports moving science education
courses from the university classroom to
a science museum or other informal set-
ting. In the example herein, the museum
was selected because of its proximity to
the university, emphasis on science and
technology, and the presence of school
age children (Spector & Burkett, 2002).Additionally, the research base about
learning in informal settings, such as
museums and science centers, supports
this decision (Falk & Dierking, 2000;
Hein & Alexander, 1998; Leinhardt
& Crowley, 1998; Serrell, 1996). The
informal science education research
community did not explicitly report how
people learn NOS in informal settings,
however, it did indicate that studying
how people learn in museums and sci-
ence centers had elements in common
with NOS. These elements include
determining how science and technol-
ogy impact each other, developing
observation and experimentation skills,
and testing ideas as people indepen-
dently discover order in nature (Semper,
Diamond, & St. John, 1982).
The model we developed for using
an informal setting to teach NOS was
tested in the course described below for
preservice and uncredentialed inservice
elementary teachers. Similar courses andworkshops targeting uncredentialed sec-
ondary school teachers have been suc-
cessfully implemented.
VenueThe Museum of Science and
Industry (MOSI) as a context for
learning to teach science.
The 265,000 square feet at MOSI are
lled with interactive exhibits designed
to make science real and make a differ-
ence in peoples lives. Potential teachers
experienced the interaction of science,technology and society in a wide vari-
ety of exhibits. At MOSI students expe-
rienced hurricane force winds in the
Gulf Coast Hurricane, paddled across
a wire that was three stories above the
lobby on the high wire bike, learned
how the wetlands can clean water in
the BioWorks Buttery Garden,
explored the natural diversity of Florida
in Welcome to Florida, learned about
what makes the human body so amazing
in the Amazing You exhibit, soared
into the sky and beyond in the ight
and space exhibit, and studied life under
the sea from the view of a submersible
vehicle. They especially delighted in
taking a preschool/primary grade childs
view of the processing, distribution and
sale of orange products in the O is
for Oranges exhibit. Special events in
which each preservice class participated
as a full group included the scripted role-
play of a mission to Mars in a simulated
space capsule and mission control in the
Table 2: Context Characteristics Facilitating Accommodation to the Culture of Science
Make explicit the discrepancies between the culture teachers commonly bring to class and the culture ofscience.
Make explicit the relationship between science as a way of knowing and thinking and science as a way ofteaching and learning.
Provide authentic inquiry opportunities in contexts with features that serve as cues for learners toaccommodate to the culture of science.
Include exibility in (a) specic objectives, (b) resources, (c) use of time, (d) patterns of interaction withpeople, and (e) objects and events.
Use non-judgmental feedback focused on tasks.
Use ethical traditions of science as a guide for behavior.
Explicitly acknowledge need for multiple perspectives.
Provide time and space to integrate and share thinking, feeling and acting.
Facilitate collaboration among traditional and non-traditional students.
Establish a community of learners providing emotional support and caring
(Barnes & Spector, 1999, p 4)
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54 ScieNce educator
Challenger Learning Center, explora-
tion of the night sky in the Planetarium,
and viewing an IMAX lm of a natu-
ralists or technologists adventures.
Some of the exhibits changed over the
several semesters in which this model
was implemented at MOSI. The out-
comes for learners in successive years
were comparable to those described for
the class detailed in this paper. Thus,
although these exhibits were specic
to MOSI, there are comparably diverse
exhibits in interactive museums and
other informal science education venues
around the world that can be expected to
deliver similar outcomes.
In addition to being in a museum,
the course described here was web-enhanced, although access to the web is
not necessary for using informal educa-
tion settings to teach NOS. The website
provided a variety of resources for study
and a means of communicating asyn-
chronously among all class participants.
Please see Burkett, R. S., Leard, C. &
Spector, B. S. (Summer, 2004), Using
an electronic bulletin board in science
teacher education: Issues and tradeoffs
for details about the web-enhanced
aspect of this course.
Course Instructional DesignThe major reective strategy used
in the informal setting (museum) was
using yourself as a learning laboratory
(Burkett et al., 2003, p. 6). This strategy
involved students in systematic inquiry
by requiring them to reect on their reac-
tions to learning opportunities. Students
were asked to analyze their experiences
from two perspectives: looking through
the lens of a student and then the lens
of a teacher. Using the rst perspective,
they engaged in the activities as learners
of science. Using the second perspec-tive, they stepped outside themselves as
participants in an event to observe what
they were doing, how it felt, and what
they were thinking. Most of the students
had little or no experience with reec-
tion, so the following questions were
suggested to stimulate the reective
inquiry: What am I learning about a sci-
ence topic, about what science is, about
what scientists do, about the learning of
science, and about teaching? How am I
learning? What do I understand? What
dont I understand? What went on during
each experience? How did I react? What
can I learn from that reaction? How were
specic events and my responses to them
opportunities for me as a learner? Did
the events have any implications for me
as a teacher?
