Investigating Enzymes: experiencing learning through an IBSE-CLIL Project.

Authors: Checchetti Andrea (Scientix ambassador), Bruno Maria Clotilde and Martano Donato

Tags: CLIL, IBSE, ILS, LO.

The article reports a network experience carried out by a team of English Language and Science teachers from different schools in Italy. The outcome of the project is a teaching unit on the properties of enzymes, which combines CLIL methodology and Inquiry-based approach. The module has been devised using the tools and applications available on the GO-LAB portal (www.graasp.eu), and aims at investigating the relationship between environmental parameters (pH, T) and enzyme activity.

The project, named Science & CLIL, is the prosecution of a former experience, which saw the creation of the E-CLIL network of schools. One of its most significant aspects is the constitution of the so-called CLIL Team, formed by teachers of English Language and Science (Chemistry in this specific case) from different schools in Calabria. Despite being in some cases geographically distant from one another, the members of the CLIL Team brainstormed, researched and worked together with a collaborative approach, with the purpose of conceiving and devising innovative teaching/learning practices, in the form of self-sufficient learning objects. Teachers have shared ideas, objectives, strategies, competences and techniques concerning both the teaching of Foreign Language and Science, with the final aim of increasing students’ competences in both English and Biochemistry.

The module created during the current school year, titled Enzymes, has the objective of implementing the CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) methodology1 in the schools of the network. This can be done through the creation and experimentation of self-consistent didactic units, including tools for the assessment and evaluation of the learning outcomes. The tasks and activities of the module focus on contents belonging to Non-Linguistic Subjects (Chemistry and Biochemistry), but at the same time aim at improving the students’ receptive and communicative skills in English according to the descriptors of the Common European Framework of Reference. After considering the starting conditions of the target classes, the target level chosen by the CLIL Team for the Enzyme module was B1 lower CEFR.

A further key aspect of the project is the integration of the CLIL methodology with the practices of Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE)2, implemented through the use of a Virtual Learning Environment offered by the GO-LAB portal (www.graasp.eu) and based on the use of new multimedia and multi-modal technologies. The adoption of the Inquiry-

1 Coyle D., Hood P., Marsh D, CLIL, Content and Language Integrated Learning, Cambridge English, 2010. 2 Pedaste M., Mäeots M., Siiman L. A., de Jong T., van Riesen S. A. N., Kamp E.T., Manoli C. C., Zacharia Z. C., Tsourlidaki E., Phases of inquiry-based learning: Definitions and the inquiry cycle, Educational Research Review, Vol. 14, pp. 47–61, 2015.

based methodology allows the development of didactic activities in which the students perform an active and leading role, aimed at strengthening both the communicative skills in foreign language and the theoretical, technical and professional skills in the field of science. This happens by the means of tasks organised through different stages or phases, each with specific objectives, following a pre-determined structure or cycle. Finally, to prompt and motivate learners, the structured activities have become a digital Inquiry Learning Space (ILS), accessible and available on the GO-LAB portal. A further added value is thus given by the empowerment of the students’ digital skills, since the tasks included in the ILS required the creation of digital products/productions as a documentation of the experiences and achievements, with the possibility of publishing them as samples or reports on the GO-LAB portal.

The E-CLIL network consists of six upper secondary schools:

1. IIS “IPSIA-ITI”, Acri (CS), (leading school) 2. IIS “Leonardo da Vinci-Nitti”, Cosenza (CS) 3. IIS “Leonardo da Vinci”, San Giovanni in Fiore (CS) 4. ITI “E. Fermi”, Castrovillari (CS) 5. IIS “E. Fermi”, Catanzaro Lido (CZ) 6. IIS “N. Pizi“, Palmi (RC)

The project started with a blended training course addressed to all the teachers of the six schools, with the objective of maximising the impact of the project within the network itself. The next step was the constitution of a community of practice (the CLIL Team), a group of specialised teachers with the task of creating didactic materials available in e-learning modality, aiming at enhancing competences in non-linguistic specific subjects (Chemistry, Maths, Physics), but at the same time with the purpose of promoting CLIL methodology among teachers and students of the network schools, integrating it with digital skills, tools and technology, considered indispensable in contemporary teaching practice. The outcome was the creation of a module designed as a Learning Object (LO), a teaching/learning unit that is self-consistent (i.e. independent and made up of one or more assets or basic elements, but at the same time designed to possibly become part of a larger ensemble, or joined with other Los), traceable (through metadata, text files describing the LO in a standardised form), reusable (in different learning context) and interactive (available on different Learning Management Systems by using the SCORM3 standard, a collection of techniques allowing the exchange of digital content defining the rules of “packing” and fruition of the LOs.

