The Smithsonian Science Education Center’s The Science of Teaching Science

This online workshop: Conceptual Change: How New Ideas Take Root? is based on ideas presented in Good Thinking! an original animated series developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) and FableVision Studios as a professional development resource for K-12 science educators.

Research over the past 30 years has documented what teachers have known from experience that students do not come to class as “blank slates”, but most often with a diverse set of ideas, concepts, and mental models that they have already developed from their life experiences. These ideas are called preconceptions, which are student ideas constructed before having formal instruction. Students use their own rules and mental models to make sense of their observations, and to explain phenomena that they encounter every day. One of the critical and ongoing challenges for educators across all grades is to discover students’ understandings and their mental models about phenomena, and when these models are based on misconceptions to provide opportunities for students to develop new understanding based on scientifically accepted concepts.

The activities in this workshop are designed to help teachers identify student misconceptions and understand their thought process, and to provide strategies that can lead students to develop sound reasoning and to experience conceptual change.

The format and organization of the workshop are designed to allow individuals to successfully complete the online learning activities independently as a self-paced class, without the need for outside input or feedback. At the same time, this format was designed to flexibly fit into PLC meetings, PD workshops, or any time that you and your colleagues can meet to absorb some new ideas and discuss your experiences as educators. While the students in the Good Thinking! classroom are identified as being in the 5th grade, the pedagogical strategies are relevant to all levels of instruction.

Common Abbreviations in the Text

§ Science and Engineering Practices (SEP)

§ Crosscutting Concepts (CCC)

§ Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

§ Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework)

§ Nature of Science (NOS)

§ Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC)

This online workshop: That’s So Meta(cognitive)! is based on ideas presented in Good Thinking! an original animated series developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center

(SSEC) and FableVision Studios as a professional development resource for K-12 science educators.

Metacognition, the thinking about our thinking as well as acting on our thinking that is so important to learning, is a skill that can be taught, practiced, and learned. Helping students develop the skills to become self-directed and independent learners will enhance their learning experiences in school. In addition, improving metacognitive strategies related to students' schoolwork also provides young people with tools to reflect and grow in their emotional and social lives. When students are metacognitive, they can take a step back and observe their thinking. This is called the reflective process. When using this approach, they might ask themselves questions like these: What is the problem to be solved? How should I solve the problem? How well am I doing? How well did I do? How can I do it better the next time?

Being good at science is not simply remembering a lot of facts and vocabulary or providing correct answers quickly to questions. Rather, science starts from curiosity and questions around the world. And, doing science requires the ability to use appropriate science and engineering practices to formulate scientific questions, to plan investigations, to search for answers, to analyze data to find answers, and to present evidence to support the final conclusions or claims. In this, workshop we look at what metacognition is, and how one teacher is helping students reflect on what they know and don’t know, and then on what questions to ask, and how to answer them.

Common abbreviations in the text

§ Science and Engineering Practices (SEP)

§ Crosscutting Concepts (CCC)

§ Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

§ Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework)

§ Nature of Science (NOS)

§ Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC)

This online workshop: Science: A Work in Progress, * is based on ideas presented in _Good Thinking! an original animated series developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center _*

(SSEC) and FableVision Studios as a professional development resource for K-12 science educators.

In this workshop, we will be observing Ms. Reyes’s classroom as she works with her students to change their understanding of how science works, from the step-by -step scientific method they have memorized, into an understanding of science as a way of learning about and understanding the world.

The idea of a “scientific method” that all scientists use to plan and conduct investigations or pursue improved designs to solve problems is a persistent idea in the teaching of science. Although the understanding that science is a process that can take many pathways has been part of the science standards for the recent past, the steps of the scientific method have persisted in our teaching and our textbooks. Only in some of the most recent editions, has the scientific method been replaced by references to flexible application of the science practices as ways to investigate and explore solutions to new problems and questions.

In this workshop, we will follow Ms. Reyes as she looks for additional information and new ways to present the process of scientific investigation and the nature of science to her students.

The format and organization of the workshop are designed to allow individuals to successfully complete the online learning activities independently as a self-paced class, without the need for outside input or feedback. At the same time, this format was designed to flexibly fit into PLC meetings, PD workshops, or any time that you and your colleagues can meet to absorb some new ideas and discuss your experiences as educators. While the content of the series is relevant to all levels of instruction, teachers working at the oldest and youngest ends of the K-12 range may need to include additional discussion during the post-viewing conversation that addresses the implications of the videos for their specific grade level.

Common Abbreviations in the text

§ Science and Engineering Practices (SEP)

§ Crosscutting Concepts (CCC)

§ Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

§ Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework)

§ Nature of Science (NOS)

§ Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC)