Inq Nature Sci

Discovering Inquiry and Nature of Science: Definitions, Distinctions,

Teaching, and Assessment

Judith S. [email protected]

Norman G. Lederman

[email protected]

Mathematics and Science EducationIllinois Institute of Technology

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

What is Science?

What is Science?

“TO SCIENCE, PILOT OF INDUSTRY, CONQUEROR OF DISEASE, MULTIPLIER OF THE HARVEST, EXPLORER OF THE UNIVERSE, REVEALER OF NATURE’S LAWS, ETERNAL GUIDE TO TRUTH.”

- Inscription on the ceiling

of the Great Hall in the National Academy of Science

What is Science?

“SCIENCE IS AN INTERNALLY CONSISTENT SET OF LIES DESIGNED TO EXPLAIN AWAY THE UNIVERSE.”

Arthur Boucot

(personal conversation)

What is Science?

Body of Knowledge(Concepts, theories,laws, etc)

Process/Method(Inquiry-derivation of knowledge)

Nature of Science(Characteristics of knowledge)

Scientific Inquiry: How Is It Defined/Used in Curriculum Reform?

1. Teaching approach

2. Instructional Outcomea) Performance

(What students should be able to do)

b) Knowledge(What students should know)

Doing Scientific Inquiry:Systematic approaches used by scientists to answer their questions of interest.

Scientific inquiry involves:

a) Traditional science process skills- Observing - Inferring- Classifying - Predicting- Measuring - Questioning- Interpreting - Analyzing

b) Combination of these processes with scientific knowledge, scientific reasoning, and critical thinking to develop scientific knowledge

Inquiry and NSES (p.19) Table 2-2. Content Standard for Science as Inquiry: Fundamental Abilities Necessary to Do Scientific Inquiry

Grades K-4Ask a question about objects, organisms, and events in the environment.Plan and conduct a simple investigation.Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses.Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.Communicate investigations and explanations.

Grades 5–8Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations.Design and conduct a scientific investigation.Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and

explanations.Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.Communicate scientific procedures and explanations.Use mathematics in all aspects of scientific inquiry

Inquiry and NSES (Cont’d) Table 2-2. Content Standard for Science as Inquiry: Fundamental Abilities Necessary to Do Scientific Inquiry

Grades 9–12Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations.Design and conduct scientific investigations.Use technology and mathematics to improve investigations and communications.Formulate and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence.Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models. Communicate and defend a scientific argument.

Important Knowledge About Scientific Inquiry

1. Scientific investigations all begin with a question, but do not necessarily test a hypothesis

2. There is no single set and sequence of steps followed in all scientific investigations (i.e., there is no single scientific method)

3. Inquiry procedures are guided by the question asked

4. All scientists performing the same procedures may not get the same results

Important Knowledge About Scientific Inquiry (Cont’d)

5. Inquiry procedures can influence the results

6. Research conclusions must be consistent with the data collected

7. Scientific data are not the same as scientific evidence

8. Explanations are developed from a combination of collected data and what is already known

Inquiry and NSES (p.20) Table 2-3. Content Standard for Science as Inquiry: Fundamental Understandings About Scientific Inquiry

Grades K-4Scientific investigations involve asking and answering a question and comparing the answer with what scientists already know about the world.

Scientists use different kinds of investigations depending on the questions they are trying to answer.

Simple instruments, such as magnifiers, thermometers, and rulers, provide more information than scientists obtain using only their senses.

Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and what they already know about the world (scientific knowledge).

Scientists make the results of their investigations public; they describe the investigations in ways that enable others to repeat the investigations.

Scientists review and ask questions about the results of other scientists' work.

Grades 5–8Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific investigations.Current scientific knowledge and understanding guide scientific investigations.Mathematics is important in all aspects of scientific inquiry.Technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and allows scientists to analyze and quantify results of investigations.

Inquiry and NSES (Cont’d) Table 2-3. Content Standard for Science as Inquiry: Fundamental Understandings About Scientific Inquiry

Grades 5–8Scientific explanations emphasize evidence, have logically consistent arguments, and use scientific principles, models, and theories.Science advances through legitimate skepticism.Scientific investigations sometimes result in new ideas and phenomena for study, generate new methods or procedures for an investigation, or develop new technologies to improve the collection of data.