3 Gonzalez-Barbone L. and Anido-Rifon L., From SCORM to Common Cartridge: A step forward, Computers & Education, Vol. 54, N. 1, pp. 88-102, 2010

The module, titled Enzymes, draws inspiration from a previous experimental work4 produced by some of the team members, in which two key concepts of the CLIL methodology were applied:

• Scaffolding: a series of strategies and supporting contents, aiming at facilitating understanding and acquisition of both the target content and the specific language.

• Taxonomy: the adoption of a cognitive system of reference, in order to create tasks of different type, purpose and level of difficulty.

It was thus possible to promote the acquisition of both LOTS (Lower Order Thinking Skills) and HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills), by the means of the combination of the elements known as the 5 Cs5: Content, Communication, Cognition, Community and Competence. Figure 1 shows the concept map developed as a work plan by the team, relating the 5 Cs and the two key concepts to the specific content chosen and the competences developed by the students:

Fig. 1 Concept map of the project plan

4 Bruno M. C. and Checchetti A., CLIL & IBSE methodologies in a chemistry learning unit, European Journal of Research and Reflection in Educational Sciences, Vol. 4, N. 8, pp. 1-12, 2016. 5 Arens K., Genres and the standards: Teaching the 5C’s through texts. The German Quarterly, Vol. 80, N. 1, pp. 35-48, 2008.

Having chosen Biochemistry and the related disciplines as the target subjects of the project, to develop the task and activities of the module the team decided to make use of the Inquiry-based approach, in which students follow methods and practices similar to those employed by scientific researchers. IBSE (Inquiry-Based Science Education) can be defined as a process to discover new relations, leading the students to the formulation and testing of hypotheses by the means of observations and experiments. It is generally considered a specifically task-based and problem-oriented approach, which involves the application of competences aiming at solving problems. The objective of the methodology is to motivate the students through an authentic process of discovery.

From a pedagogical perspective, scientific progress is divided into small units, logically connected to one another, that make the learners familiar with the principles, dynamics and praxes typical of scientific thought. These individual units are the phases of the inquiry, and the complex of their connections constitutes the whole inquiry cycle.

The simplest version of the cycle consists of five phases: Orientation, Conceptualisation, Investigation, Conclusion and Discussion. All phases are interconnected, and together increase the effectiveness of the learning activities. Following this pattern, the team has created a LO in the form of an articulated lesson plan, using the webtool learning designer (www.learningdesigner.org), Which can be viewed at the following link https://v.gd/UYqGci , in which the five phases are described in detail, each containing the different task designed according to the learning objectives (see fig.2).

Fig. 2 Lesson Plan

The entire cycle is accessible and available on the portal of the GO-LAB Project (Global Online Science Labs for Inquiry Learning at School), launched by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme Agreement. An Inquiry Learning Space (ILS) has been created here, where students have the opportunity to be involved in a structured learning environment. This space (http://www.golabz.eu/spaces/enzymes - fig. 3) contains virtual laboratories, resources and applications. The learning resources consist of texts, videos or other materials aiming at providing the learners with a basic understanding of the target content, subsequently making them ready to conduct investigations or perform simulated experiments, which can be confronted with those actually performed in a real school lab. The ILS can be shared with other teachers, who can reset and adapt it to their own needs and objectives.

Fig. 3 Inquiry Learning Space: Enzymes

The module Enzymes was tested between May and June 2017 in two classes of each of the schools of the network. The experimentation was conducted using the tech and equipment available in the schools, such as tablets, IMBs, 2.0 classrooms. The results of the experimentation were recorded through the evaluation of the process, referring to the following indicators:

• Observation of students’ work, behaviour and attitude during practical activities; • Evaluation of the students’ ability to write scientific reports relating their hypotheses

to the empirical evidence collected during the investigation phase;

The assessment of the competences acquired was carried out through a final questionnaire, designed by the CLIL Team during the making of the module as an integral part of the Learning Object. The assessment rubrics and the final questionnaire are visible in the ILS Enzymes at the following link: http://graasp.eu/spaces/590b307e3123a5fcb5486259

Fig. 4 Inquiry Cycle: Enzymes

Finally, the CLIL Team produced a Travel Diary, intended as a record and narration of the different phases of the project, testifying the efforts in the educational research and keeping track of some of the most significant moments in the team work.

The Diary was published as part of the project, and can be viewed at the link https://spark.adobe.com/page/FrC65VuQPdzET/, and contains information on the methodologies applied, the tasks and activities devised, the software and applications used to create the Learning Object. It is meant to be a kind of synthesis; self-reflection and appraisal of the work done both in the designing and in the class experimentation phases, with the hope of helping users observe and understand the dynamics of one’s own teaching practice.

The entire project and all the related materials are available on the official website of the network, at the link http://www.chemistryclil.it/corsi2/.

Fig. 5 Travel Diary