How do we teach elementary science?

I’ve heard it said time and time again that people learn best by “doing”. As a future educator, it is my responsibility to seek out ways in which people learn and teach accordingly. For the last couple years, I have been employed by Texas Tech as a tutor for college students with learning disabilities. Each student had a number of disabilities to deal with, ranging from dyslexia, dyscalculia, attention deficit disorder, etc, as well as varying degrees of these disabilities. Additionally, because of these disabilities, the students possessed different levels of confidence or anxiety when it came to schoolwork or exams. Instead of focusing on my students’ disabilities, I quickly learned to focus on their effective learning styles and worked with them in ways they felt most comfortable and successful. One of the biggest problems for teachers is keeping the students’ attention and finding ways for them to be active participants in classroom lessons. I think this is especially difficult in the elementary science classroom where the majority of topics are most commonly taught by direct instruction and the students practice rote memorization of definitions and formulas. However, I think science provides a great opportunity for students to develop interests to actively pursue and make meaning for themselves.
As students are learning new concepts and connecting them to their previous experiences and pre-existing conceptions about the world, they are able to organize their thoughts and make meaning of new information (accommodation and assimilation). Educational psychologists like Piaget have studied and debated on ways to increase the effectiveness of instruction by developing learning theories, which has lead to ideas of constructivism. The constructivist viewpoint involves the notion that knowledge is gained from experience. This theory is often used to back-up supporters of active learning. I think a good combination of a variety of learning theories is the most effective approach to teaching a variety of learners with different skills, experiences, and learning styles. However, the nature of science allows more room for inquiry-based education, particularly when established on the ideas of constructivism. Many teachers have switched their focus from directly teaching students facts and information to developing classroom activities that help students to develop problem-solving skills. Oftentimes this includes group work with minimal guidance, in which students chose the questions to explore, the procedure for testing their hypothesis, and the teacher serves as a facilitator. Teachers refrain from telling the students the expected outcome and allow them to make predictions of their own based on what they already know. I think it is important for educators to provide definitions to scientific terminology and formulas to assist the students in a sort of “spontaneous discovery.” Children will be engaged as they attempt to learn meaning and answer questions like “why” and “how.” Just as Dr. Narayan says, it is necessary for students to participate in activities that are both “hands-on” and “minds-on.” Even if, in the end students make inaccurate conclusions, feel frustration, or come across dead-ends, important problem-solving skills are refined and they experience the struggles of every scientist. They will develop more confidence with increased exposure to the scientific process and it will help them resolve many conflicts they face. This type of science lesson will also help the instructor to gather information and evaluate the students’ levels of comprehension. Additionally, teachers will be able to enumerate the specific areas of confusion among the class as well as the areas of greatest interest and mastery.

Cubing

Purpose: to prepare students for reading or writing, increase comprehension, extend understanding of a topic/concept, character, or text from various perspectives. May also be used as a pot-reading activity to encourage students to think critically about the topic at hand.

Procedure:

1. The teacher or students must select a topic to be cubed.

2. If being used as a whole-class activity, the class may be divided into 6 groups and each group will be assigned a perspective to consider and discuss.

3. Each group writes a summary or their discussion and shares it with the class. These perspectives may be taped to the cube for reference and access.

Benefits and Limitations:

· May be used as whole-class, cooperative group, pairs, or independent activity.

· Almost any topic may be cubed including math concepts, science theories, and events in history.

· When used as a post-reading strategy, students are required to apply the information they have learned.

· May be modified according to desired outcomes and lesson objectives.

· This strategy should be modeled and the teacher should explain why this strategy is being used.

Possible Cube Perspectives:

Describe: what does it look like? What are some traits/characteristics? What size, shape, or color?

Compare: What does it remind you of? How is it like something else? What is it different/opposite from?

Associate: What does it make you think of? How is it related to other topics or people? How does it connect to other things/concepts?

Analyze: What is it made of? How can you break it down into smaller parts?

Apply: What can be done? How is it used?

Argue for/against: make a list of supporting reasons

This is one of my favorite strategies because it is engaging, easily adaptable, and a great concept attainment tool for all grades!

I created this cube (with detachable parts) for a Pre-Kindergarten lesson on food/nutrition. The student's enthusiasm and participation was fantastic! By the end of the unit their discussion and thought processes became observably more detailed and sophisticated.

Analogy Charting

Purpose: to create a visual framework of text-to-self connection and note differences and similarities between a new familiar concept. “Analogies are based on the compare/contrast text frame, and as students explore relationships by connecting to already known ideas, they broaden their understanding of important concepts or vocabulary.” (Buehl 2009)

Procedure:

1. Select a familiar concept that can serve as an analogy for a new concept. The familiar concept should be well understood by all students and have characteristics which are analogous to those of the new concept.

2. Introduce analogy and have students brainstorm characteristics of both concepts to put under the “similarities” column.

3. Have students brainstorm differences between the two concepts and fill out the other side of the analogy chart.

4. Discuss relationship categories and “what you understand now” (summary statement).

Benefits:

· Provides students a foundation (outline) for developing organized compare/contrast summaries

· Allows students to relate to the new concepts by making connections to their background knowledge

Limitations:

· The “familiar concept” must truly be familiar to the students and directly comparable to the new concept