Dr. Harland (STEM Mom) Keynote at REMAST Summer Conference
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This is the presentation that STEM Mom gave at the summer 2013 summer REMAST summer conference in South Dakota State University. Topics range from "What is STEM?" Ways to teach in context to engage students, Importance of Inquiry, creating an environment that is friendly for inquiry, and how to balance natural curiosity with making sure student improve their scientific thinking and practice skills.
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Dr. Harland (STEM Mom) Keynote at REMAST Summer Conference
- 1. Science Learning… How It Can Be Dr. Darci J. Harland Author of the STEM Student Research Handbook June 19, 2013 South Dakota State University REMAST Summer Conference
- 2. Dr. Darci J. Harland Science Teacher
- 3. Researcher
- 5. Book Author
- 6. Dr. Darci J. Harland Blogger @djSTEMmom #HSresearch #inquiry
- 8. Anatomy, astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, earth science, geology, physics, and zoology.
- 9. A) Tools used to build, create, and design B) Tools for digital teaching & learning
- 10. Bioengineering, materials engineering, mechanical, environmental, civil, agricultural, optical, biomedical…
- 11. Measurements, calculations, statistics; The language & tool of “STE.”
- 14. Its not learning in isolation… Its integrated learning.
- 17. Who Cares? Why does this matter? Student s Need Context
- 18. What Context? Historical Social Issues Nature of Science Cross Cutting Concepts
- 19. Historical Context Socio-cultural Where in the world? When? Atoms • Models through the ages • What countries contributed? • What years?
- 20. Social Issues Context Socio-economic Pharmaceuticals Marketing $$$$$ Government Cells • Cancer • Cloning • How viruses affect cells • How bacteria affect cells • Diseases caused by specific organelles
- 21. Cross Cutting Concepts Context Patterns Cause and effect Scale, proportion, and quantity Systems and system models Energy and matter Structure and function Stability and change From the NGSS Appendix G
- 22. Wind Turbines • Patterns of wind for farm location • Height of towers • Wind energy mechanical energy electrical energy • Best blade design For FREE Turbine Curriculum: Go to KidWind http://learn.kidwind.org/teach Cross Cutting Concepts Context
- 23. Nature of Science Context Investigations use a variety of methods Scientific knowledge based on empirical evidence Scientific knowledge is open to revision in light of new evidence Science is a way of knowing Assumes order and consistency in natural systems Science is a human endeavor Atoms, Cells, & Wind Turbines From the NGSS Appendix H
- 24. Nature of Science Context Harland, Darci J. (2011). STEM Student Research Handbook. Arlington: NSTA Press.
- 25. WHAT?
- 26. Take a Deep Breath… I don’t know… That’s a great question…where could we find an answer we can trust ?
- 28. Things don’t always “work” out Failure helps us (re)think & learn Talking out ideas helps us think Trouble shooting is fun Tinkering is learning Playing first it helps us know what we need to read Attitudes You Want To Foster
- 29. HOMAGO Corner Hanging out, messing around, geeking out glue gun, craft sticks, garage sale & thrift store finds Reverse engineering Create art What happens if…? Create Inquiry Spaces
- 30. Encourage students to learn from their failures….how? “Best Failure of the Day” award In the way you talk to kids Celebrate Inquiry
- 32. Student Motivation High Achievers Low Achievers Lack motivation Misplaced motivation
- 33. Non- Inquiry Demo- nstration Activity Teacher- Initiated Student- Initiated Posing the Question None Teacher Teacher Teacher Student Planning the Procedure Teacher Teacher Teacher Student Student Formulating the Results Teacher Teacher Student Student Student Modified from: D. Llewellyn. 2002. Inquiry within: Implementing inquiry-based science standards. Thousand Oaks, Corwin Press. An interview I did for NSTA regarding Inquiry. Levels of Inquiry
- 34. Non- Inquiry Demo- nstration Activity Teacher- Initiated Student- Initiated Posing the Question None Teacher Teacher Teacher Student Planning the Procedure Teacher Teacher Teacher Student Student Formulating the Results Teacher Teacher Student Student Student Building Up to Higher Levels of Inquiry As the year progresses, increase the level of inquiry
- 35. Misconceptions about Inquiry Hands On = Inquiry No! Students need strong background information before learning. No! Labs from textbook companies are inquiry No! Harland, D.J. (March 24, 2012) “What Inquiry Is Not.” STEMmom.org
- 36. Its NOT Inquiry if… Students know the answer they’re supposed to get! Steps are predetermined Students aren’t thinking as hard as the teacher. Harland, D.J. (March 24, 2012) “What Inquiry Is Not.” STEMmom.org
- 37. Tips for Tweaking Labs 1. Reframe the lab as problem to be solved. Cookbook Version: Purpose: In this lab you will be determining the permeability and porosity for four different soil samples. Harland, D.J. (Dec. 11, 2012) “Soil Permeability and Porosity Labs” www.STEMmom.org
- 38. Tips for Tweaking Labs 1. Reframe the lab as problem to be solved. Inquiry Version: Challenge: Determine a way to measure soil permeability and porosity, so you can compare four different samples. Harland, D.J. (Dec. 11, 2012) “Soil Permeability and Porosity Labs” www.STEMmom.org
- 39. Tips for Tweaking Labs *cont.* 2. Modify how/what/when materials are available during lab time. Cookbook Version: Materials listed in the lab are available and ready to use
- 40. Tips for Tweaking Labs *cont.* 2. Modify how/what/when materials are available during lab time. Low-Inquiry Version: More or Less Materials: student may choose what to use and how
- 41. Tips for Tweaking Labs *cont.* 2. Modify how/what/when materials are available during lab time. High-Inquiry Version: No Materials: Students must request materials ahead of time Harland, D.J. (Feb. 1, 2012) “Marine Oil Spill Lab.” www.STEMmom.org
- 42. Community board Building Community (vs. competition)
- 43. Tips for Tweaking Labs *cont.* 3. Vary how much structure (paper) you provide students.
