LeaPSLearning in Physical Science

January 21, 2010

Supported by University of Kentucky PIMSER Math and Science Outreach

Welcome!

Project Goals for LeaPS

• Overall goal: Students will learn targeted physical science concepts (structure and transformation of matter, force & motion)

• Goal 1: Enhance teacher content and pedagogical knowledge of targeted physical science concepts

• Goal 2: Improve Teacher Instructional Practices

• Goal 3: Enhance Administrator Support

Group Norms• Stay on schedule; be on

time• Put cell phones on silent

and computers closed• Stay present, giving full

attention• Listen actively as others are

speaking• Be engaged—Be IN the work• Avoid sidebar conversations• Keep name tags visible• Rule of 2 feet• Any others?

REVIEW of December ‘09

UnderstandingStudentThinking

ModelsAnd

Representations

FnMProgression

ContentBuilding

Roadmap for Today

Content Building:

Forces and Change in Motion

Developing Scientific

Understanding

ConceptualChange

StudentTest Data

Community Building

Teaching for Understanding

• Learning Targets:• I can explain the role of

vocabulary in building scientific understanding.

• I can use research to explain effective vocabulary instruction.

Science and Vocabulary

• What is the role of vocabulary in assisting student’s understanding of science concepts?

• What are some myths about vocabulary and understanding of scientific concepts?

• What does research suggest about effective vocabulary instruction in science?

Let’s Learn Some Vocabulary

• You have been given a list of the essential words to understanding middle school force and motion concepts.

• Take about 3 minutes to study these words….you will have a vocab test after.

• Place the vocabulary list out of view when ready to begin

• Now…..let’s test!

We learned it, right?

• You have been given an 8 item multiple choice test surrounding force and motion concepts.

• ON YOUR OWN and without discussion, please complete the test.

• What impact did the knowledge of the vocabulary words play on your success on this 2nd exam?

Science and Vocabulary• “Students must learn scientific vocabulary after they

have had a concrete experience…Ideas develop from experiences, and technical terms develop from the ideas and operations that are rooted in those experiences. When terms come first, students just tend to memorize so much technical jargon that it sloughs off in a short while.” Writing in Science pg. 30

• “Place a word card in the science word bank after the students have had a concrete experience with something and have a need to know the appropriate term.” Writing in Science pg. 30

Science and Vocabulary

• “Word learning in science can and should be approached as conceptual learning. Even though it is true that words are labels for concepts, it is better to think of them as inherently conceptual in order to prevent ourselves from teaching them as a set of labels and definitions. If we assert that words are concepts, we are more likely to help students understand how they connect to other concepts to form rich conceptual networks.” Linking Science and Literacy in the K-8 Classroom pg. 235

• “…create opportunities for students to encounter and use a focused set of core concepts words in discussion and in print.” Linking Science and Literacy in the K-8 Classroom pg. 236

Science and Vocabulary

• Characteristics of effective direct vocabulary instruction from Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement by R. Marzano pgs. 70-90– Effective vocabulary instruction does not rely on definitions.– Students must represent their knowledge of words in linguistic

and nonlinguistic ways.– Effective vocabulary instruction involves the gradual shaping of

word meanings through multiple exposures.– Teaching word parts enhances students’ understanding of terms.– Different types of words require different types of instruction.– Students should discuss the terms they are learning.– Students should play with words.– Instruction should focus on terms that have a high probability of

enhancing academic success.

• “The point is to emphasize the goal of understanding concepts, which is very different than merely memorizing vocabulary or definitions. By not emphasizing technical terms in the early grades, the teacher avoids sending the counterproductive message to students that science is about memorizing terms and definitions for phenomena that they fundamentally don’t understand.”– Ready, Set, Science! pg. 65

What does research say?

• Students need to be exposed to a word at least 6 times before they have enough experience to recall its meaning.

• Focus vocab instruction on words that are CRITICAL to new content. Achievement can increase as much as 33%.

• No single method of instruction will result in optimal learning.

• Flexible vocab instruction respects students’ diversity.

• The chances of learning a word in context is 19% for high ability students and 8% for low ability students.

• Multiple methods and contexts ensure repeated exposure and aid learning.

3 Tiers of Words

• Essential—These are the words that are CRITICAL to understanding the content. These words must be EXPLICITILY taught during the unit—10-12 wds max.

• Nice to Know—These are content words but ones that do not require explicit instruction for understanding.

• Supporting—These are non-content words but are necessary for student success such as summarize, analyze, evaluate, etc.

Take Home Message

• Developing students’ understanding of force and motion requires providing numerous experiences, making observations, organizing evidence, and explaining the evidence from K-12th grade.

Time to Reflect

Foundational Knowledge & Conceptual Change

• I can describe conceptual change and reasons for students’ difficulties.

• I can use information about student naïve understanding to inform instructional decisions.Chapter 3

Reciting interesting facts, especially about dinosaurs….and “knowing” a

lot is helpful for playing Trivial Pursuit…it hardly constitutes

knowing or understanding science.Powerful Learning pg. 156

Knowing vs. Understanding

• What’s the difference between knowing science and understanding science?

• What do our standards suggest we should strive for through our teaching?

• Complete the comparison frame for knowing and understanding.

• How would you explain conceptual change?

A and B are similar because they both

________________

________________

________________

A and B are different because

A is __________, but B is ___________.

A is __________, but B is ___________.

A is __________, but B is ___________.

Questions from Chapter 3….

• How does one recognize the knowledge that children bring to school?

• How does one build on this knowledge in ways that specifically support science learning?

