All About You!Teacher Education Course

2016-2017

Teacher Education Courses

Expedition: Green•Environmental science

Get Re-Energized•Physical science

Our Place in Space•Space science and engineering

Great Lakes Rocks•Earth systems science

All About You!•Life Science

All Content TopicsDay 1: Fundamentals of Life ScienceDay 2: Structure and Function of CellsDay 3: DNA, the Genetic Basis of LifeDay 4: A Little Variation Goes a Long WayDay 5: Evidence for EvolutionDay 6: Evolution in Our Lives

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!Fundamentals of Life

Science Today’s lessons

NGSS

Disciplinary core ideas

Science and engineering practices

Crosscutting concepts

Nature of Science What is it?

The Nature of ScienceScientific world view

• The world is understandable• Ideas are subject to change• Knowledge is durable• Cannot provide complete answers to all questions

Scientific inquiry• Demands evidence• Blend of logic and imagination• Science explains and predicts• Identifies and avoids bias• Is not authoritarian

Examples In the classroom, I welcome students to open their minds to

the fact that "science is durable and we can modify ideas and challenge new theories". With my students, if we are completing an activity and a student wants to attempt to complete it in a different way, I challenge the idea. I encourage students to think outside the box and to test modifications they want to make within their activities. For example, last week my students were making goop. One student asked if it mattered whether we used clear glue or white glue. I challenged her to test it out and to make a batch of both. She did this successfully and we compared the two. It was amazing to see how excited the class was. I will continue to do this as the school year unfolds. 

Examples Scientific Ideas are Subject to Change: Teaching in itself is

something of a science. Since I have been teaching, there have been many new ideas and methodologies presented in the last decade.  Part of the reading suggested that scientists make careful observations and invent theories for making sense of those observations.  That is similar to what I have done as an educator.  I make observations about my student progress, understandings, and my own instructional delivery.  I then make theories based upon those observations and perhaps try new methods.  The methods are then studied and observations are made and conclusions formed in order to make improvements or changes as needed in the classroom to help all students succeed. This type of informed change happens continually in my classroom. 

We are all Scientists!We ask questionsWe make observationsWe make predictionsWe are wrongWe incorporate other peoples’ ideasWe are open to new ideas

Not just in a science classroom!

Inquiry Cube ActivityLook at the cube on your table. Do not pick it up or touch it Work together to decide what is

on the bottom.

Exhibit Exploration