- 44. Tips for Tweaking Labs *cont.* Non-InquiryHigh-Inquiry Amount of Paper
- 46. Get Over Yourself! Get Over it…You don’t know it All! Students may not design experiments the way you would! Students may do science poorly in the beginning! Its About THEM, not us! Students will make messes! Students will make mistakes!
- 48. A message from a physicist to parents - Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- 49. We’ve Got to Be That Light – A Gift to America’s Teachers: Dr. Jeff Goldstein (astrophysicist) Harland, D.J. (April 2, 2012) “Astrophysicist Challenges Science Education.” www.STEMmom.org
- 50. Poke It & See What Happens Sound Scientific Thinking and Practice Balance
- 51. Beginning of the Year
- 52. End of Year
- 53. What’s our Goal…really? Raise up the next generation of STEM professionals…yes. To help students become scientifically literate To be sure that students know how to define good questions, and how to go about finding answers to those worthy questions.
- 54. Non- Inquiry Demo- nstration Activity Teacher- Initiated Student- Initiated Posing the Question None Teacher Teacher Teacher Student Planning the Procedure Teacher Teacher Teacher Student Student Formulating the Results Teacher Teacher Student Student Student Modified from: D. Llewellyn. 2002. Inquiry within: Implementing inquiry-based science standards. Thousand Oaks, Corwin Press. Levels of Inquiry
- 55. Implementing Student Research http://www.STEMmom.org drdjharland@gmail.com Twitter: djSTEMmom Like me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ste mMom
Editor's Notes
- First and foremost, I am a teacher. My teaching experience ranges from K all the way up to Ph.D. And my background is actually in both Science and English. (My Dad is a librarian, and my Mom is a physician.) I’ve taught in rural districts all my life, and I currently volunteer 2 days a week doing science labs with boys at a boarding school for troubled teen-aged boys. Its actually on a ranch and the boys have barn responsibilities including picking, grooming, and also get to do horse riding as a vocational class.
- I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to do actual neurobiology research at ISU as part of a summer grant that brings research opportunities to classroom teachers.
- For the last 18 years I’ve lived and worked in rural Illinois. I live with my family on the grounds of the ranch for which we work. These are my boys, in our front yard. We are surrounded by corn and soybeans, we have a softball field in our front yard, as well as a playground. And animals galore. This is my son Caleb with Gracie, a pony he has adopted and grooms whenever he has the chance.
- In 2011, my book the STEM Student Research Handbook was published by NSTA Press. While most of their books are geared to teachers, my book is written directly to the student, and is based on not only my experience leading students through research projects, but also what I’ve learned supporting other teachers as begin to lead students doing authentic research projects.
- I am also an active blogger at STEmom.org.
- So, I think we’ll start tonight by defining STEM. It’s a buzz word, so everyone is trying to attach themselves to the term in the hopes of being seen as innovative.
- For example: woodworking, weldingElectronic devices (computers, tables, netbooks) as well as software, apps, SMART boards and the like.
- Science: Content knowledge…what we’ve learned about ourselves, our planet, our universe. Knowledge is learned during the journey of finding an answer to a problem or question we have. And as the green arrows represent, we use use the tools of technology, engineering, and math to further the knowledge.
- In the same, way, an engineering problem is answered by utilizing content area knowledge in science, and the tools available in technology and mathematics.
- So, there you have it. You officially know what STEM is. However, I do not believe the term is just putting related terms together, its meant to be integrated. Its interconnected. Its solving problems. Its asking GOOD questions. Its answering important questions. We should teaching, allowing students to make connections to the world around them, using any tool available.
- While there are plethora of annoying questions student ask, such as, “Is this on the test?” Here’s my favorite…. While this question might be asked by your trouble-maker who is just trying to get out of doing work, I bet even your teacher-pleaser, is thinking it. I challenge you to take this question seriously! If you can’t answer it WELL, you probably shouldn’t be teaching what instigated the question in the first place. And if students are asking this question a lot in your classes, you might want to take a look at the way you are teaching! Even if you are trying to make learning relevant, student’s aren’t getting it.