Types of Conceptual Change• Elaborating on a Preexisting Concept

– Extending a foundation of conceptual understanding with new evidence, knowledge or experiences; e.g., structure and function.

• Restructuring a Network of Concepts– Thinking about a preexisting set of concepts in new ways

and/or uniting concepts thought to be different or separate; e.g., air is matter.

• Achieving New Levels of Explanation– Reorganizing and placing existing concepts within a larger

explanatory structure; e.g., using AMT to understand biological processes.

Categories of Students’ Ideas

• Scientific Ideas

• Preconceptions

• Conceptual misunderstandings

• Nonscientific beliefs

• Vernacular misconceptions

• Factual misconceptions

Begin with Prior Knowledge

• Activate, don’t ignore prior ideas. • Realize that students have notions about

how the world works that make sense to them, but does not agree with scientific explanations.

• Recognize that teaching for understanding requires conceptual knowledge that is organized in a schema, not unconnected knowledge.

» Powerful Learning by Linda Darling-Hammond

Creating Conceptual Change

• Research has shown that a simple “confront-and-replace” model of science learning does not allow deep understanding of science content. (Strike & Posner, 1982)

• This only works about 5% of the time. (Chinn & Brewer, 2001)

• Real conceptual change requires that deeper reorganizations of knowledge occur.

• “If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle I would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.”

• David Ausubel, 1968

Take Home Message

• Instruction has to be adjusted when confronted with different levels of conceptual difficulty.

• Merely telling students the correct answer or having them read about it will seldom, if ever, help to develop deep conceptual understanding.

• Conceptual change requires time—some more than others.

• “Students who are proficient in science know more than mere facts. Their proficiency arises from the organization of their knowledge. Developing expertise in science means developing a rich, interconnected set of concepts – a knowledge structure – that comes closer and closer to resembling the structure of knowledge in a scientific discipline.”– Ready, Set, Science! Pg. 41

Take a Moment to Reflect

Examining Student Test Data

What do we currently know about “our” students?

1423 students in grades 6, 7, and 8 were given the test sometime in late October and Early November.

The range is from 0 to 14 (max 15).The mean is 6.65.

Item 12 was omitted after examination of question wording suggested it was not clear enough

Items 4 and 9 were the most successful.

Purpose of Administering

• Goals– Examine preliminary results for patterns– Discuss implications to instruction by question

(at grade levels and across grade levels)

Selected Relationships for 6th grade from POS and Core Content to

Items 2, 3, and 4

SC-6-MF-S-2: Students will use graphical and observational data to make inferences, predictions and draw conclusions about the motion of an object as related to the mass or force involved.

SC-06-1.2.1:Students will describe friction and make inferences about it’s effects on the motion of an object.

Selected Relationships for 7th grade from POS and Core Content to

Items 2, 3, and 4

SC-7-MF-S-5: Students will make inferences and draw conclusions about the motion of objects, and predict changes in position and motion as related to the mass or force

SC-07-1.2.1: Students will explain the cause and effect relationship between simple observable motion and unbalanced forces.

Selected Relationships for 8th grade from POS and Core Content to

Items 2, 3, and 4

SC-8-MF-U-1: Students will understand that Isaac Newton developed a set of rules that can be used to describe and predict virtually all observed motion on Earth and in the universe….

SC-08-1.2.1: Students will describe and explain the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on motion as found in real-life phenomena.

Questions to Consider

1. What patterns do you observe in the data?

2. Would you expect your students to answer this question correctly before/after instruction?

3. What do the distracter options imply about prior instruction?

4. What do the results imply about future instruction?

A.B.

C. D.

Which graph would best describe the motion of the cat when it was speeding up?

Time

Results for Question 2: Motion of a Cat Speeding Up

Grade Omits A B C D Total

6 6(1.42%)

53(12.6%)

143(33.9%)

195(46.2%)

25(5.92%)

422

7 3(0.65%)

40(8.60%)

189(40.6%)

220(47.3%)

13(2.80%)

465

8 3(0.56%)

42(7.83%)

221(41.2%)

255(47.6%)

15(2.80%)

536

Total 12(0.84%)

135(9.49%)

553(38.9%)

670(47.1%)

53(3.72%)

1423

A.B.

C. D.

Time

Which graph would best describe the motion of the cat when it was moving with a uniform motion?

Results for Question 3: Cat with Uniform Motion

Grade Omits A B C D Total

6 7(1.66%)

88(20.9%)

133(31.5%)

95(22.5%)

99(23.5%)

422

7 5(1.07%)

77(16.6%)

180(38.7%)

111(23.9%)

92(19.8%)

465

8 4(0.75%)

80(14.9%)

223(41.6%)

131(24.4%)

98(18.3%)

536

Total 16(1.12%)

245(17.2%)

536(37.7%)

337(23.7%)

289(20.3%)

1423

A.B.

C. D.

Time

Which graph would best describe the motion of the cat when it was not moving?

Question 4: Cat When it is Not Moving

Grade Omit A B C D Total

6 8(1.90%)

78(18.5%)

30(7.11%)

29(6.87%)

277(65.6%)

422

7 3(0.65%)

68(14.6%)

15(3.2%)

18(3.9%)

361(77.6%)

465

8 3(0.56%)

83(15.5%)

7(1.3%)

21(3.9%)

422(78.7%)

536

Total 14(0.98%)

229(16.1%)

52(3.7%)

68(4.8%)

1060(74.5%)

1423

Time to Reflect

Forces and Changes in Motion

Content Building

Please Reflect

For Next Time

• Our next meeting will be February 12, 2010

• Read Ch 4 from Writing in Science

• Read Ch 5 in Ready, Set, Science!

• Complete the reading guides.