Course Assignment- Reflection 4

     The purpose of the reading, Doing Science: the process of Scientific Inquiry, is to develop critical thinking skills in students using scientific inquiry as the basis to develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas and processes. The modern description of science reflects a flexible process of inquiry (p.19), both stable and fluid to both use and create science concepts to understand and change the world. As a result, in order for students to become lifelong STEM literate individuals, they need to begin to develop inquiry based approaches to teaching learning in modern day science classrooms.  In order to help students, it became important that students know facts, and continuously revise, modify, and refine what they already know by building on prior knowledge and integrating with new knowledge. Furthermore, students must take ownership of their learning and share their learned experiences and apply it in novel situations.

     The article also addresses misconceptions of what science inquiry in the classroom is and is not.  For example, it is not an application of the scientific method because true inquiry is more than prescribed steps producing a pre-determine answer (p.27). In addition, there are misconceptions that science inquiry is simply using easily implemented hands on activities in the classroom or that is can be too difficult to implement.

     The remainder of the reading introduces a middle school life science module designed to provide a lesson on science inquiry in a real-life context that integrates inquiry science, human health, and mathematics as it intertwines issues and concepts related to science, technology, and society. The lessons provided in the module are based on the 5E model and include within them overviews and objectives, major concepts, lesson organizers, and instructions for the various activities within the lesson, including student sheets. The module has four main objectives:

·         help students understand the basic aspects of scientific inquiry (p.1)

·         provide students with an opportunity to practice and refine their critical-thinking skills (p.1)

·         convey to students the purpose of scientific research (p.1)

·         encourage students to think in terms of these relationships now and as they grow older (p.1)

Lesson 1, inquiring minds, uses the engage and explore phase of the 5 E model to review scientific methodology with students using scientific inquiry. Lesson 2, working with questions, focuses solely on the explore phase where students delve into the concept of scientific questioning and attempt to develop testable question. Lesson 3, conducting a scientific investigation, students conduct and investigation under the explain and explore phases of the 5E model of the science inquiry lesson. Lesson 4, pulling it all together, uses the evaluate phase to assess what students have learned about using scientific inquiry.

     Possible proposal ideas can include the following questions: how are teachers incorporating technology into science inquiry activities? How are they choosing the technology (technologies) they are implementing and how are they teaching students to determine how to choose their own technology when they conduct their own investigations. For example, it is one thing to teach students how to use a data collection probe or Ipad for a particular investigation. But how do you teach students to research and determine the right technology to meet their needs when it is not part of the instructions? This same argument can be used when investigating professional development practices designed to teach teachers how to learn with technology versus it becoming a workshop on how to use a particular technology.

Bybee, R., & Bloom, M. (2005). Doing Science: the process of Scientific Inquiry. Center for Curriculum Development. Colorado Springs, CO.