Methods students engaged in meta-
cognition, analyzed their own actions
and thoughts, and searched for patterns
revealing the way they made decisions
that enabled them to construct mean-
ing, and thus learn. The reections were
shared on an electronic bulletin board
associated with the class. Students
posted a reective journal each week andresponded to ve self-selected journals
each week. The professor responded to
all participants. Students were able to
read all the professors postings to all
students. Students referred back to their
museum experiences, analyses, and
interpretations to induce meanings for
various aspects of NOS and construct
understanding of the extent to which
they were functioning within the cul-
ture of science, using scientic habits of
mind to question, examine, and evaluate
their own learning experiences.Gathering and analyzing data about
their own learning processes and shar-
ing those in the community of learners
(a) helped learners make sense of course
experiences, including understanding
NOS; (b) provided data for self assess-
ment that helped determine what else
they needed and wanted to learn; and
(c) provided insight to varied ways their
future students were likely to learn.
Students made their work public by post-
ing products in the class electronic bul-
letin board for all class peers to review.Participants questioned each others use
of evidence and reasoning both in class
and on the bulletin board.
A primary goal of the course was for
learners to develop positive attitudes
towards science. An objective in the
course syllabus stated, The learner will
construct an image of her/himself as
an individual who actively participates
in science inquiry and values scientic
investigation as a process used in daily
life. S/he will eliminate any negative ste-
reotypes of scientists and alleviate any
alienation from science (Spector, 2004,
p. 2).
To achieve this objective, the learn-
ers themselves had to understand and
identify with how scientists operate and
be able to function in accord with the
culture of science. These learners had
to develop an understanding of NOS to
function within the culture of science.
Interviews with scientists of their own
choosing within the museum, the uni-
versity, and the community at large con-
tributed to students eliminating negative
stereotypes of scientists. A productive
approach to learning how scientists work
was for learners to do science. Thismeans that students use scientic habits
of mind to interrogate, inquire system-
atically, solve problems and make deci-
sions. The entire course, therefore, was
structured as an inquiry into the ques-
tion, What characterizes science teach-
ing in elementary schools consistent with
NSES? Students gathered data from
multiple sources, including experiences
in the science museum, a site exploration
of their own choosing in their commu-
nity, interviews with a scientist, labora-
tory activities of their own choosing,video taped visits to exemplary science
classrooms, a textbook (Koch, 2004),
readings and multimedia products on the
course website, weekly journals and sub-
sequent asynchronous discussions in the
website, and face-to-face small group
and whole class meetings. Observations
and reections on their own responses
to learning experiences in class were
part of their data set. These learning
opportunities were framed as individual
inquiries illustrating different degrees of
open-endedness nested within the over-all course focal question (inquiry).
The course utilized the ve Es lesson
plan: engage, explore, explain, extend,
and evaluate (Bybee, 1991). This model
facilitated opportunities for participants
to conduct inquiry and experience the
nature of science and its culture, and
empowered learners to see themselves
as individuals who could do science
and were positively disposed to doing
science. From this perspective they
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Summer 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1 55
constructed a vision of science teaching
consistent with current state and national
goals. Such a vision enabled them to
make appropriate decisions about cur-
riculum, instruction, and assessment to
enthusiastically introduce youngsters to
science as a way of knowing and think-
ing, and science as a way of learning and
teaching, in contrast to science as rheto-
ric of conclusions. Setting the course in
the museum allowed the structure of the
ve Es to be experienced multiple times
in authentic contexts.
Procedures at the Museum. Three
steps were used at the museum: activ-
ity prompts to engage students, times
to explore, and opportunities to debrief
in which knowledge being constructedwas explained. The activity prompts
provided by the professor guided the
students in designing their own explora-
tions of the exhibits within the museum.
Each foray to the exhibits began with a
different activity prompt. Learners, how-
ever, were advised to continue to collect
data using current and previous activ-
ity prompts throughout each successive
investigation. They compared their nd-
ings among exhibits to construct patterns
and saturate categories. The multiple
returns to the exhibit oor enabled stu-dents to apply their knowledge construc-
tions extending them to new contexts
provided by differing exhibits.