Grades 9–12Scientists usually inquire how physical, living, or designed systems function.Scientists conduct investigations for a wide variety of reasons.Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data.Mathematics is essential in scientific inquiry.Scientific explanations must adhere to criteria such as: a proposed explanation must be logically consistent; it must abide by the rules of evidence; it must be open to questions a possible modification; and it must be based on historical and current scientific knowledge.Results of scientific inquiry - new knowledge and methods- merge from different types of investigations and public communication among scientists.

Forms of Scientific InquiryDescriptive: purpose is to describe; may derive important variables and factors that give rise to other types of investigations

Correlational: purpose is to describe relationships among variables

Experimental: purpose is to derive causal relationships among variables

Is there a single “Scientific Method”?

Finished Twirly

Life Saver Investigation

Variable – conditions that change in an experimentOutliers - data that lies outside the normal rangeControl – variables that are not allowed to change during an experimentHypothesis – possible answer to the question being investigatedControl Group – a parallel experiment in which the variable being tested is not changed

Science Terms

Range – the difference between the highest and lowest numbersOutliers - data that lies outside the normal rangeMean – average of all dataMedian – middle number in a data setMode – the number or piece of data that occurs most often

Math Terms

How Historians, Philosophers, and Science Educators Have Defined

“Nature of Science”

The values and assumptions inherent to science, scientific knowledge, and/or the development of scientific knowledge

What Are Some of the Values and Assumptions Inherent to Science and Scientific Knowledge?

1. Independence of Thought

2. Independence of Observation

3. Prizing of Originality

4. Dissent (Freedom)

5. Free Inquiry

6. Free Speech

7. Tolerance

8. Mutual Respect

What Are Some of the Values and Assumptions Inherent to Science and Scientific Knowledge?(Cont’d)

9. Creativity

10. Tentativeness

11. Amoral

12. Unified View of Reality

13. Parsimonious

14. Testable

15. Empirically Based

16. Culturally and Socially Embedded

Selection of Aspects of Nature of Science

Developmentally Appropriate

Empirically Supported by Research

Justifiably Important for ALL Science Students

No Contentious Claims

What Aspects of Nature of Science Can We Reasonably Expect to Teach?

1. Tentativeness

2. Creativity

3. Observation vs. Inference

4. Subjectivity

5. Functions and Relationships of Theory and Law

6. Socially and Culturally Embedded


What Aspects of Nature of Science Can We Reasonably Expect to Teach?

1. Tentativeness

2. Creativity

3. Observation vs. Inference

4. Subjectivity

5. Functions and Relationships of Theory and Law

6. Socially and Culturally Embedded


Functions and Relationships of Theory and Law

Scientific LawStates, identifies, or describes the relationships among observable phenomena

Scientific TheoryInferred explanations for observable phenomena

A few generalizations can be justified from the volumes of research related to teachers’ and students’ understandings of nature of science and scientific inquiry:

1. K-12 students do not typically possess “adequate” conceptions of nature of science and scientific inquiry

2. K-12 teachers do not typically possess “adequate” conceptions of nature of science and scientific inquiry

Research on Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry

4. Conceptions of nature of science and scientific inquiry are best learned through explicit instructional attention as opposed to implicitly through experiences with “doing science.”

5. Teachers’ conceptions of nature of science and scientific inquiry are not automatically and necessarily translated into classroom practice

6. Teachers’ do not regard understandings of nature of science and scientific inquiry as an instructional outcomes with status equal to that of “traditional” subject matter outcomes.

Research on Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry (cont’d)

Communicating Functional Understandings of NOS and Scientific Inquiry

1. Implicit Approacha) By ”doing science” students will come to understand the

NOS and Scientific inquiry

b) Popular in the 60s and 70s reforms

c) Assumptions of the implicit approach:• Understanding of the NOS and Scientific inquiry is an affective

outcome, similar to “attitude”

• Learning about the NOS and Scientific inquiry is a by-product of doing science

d) Research does not support the effectiveness of this approach for enhancing conceptions of NOS and Scientific inquiry

e) Learning outcomes are primarily skills-based

Using History of Science to Teach About Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry

2. Historical Approach

What Does the Research Say?