Students (N=35/class) explored differ-
ent exhibits each time they went to the
museum oor. Each foray to the museum
exhibit hall lasted between 20 and 30
minutes and was followed by debrief-
ings of varied time blocks depending on
the nature of the emergent discussion. In
debrieng sessions, participants focused
on reporting observations of characteris-
tics of the exhibits, themselves as learn-ers, patrons at the museum, and science
learned. Factors inuencing what they
observed were explored, and how they
made use of evidence was discussed.
In other words, they reected on, and
shared, how they made sense of what
they learned from each foray into the
museum evaluating their constructions
of their new knowledge. Readings in
their textbook and on the class website
served as a theoretical framework for
debrieng discussions. Debrieng was
key to ensuring positive impact of the
experience in an informal setting.
At the rst meeting in the museum,
learners received a map showing the
location of the exhibits. For the rst and
second task, in order to encourage peo-
ple to get to know each other, students
were assigned randomly to groups of
ve participants. Building a community
of learners was a priority in the course.
They were assigned the rst exhibit to
explore. Groups were switched for the
second task. For succeeding tasks, each
self-selected group went to a different
exhibit of their own choosing. The fol-
lowing procedures describe each activity
prompt used, its purpose relating to howto teach science, and the alignment of the
activity with the characteristics of NOS
noted earlier in the introduction to this
paper.
Activity prompt 1: Design a
commercial.
Description. Explore your assigned
exhibit and generate a three-minute
commercial to sell this exhibit to the
rest of the class. Enact your commercial
when the class reconvenes. The debrief-
ing begins with each group discussing
which exhibit they next want to visit as
a result of the commercials presented.
The full class addresses these ques-
tions: What did you learn at the exhibit?
What characteristics of the commercial
attracted you? What characteristics of
the exhibit attracted you? Why did these
things attract you?
Purpose. Introduce class participants
to an overview of the exhibits available
in the museum. Begin sensitizing learn-
ers to using themselves as a learning
laboratory by observing, gathering,
recording, analyzing and placing valueon information available about salient
features that become data for decision
making.
Alignment with NOS. This activity
aligns with the NOS characteristic: cre-
ativity has an important role in science.
Designing and enacting a commercial is
a creative way for students to share the
science they are learning.
Activity prompt 2: Analyze the
physical structure.
Description. Explore a second
exhibit. Record the physical character-
istics attracting your attention and those
that cause you to maintain attention.
Debrieng begins with groups reading
their lists of ndings to the full class
and answering questions: (a) What pat-
terns do you see in these data across the
groups? Sample ndings include color,
movement, size, spatial relationships,
sounds, brightness, things that are famil-
iar, things that appear strange, interactiv-
ity, things hidden behind covers to open,
etc. (b) What use is this information to
you in a classroom?
Purpose. Practice observing andrecording details. Identify characteris-
tics that will engage learners, therefore,
should be considered when building sci-
ence centers and other learning opportu-
nities in a classroom.
Alignment with NOS. This aligns with
the NOS constructs of scientic knowl-
edge is empirical and there are many
ways to do science, because students
gather and process data and make com-
parisons in a variety of ways.
Activity prompt 3: Human
interaction.
Description. While exploring a third
exhibit with your self-selected group,
attend to, and record, the contents and
dynamics of your interactions with each
other and the exhibit. Debrieng: What
behaviors of others attracted you to look
at what someone else was experiencing?
What did you talk about to each other?
What questions did you ask? What did
you do to generate answers with each
other? How did you determine which
answers were best?
Purpose. Help students become awarethat the natural process of learning
involves interactions, creativity, search
for evidence, and social construction.
Alignment with NOS. Aligns with sci-
entic knowledge is empirical or based
on theory laden observation, experi-
mental evidence, rational arguments,
and skepticism, because students are
experimenting and developing argu-
ments. This also aligns with creativity
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56 ScieNce educator
has an important role in science because
students are using their creativity during
the process to gather and analyze data.
Activity prompt 4: Link to thestandards.
Description. Collect evidence for
what standards might be addressed
through an exhibit of your choice.
Debrieng: How could any of the exhib-
its be used to meet major standards?
How are fundamental topical standards
included in the exhibits? Shared nd-
ings demonstrated observers needed to
go beyond the obvious topics such as
biology, chemistry, or space science and
see how any of the exhibits that at rst
appear to be specic to a sub-disciplineof science, could be used to meet major
standards, e.g., inquiry standards, pro-
cess standards, STS standards, unifying
themes, etc. Also some fundamental top-
ical standards such as force and motion
or energy could be addressed in almost
every exhibit.