Historical reflection often assumes that present beliefs have resulted from a linear and logical progression from past beliefs

Students often develop the impression that past beliefs and scientists were simply uniformed and ignorant

Using History of Science to Teach About Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry

What Does the Research Say?It is virtually impossible (if constructivism is correct) for students to suspend prior beliefs (e.g., during a role play activity)

Has demonstrated only moderate success when the focus has been on tentative, creative, subjective aspects of NOS

Has not been effective with respect to understandings of scientific inquiry

(Cont’d)

Communicating Functional Understandings of NOS and Scientific Inquiry

3. Explicit Approacha) Treats the understanding of NOS and Scientific inquiry as

a cognitive outcome, not a by-product

b) The goal of improving students’ views is planned for, taught, and assessed

c) Instruction is geared toward various aspects of the NOS or scientific inquiry and utilizes elements from the history and philosophy of science

d) Encourage reflection that connects aspects of the NOS and scientific inquiry to the classroom activities and the activities of scientists

e) Research consistently supports the effectiveness of this approach

STUDENTS

WON’T

LEARN

WHAT IS

NOT

TAUGHT

Mystery Bones

• Paleobiologist’s construction of bones

• How did they come up with this?

One Paleobiologist’s imagination

Do Scientists Use Their Imaginations?

Another Paleobiologist’s imagination

“With their shorter- than-average wings, these pterosaurs are acrobats, not high soarers like some of their cousins. S. crassirostris never stray far from their home island, and generally restrict their territories to shallower waters where the small fish are.”

Pendulum Activity

Hangar Activity

IF YOU WANT STUDENTS TO LEARN

SOMETHING YOU NEED TO

TEACH IT AND

ASSESS IT

VNOS-D(The Views of Nature of Science version D)

1. What is science?

2. How is science different from the other subjectsyou are studying?

3. Scientists produce scientific knowledge. Some of this knowledge is found in your science books. Do you think this knowledge may change in the future? Explain your answer and give an example.


4. (a) How do scientists know that dinosaurs really existed?

(b) How certain are scientists about the way dinosaurs looked?

(c) Scientists agree that about 65 millions of years ago the dinosaurs became extinct (all died away). However, scientists disagree about what had caused this to happen. Why do you think they disagree even though they all have the same information?

(Cont’d)


5. In order to predict the weather, weather persons collect different types of information. Often they produce computer models of different weather patterns.

(a)Do you think weather persons are certain (sure) about these weather patterns?

(b) Why or why not?

6. What do you think a scientific model is?

(Cont’d)


7. Scientists try to find answers to their questions by doing investigations / experiments. Do you think that scientists use their imaginations and creativity when they do these investigations / experiments? YES NO

a. If NO, explain why?

b. If YES, in what part(s) of their investigations (planning, experimenting, making observations, analysis of data, interpretation, reporting results, etc.) do you think they use their imagination and creativity? Give examples if you can.

(Cont’d)

VOSI(The Views of Scientific Inquiry)

1. What types of activities do scientists (e.g., biologists, chemists, physicists, earth scientists) do to learn about the natural world? Discuss how scientists (biologists, chemists, earth scientists) do their work.

2. How do scientists decide what and how to investigate? Describe all the factors you think influence the work of scientists. Be as specific as possible.


3. A person interested in birds looked at hundreds of different types of birds who eat different types of food. He noticed that birds who eat similar types of food, tended to have similar shaped beaks. For example, birds who eat hard shelled nuts have short, strong beaks, and birds who eat insects from tide pools have long, slim beaks. He concluded that there is a relationship between beak shape and the type of food birds eat.

(Cont’d)


3-(a) Do you consider this person’s investigation to be scientific? Please explain why or why not.

3-(b) Do you consider this person's investigation to be an experiment? Please explain why or why not.

3-(c) Do you think that scientific investigations can follow more than one method? Describe two investigations that follow different methods. Explain how the methods differ and how they can still be considered scientific.

(Cont’d)


4. (a) If several scientists, working independently, ask the same question and follow the same procedures to collect data, will they necessarily come to the same conclusions? Explain why or why not.

(b) If several scientists, working independently, ask the same question and follow different procedures to collect data, will they necessarily come to the same conclusions? Explain why or why not.

(Cont’d)


4. (c) Does your response to (a) change if the scientists are working together? Explain.

(d) Does your response to (b) change if the scientists are working together? Explain.

(Cont’d)


5. (a) What does the word “data” mean in science?

(b) What is involved in data analysis?

(c) Is “data” the same or different from “evidence?”Explain.

(Cont’d)

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