Purpose. Show that one can contrib-
ute to learning many similar standards
regardless of the apparent topic or sub
discipline of an exhibit. This emphasized
almost any event could be used to pro-
vide students opportunity to learn many
required standards.
Alignment with NOS. This aligns
with science is embedded in the culture,
because people looked through their per-
sonal sensitizing lenses to discover the
science standards they saw within the
exhibits.
Activity prompt 5: Make
connections.
Description. Identify various science
concepts, technology concepts, and con-
nections to social studies and other dis-
ciplines in an exhibit. Debrieng: Howcan these connections contribute to
creating engaging and productive learn-
ing environments in schools? What is
the relationship between hard and soft
technologies?
Purpose. Sensitize learners to science,
technology, and society interaction and
the value and ease of enacting transdis-
ciplinary education.
Alignment with NOS. This aligns with
science is an attempt to explain natural
phenomena and science and technology
impact each other, because students are
asked to focus on science and technol-
ogy concepts in the exhibit areas.
Activity prompt 6: Observe
youngsters.
Description. Watch what young-
sters do in the museum. Do not inter-
act with them. Listen to what they say
and to whom they say it. Watch what
adults who are with the children do and
how the children respond to the adults
actions and statements. How does this
compare to what you did? What are par-
allel actions in schools?Purpose. Learn what youngsters do
naturally when stimulated by their own
curiosity, creativity, and actions of peo-
ple around them in a rich environment,
and when not directed by a teacher.
What they do is usually consistent with
the nature of science. Science proce-
dures formalize, systematize, and record
these natural responses. This is intended
to help participants get past experiences
that have encouraged potential teach-
ers to view science as something out of
reach or negative.
Alignment with NOS. Aligns with
creativity has an important role in sci-
ence, because youngsters naturally use
inquiry, and they creatively engage in
this process based on their individuality.
Activity prompt 7: Consider
logistics.
Description. Attend an exhibit that
requires you to wait, e.g., the high wire
bike or the hurricane. What do you do
with the rest of the group when waiting
for each person to take a turn interact-
ing with an exhibit? How do you move agroup from place to place and make it a
learning opportunity?
Purpose. Maximize learning for every
student regardless of the need to wait or
transfer between locations.
Alignment with NOS. This aligns
with science is embedded in the culture,
because participants are asked to reect
on their small groups cultural expecta-
tions in this particular setting. This opens
dialog for talking about science teaching
and learning in a classroom culture or a
world culture.
Activity prompt 8: Explore thePlanetarium.
Description. During the third class
meeting, students participated as a large
group in a visit to the planetarium. They
entered the planetarium to experience a
one-hour complex technology lecture by
a talented performer and space expert.
He described the important role of cre-
ativity in space science, the way space
science is limited by available technol-
ogy, and the way space science history is
evolutionary and revolutionary.
Students had an opportunity to askquestions of the presenter. The debrief-
ing was conducted immediately asking
such questions as: How did you feel
about this experience? A typical response
was I loved it. I expected to fall asleep
because it was dark and those padded
reclining seats were so comfortable. To
my surprise I stayed awake the whole
time. They were completely engaged
by the presentation. Next, they were
asked to individually write down all
the new information they had obtained.
Within ve minutes, eyes started to wan-
der. Each person usually listed one or
two items. Occasionally someone listed
a handful of items. The ensuing discus-
sion was especially important, because
most of these learners were convinced
that real teaching was lecturing. They
believed they could improve students
learning if only they could be better lec-
turers and use more props. Here they had
rst hand data to contradict that assump-
tion. Additionally, the variation in items
students wrote provided opportunity to
discuss the idea that the more you know
about a topic the easier it is to learnmore, even when the new information
is complex. The students realized that
it may be just as energy consuming to
learn basic information as sophisticated
information, if you have no, or minimal,
related knowledge upon which to build.
This opened a discussion of the role
of prior knowledge and its relationship
to the inuence of theories on scientists.
To provide exibility, the professor did
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Summer 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1 57
not plan a specic sequence for topics
of importance she intended to include in
each class session. Instead, she consis-
tently sought teachable moments during
face-to-face class interactions and bul-
letin board discussions on the website
to address key elements. A teachable
moment was when a need to know a
particular topic became evident through
actions, words, or body language. For
example, within the rst three weeks of
a class, without exception, one or more
students will say that science proved
something and/or something isjusta the-
ory. This provided occasion to explicitly
direct their attention to the section of the
syllabus labeled Language of Science,
and discuss the use of common lay lan-guage where scientic use of the words
has different meanings. Students com-
monly resisted the notion that science
can disprove something, but cannot
prove anything. They also found it dif-
cult to accept the difference between
laws and theories and that theories do
not grow up to be laws. These ideas were
cast in the same light as the myth of only
one scientic method they had encoun-
tered throughout their K-12 schooling.
Purpose. Provide self generated evi-
dence that passive lecture was not themost effective teaching strategy. Identify
the characteristics and impact of passive
activity compared to active experience
with the scripted role-play in the simu-
lated Challenger Center the week before.
Alignment with NOS. This activ-
ity aligns with science and technology
impact each ether and the evolution-
ary and revolutionary nature of science
is revealed in its history. The narrator
in the planetarium described what sci-
entists thought about the universe and
how that had changed with the Hubbletelescope. Students saw that science was
limited by the sophistication of the avail-
able technology.
Activity prompt 9: Explore a place
in the community.
Description. With your team, explore
a place in the community to conduct a
site exploration with children. Write
a collaborative report describing how
you could use this place as a setting for
teaching science to children and post it
in the discussion area of the class web-
site. Debrieng: Reect on how you
went about investigating the site and
learning for yourself. Your reactions
provide clues for ways to make the site
exploration an interesting adventure for
children. You have up to 30 minutes
to share with the entire class your plan
for children to use your site. You may
use any format for your performance/
presentation.
Purpose. Encourage prospective
teachers to do the following: (a) explore
ways to maximize learning in diverse
types of real world settings (b) experi-
ence the way an individuals perceptual
screen inuences what the person willsee in a setting and how that diversity
contributes richness to understanding the
whole, and (c) value their own adventure
and learning through full open-ended
inquiry as a meaningful way for their
future school children to learn science.
Alignment with NOS. This activity
aligns with the NOS precepts ofscience
and technology impact each other, sci-
entic knowledge is empirical, science
is embedded in the culture, creativity is
important, and science is an attempt to
explain natural phenomena.
Students Interpretations andResponses Related to NOS
Developing culture compatible with
NOS in a museum setting. When the
science methods class was taught in
the university classroom, the instructor
modeled aspects of the nature of science
including inquiry and ethical behaviors.
This modeling was not consistent with
traditional preservice students expecta-
tions for the role of the instructor in the
classroom (see Table 1). Discrepancies
between these expectations and course
reality led to frustration and anxiety
on the part of students. These were
expressed as resistance to learning and
teaching consistent with the nature of
science
When the course was taught in the sci-
ence museum, the students traditional
cultural expectations (See Table 1) did
not surface as a barrier to accepting a
way of learning and teaching science
consistent with current beliefs about
the ways people learn. The curiosity
of learners surfaced. Students consis-
tently sought new knowledge by asking
questions about the context and lesson
planning, and went about implement-
ing ways to answer their own questions.
They made their thinking (and work),
public instead of keeping it a private
communication between the student and
the instructor, as had been the case when
the course was conducted in the univer-
sity classroom. In cooperative groups
exploring the same area of the museum,
the natural tendency was for people
to talk to each other about the exhib-
its they were experiencing and to share
and question each others ideas aboutthese experiences. It appeared that the
action characterizing scientic inquiry
came naturally in the novel setting of
the museum. Students lost the self-con-
sciousness that often inhibited them in
a classroom. They were encouraged to
focus on the task instead of themselves.
A new culture was established in the
museum context with new norms such
as we share our thoughts and feelings,
we help each other out, we ques-
tion ideas and look for evidence, we
evaluate the quality of the evidence,and we dont punch a time clock. In
the museum, where cues led to percep-
tions of everyone being a part of a learn-
ing community, uncertied teachers
cultural expectations that they should be
teacher dependent and guess what is in
the teachers head were replaced with
expectations for multiple acceptable
answers constructed by various members
of the learning community. Peer pressure
to compete for the right answer, another
phenomenon seen in the classroom, was
reduced with the formation of this com-munity. Relationships between the way
participants constructed knowledge of
science and science teaching and the
way scientists constructed new knowl-
edge through multiple forms of inquiry
became obvious. One student summed
up the change for herself this way:
Now, because of metacognition,
reection, and active engagement
processes in the museum, I am
growing by leaps and bounds. . . . I
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58 ScieNce educator
realize that we are going through a
scientic inquiry process ourselves
and it almost feels as if I am the
one in complete control over what I
learn and how I learn it. It is amaz-
ing to see how far I had come! No
longer am I frustrated and search-
ing for the correct answers, praise,
or good grades! I just want to learn,
inquire and connect! No longer
do I feel bound to a textbook,
syllabus, or teacher-guided sug-
gestion. I realize that while these
things are extremely important, it
is more important for me to explore
independently those things that I
nd interesting and to apply my
observations to what I am learningand experience in this class.
Establishing positive attitudes toward
science. Helping students think posi-
tively about science was the rst step in
gaining a new perspective on the NOS.
The following quotes show how dif-
ferent students were learning to enjoy
science:
Several weeks ago I would never
have thought that I would be
excited about showing up for an 8
AM class. Yes, this past Tuesdaywas another exciting class!
I wish all my classes were as
enjoyable as this one. I am learning
so much.
The book is interesting-What a
refreshing change from my other
classes!
I learned a great deal from this
class, and Ill admit that originally I
didnt think I was going to!
Changing perceptions of what sci-
ence is. Students initially described sci-ence as a dull, boring, disconnected list
of memorized facts. Students percep-
tion of NOS began to change as they
had opportunities to explore exhibits in
the museum. Science became pursuing
curiosity through creatively and sys-
tematically investigating the natural and
human enhanced world around them.
They were amazed to realize that science
was embedded in society and present in
every aspect of their lives. The following
quotes from various students journals,
exit memos, and self-assessments illus-
trate their changing perceptions:
Science is not a bunch of discon-
nected facts to memorize and repeat
on tests, rather it is an exploration
and journey into the questions how
and why as it relates to everything
in our own lives.
I think that [site exploration
presentations] opened my eyes a
little more on the places we can
take children so they might
explore and realize that science is
all around them.
I feel it is important for [our
students] to discover phenomena
on their own and if any questionscome up, they can research for
answers.
[In the planetarium], the data
gathered was that the kids used
their imagination to learn. They
said things like I see the scor-
pion. They also used their prior
knowledge of a recent story about
constellations to build on the new
information they were visualizing.
Okay Okay! Looks like science is
going to beat me over the head! .
Everywhere I look its science. Mybrain hurts! It seems like once I n-
ish observing one thing; there are
six more things that have my atten-
tion. I know this is a good thing,
but ... I think sometimes ignorance
really is bliss!
Science as an on-going process of
improving human understanding of the
natural world as more evidence accumu-
lates was captured in this student com-
ment, Not only do we learn new things,
but we are constantly evolving andchanging what we already know.
Science became asking questions,
gathering data, sharing evidence, rea-
soning, interpreting, and negotiating
interpretations within a community of
learners.
I like that we were able to discuss
the answers with our own group
in order to combine our ideas and
construct different possibilities.
The unique thing that I observe
is how everyone uses and obtains
information in different ways.
... the main idea I took from class
today is diversity. For each group
had different interpretations on the
midterm and each group presented
differently. As a teacher I think
this is one of the most important
concepts to understand.
Changing perceptions of science and
scientists. Students shifted their under-
standings of science from being some
incomprehensible thing done by solitary
eccentric males in a laboratory to a pro-
cess they and their future students could
use to learn together about the world. Atthe end of the course, students provided
evidence in drawings and conversations
that they now recognized themselves and
their students as capable of doing sci-
ence. Drawings showed adult females,
often labeled me, accompanied by
one or more children gathering data in
a natural setting. They all showed happy
faces. Students were also explicit in their
journals, I feel that I have learned that
everyone is a scientist and is always col-
lecting data.
Changing Relationships withScience. As a result of their explorations
in the informal setting of the museum,
students began to develop a deeper
understanding of NOS by examining
their own relationships with science.
They began to perceive themselves as
individuals capable of taking part in
scientic inquiry. Evidence of students
changing relationships with science was
seen in the following quotes:
I now understand that science can
be a way of life, simply taking time
to investigate and explore. Beingcurious and wanting to know why
is a characteristic of a scientically
minded person that can be emo-
tional and fun at the same time.
I now come in with my own
questions and when [the instructor]
gives us the opportunity to visit the
exhibits, its up to me to learn what
I want. Im taking the opportu-
nity that I was denied when I was
learning about science. [The
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Summer 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1 59
instructor] gives us enough time to
discover things on our own ...
This class has drastically changed
my point of view of science. I
am not only a person who uses
scientic methods to make deci-
sions and to live my life, but rather
I have become one with the idea
of science as knowing. Science is
not DNA or factual information.
Science is life. We cannot be born,
live, reproduce, or die without
it. (I hope you understand I am
not speaking biology, chemistry,
or physics here although they
do apply.) Science is language,
music, math, society, interpersonal
skills, grief, playtime, and evendemocracy! I challenge everyone
to nd one thing that science does
not affect! In the end, science
has become everything. It is the
basis of all that we do, think, and
experience.
Changing understandings of science
teaching. The students were successful
learning science through open-ended
inquiry within the ethical behaviors
characterizing traditions of science and
had fun doing it. As they began to expe-rience science as meaningful, relevant
to themselves, fun, and having a lasting
quality, they entertained the idea that
inquiry within the ethical traditions of
science was a meaningful way to enable
their future elementary school students to
learn science. Representative statements
from students included the following:
Isnt it amazing how much
information we have forgotten
since childhood? Teachers taught
much differently then. I know I am
retaining much more information inthe way our instructors are teach-
ing us how to be teaching our
students. Given these opportunities
we can expand on so much, which
leads us to understand things in
our own ways and in turn share the
knowledge.
... I really enjoy being able to
work hands-on and learn by experi-
ence. This is also a great way for
children to learn. By being able to
explore on their own, they are able
to come up with their own conclu-
sions to why things work the way
they do.
... This course has really
opened my eyes to how traditional
classes instill pre-packaged learn-
ing into their students by teaching
science as just a series of facts.
Science taught as inquiry allows
students to question what they
see and know and nd scientic
answers for themselves.
We are now called upon to
become warriors in our own class-
rooms, families, and communities.
We have been empowered. It is
our responsibility to encourage theworld to learn all the implications
of science.
I have learned how to experience
situations, make connections, to
explore independently and then I
was handed the perfect tool [the
5Es] for helping others do the
same! Wonderful!
ConclusionBy taking students to a museum
or other informal setting, they were
removed from the typical classroomatmosphere and placed in a more relaxed
learning environment. In this way stu-
dents let go of their perceptions of what
learning looked like and became free to
explore through inquiry. Students stud-
ied exhibit areas by becoming immersed
in the experience and developed inter-
esting ways to share their learning, a
concept stressed through the learning
laboratory. The course continued to help
students build their skills with repeated
opportunities to practice while building
a community of learners. Revisiting the
museum exhibit areas with various focalquestions in mind helped students recog-
nize inquiry as an iterative process.
These prospective teachers when
immersed in an inquiry experience
began to recognize themselves as capa-
ble individuals who derived benets
from using scientic habits of mind in
their everyday life. They began to recog-
nize the relevance of science to human
existence and to see that developing
scientically literate students included
helping students realize their own poten-
tial. As future teachers their responsibili-
ties lie with helping their students learn
how to learn and providing opportunities
for them to practice within a community
of learners that reect the world beyond
the classroom.
When the methods class was taught
in the university classroom, students
resisted the paradigm consistent with the
culture of science. At the museum, stu-
dents readily accommodated to the cul-
ture of science. Their traditional cultural
expectations and subsequent behaviors
did not surface. Students established
and participated in the culture of sci-
ence, which led to rapid changes in theirperceptions of the NOS, scientists, their
own relationships with science, and how
science should be taught. They changed
their perception of science from a subject
to be avoided to a continuing adventur-
ous inquiry into the natural and human
enhanced world around them, an adven-
ture that was meaningful and rewarding
to themselves and their future students.
An impromptu conversation with
education personnel at the museum
indicated they did not perceive their
current exhibits to be designed speci-cally to contribute to learning the nature
of science. In fact, when given the list
of characteristics of NOS, the immedi-
ate reaction was these things were not
considered in building the exhibits, but
probably should be. This suggests the
instructors approach gives any infor-
mal setting potential to be used to teach
NOS.
The three steps identied for use at
the museum: an activity prompt, a time
to explore, and an opportunity to debrief
could be used in other informal settingssuch as a park or beach. The model for
learning NOS in informal settings is
summarized in Table 3 on the next page.
The activity prompts described above
guide students in designing their own
explorations of a setting. After a debrief-
ing session, students receive an addi-
tional prompt to explore another section
of the setting, gather more data, and par-
ticipate in further debrieng. This itera-
tive process could be used for studying a
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60 ScieNce educator
tropical island, a glacial area, an amuse-
ment park, or a circus. Science education
leaders implementing these procedures
will support construction of an under-
standing of NOS, as well as how to teach
science by doing inquiry in informal
settings.
There are added benets to using an
informal setting to teach the nature of
science. They include (a) stimulating
teachers to include informal education
settings in their future teaching plans and(b) establishing partnerships between
schools and organizations in the commu-
nity, an initiative that appeals to support-
ive funding agencies. Science education
leaders, whose responsibilities may pro-
vide them more exible use of time than
teachers in all day face-to-face contact
with students, can serve as liaisons to
informal science education organiza-
tions. They will then be able to make the
necessary connections and arrangements
to benet teachers. Additionally, science
education leaders using an informal set-
ting assists teachers in making science
relevant to the real world (Riedinger et
al., 2010), setting the stage for life long
learning of science by providing neces-
sary inquiry skills and fostering a con-
tinuum between school and after school/
home activities that continue and enrich
science learning.
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of Science. (1993). Benchmarks forScience Literacy. New York: OxfordUniversity Press.
Barnes, M., & Spector, B. S. (1999,January). Creating contexts for inquiryin science teacher preparation: Howdo we do it? Paper presented at theAssociation for the Education ofTeachers in Science, Austin, TX.
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Table 3: Spector-Burkett-Leard Model for Learning NOS in Informal Settings
Activity Prompt Exploration Activity Debrieng
Design a Commercial Introduce participants to the exhibits. Begin sensitizing
learners to using themselves as a learning laboratory byobserving, gathering, recording, analyzing and placing valueon information available about salient features that becomedata for decision making.
Each group discussing which exhibit they want to go to next. The full
class addresses these questions: What did you learn at the exhibit?What characteristics of the commercial attracted you to that exhibit?What characteristics of the exhibit attracted you? Why did thesethings attract you?
Analyze the physicalStructure
Explore a second exhibit. Record the physical characteristicsattracting your attention and/or maintaining your attention.
What patterns do you see in these data across the groups? What useis this information to you in a classroom?
Human interaction While exploring a third exhibit with your self-selected group,attend to, and record, the contents and dynamics of yourinteractions with each other and the exhibit.
What behaviors of others attracted you to look at what someoneelse was experiencing? What did you talk about to each other? Whatquestions did you ask? What did you do with each other to generateanswers? How did you determine which answers were best?
Link to the Standards Collect evidence for what standards might be addressedthrough an exhibit of your choice.
How could any of the exhibits be used to meet major standards? Howare fundamental topical standards included in the exhibits?
Make connections Identify various science concepts, technology concepts, andconnections to social studies and other disciplines in anexhibit.
How can these connections contribute to creating engaging andproductive learning environments in schools? What is the relationshipbetween hard and soft technologies?
Observe venue visitors Watch what visitors, especially young people, do in themuseum. Do not interact with them. Listen to what they sayand to whom they say it. Watch what adults with childrendo and how the children respond to the adults actions andstatements.
How does this compare to what you did? What are parallel actions inschools?
Consider logistics Attend an exhibit that requires you to wait. What does one do with the rest of the group while waiting for eachperson to take a turn interacting with an exhibit? How do you move agroup from location to location making it a learning opportunity?
Large group lecture/presentation
As a large group, attend a lecture/presentationspecial event.
How do you feel about this experience? What new information did youobtain? How did being a passive participant differ from your activelearning experiences?
Explore a place in thecommunity
With your team, explore a place in the community to conducta site exploration with your target age group. Write acollaborative report describing how you could use this place
as a learning venue. You have up to 30 minutes to share withthe entire class how you will use your site.
Reect on how you went about investigating the site and learning foryourself. How do these reactions provide clues for ways to make thesite exploration for children an interesting adventure?
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Teaching, 40(7), 692-720.Riedinger, K., Marbach-Ad, G., Randy
McGinnis, J., Hestness, E., & Pease,R. (2010). Transforming elementaryscience teacher education by bridgingformal and informal science educa-tion in an innovative science methodscourse. Journal of Science Educationand Technology, 1-14. doi: 10.1007/s10956-010-9233-8
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Spector, B. S., & Burkett, R. S. (2002,
April 7 - 10). Using the science museumto mitigate preservice teachers resis-tance to inquiry. Paper presented at theNational Association for Research inScience Teaching, New Orleans.
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Yager, R. E., & Falk, J. H. (2008).Exemplary science in informal educa-tion settings: Standards based successstories. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.
Barbara S. Spector, Ph.D., is a profes-sor of science education, and Directorof The Informal Science InstitutionsEnvironmental Education GraduateCerticate Program in the Department ofSecondary Education, University of SouthFlorida, Tampa, FL.
Correspondence concerning this articleshould be directed to:
Dr. Barbara Spector1536 Sanctuary DriveTampa, FL 33647
813-971-1856spector2@usf.edu
Ruth Burkett, Ph.D., is an associ-ate professor of science education inthe Elementary and Early ChildhoodEducation Department, University ofCentral Missouri, Warrensburg, MO.
Cyndy Leard, Ph.D., is the educationdirector at the Science Center of PinellasCounty, St. Petersburg, FL.
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