- My suggestion is that you may need to be less covert in how you bring in real life connection, and more overt in how you provide context for students’ learning. Don’t make it a side note: make it the vehicle in which students learn!
- Students “Need” (Prefer) context. Learning in isolation, teaching facts, because we find them interesting, isn’t enough for kids! Everything in a student’s world is connected; it’s a global society; except for at school. Mitosis: Beauty of the chromosome dance vs. Nondisjunction abnormalities (Trisomy 21). The challenge for us is that we’ve not seen this modeled. Few high school, and fewer university faculty teach this way. So we must fighting the urge to “get through” material, in order to make learning relevant to students.
- Give students a reason to Care! You can do this by providingsort of Global Context for what they are learning. Even if you aren’t using problem-based learning (or inquiry-based learning) you can always bring in context for students to increase engagement.
- Whenever possible, provide a global context by showing how the topic fits into a geographical location and a historical timeline. Things to consider: How have cultures perspectives influenced what we know today? What countries contributed to the knowledge we now have? You may consider hanging a map up in your classroom, and periodically marking the location of where various scientists worked. Then also post a timeline around the perimeter of your room adding events to the timeline to help students make these connections. Now, you may be thinking…great something else I have to do! No! Have your students do it. Just like in elementary school, how they rotate classroom jobs to students, assign students the job of finding (and posting) the geographical and timeline information on the walls of your classroom.
- A second way to bring context to your classroom, is to use social issues. These are wonderful resources for getting students engaged. It is the ultimate answer to, “Why should I care?” or “Why does this matter?” Social issues could be “hot button” topics, but they also may just help students see how scientific knowledge is USED by not only scientists and medical doctors, but people who want to sell us stuff.
- The idea behind cross cutting concepts is that you and your students pull in ideas from all content areas to teach toward a theme rather than in isolation.
- Nature of Science: How Science is learned, how science moves forward, how it REALLY is. And its difficult to “teach” but it can be modeled. And it’s the angle in which you put content that helps students experience how real science is learned. It is very difficult for students to get NOS in a classroom that is taught in a traditional manner. I believe, the best way is to allow students to really GET NOS, is to DO research themselves.
- I believe, the best way is to allow students to really GET NOS, is to DO research themselves. And I’ve read really good things about a handbook that leads students through the research process. So that might be worth looking into!
- So STEM, the acronym means INTEGRATED learning. You should be teaching across disciplines, have students ask and solve real-life questions, using tools from technology, engineering, and math in the process! And providing context helps students to care about what they are learning. Now you’re thinking….What?
- Take a Deep Breath. I’ve thrown a lot at you. But I have a secret I would like to share; its three words, that if you can learn say, and really mean them…It will change how learning occurs in your classroom. You ready? Repeat after me. “I don’t know.” Scary Huh? You’ve got to change your mindset from being the end-all-be-all content expert. You aren’t, you can’t be, and you shouldn’t be! Knowledge is gained so quickly, even recent journal articles are outdated.
- Instead, what you can do, is learn with your students, and foster an environment in which students want to learn, learn to identify problems, define problems, and then figure out how to address problems…all the while learning the “stuff” as well!
- Student backgrounds influence their (and our)comfort with inquiry and collaboration; while you might consider printing out these great attitudes, its more important that you model them. Discipline during hands-on activities is always a challenge, but how you respond to kids during this time is critical.
- Yes,
- This is my son making a worm farm. It was going well for about a week,and then all the worms died. Not the result we were looking for, but we were able to really talk about why might have happened and it became a wonderful learning opportunity. Students are often more comfortable being “right.” and they want to know that they “got the right answer.” If we are to celebrate inquiry across the STEM disciplines, we must also celebrate failure.
- My goal tonight, is to introduce you to why inquiry is so important to kids. We’ve already talked about learning in context and developing an enviornment in which students want to learn, So next we will delve into what inquiry is and why it is so important.
- We have an assumption that High-need Districts also have high #’s of low achievers. And the next assumption is that low achievers lack motivation. But I’d like to caution you, that high achievers also have motivational issues. I actually prefer lack of motivation, because I can light a fire under those kids! What really surprises me, is the misplaced over-eager grade-seeking motivation by the high achievers. To me, this type of motivation is just as problematic our society as The good news is inquiry works for ALL motivational issues!
- There are many ways to describe the spectrum of inquiry levels. One way is to determine the level of inquiry is: WHO poses the question, who plans the procedure, and who formulates the results? My goal in showing you this table is to help you think about curriculum planning. First of all, Look at the Non-inquiry column. Be critical of what labs you have students do. Students don’t come to you with the skills to perform a student-initiated project, you must model them, and teach them periodically throughout the school year.
- Whole departments should considering how students can increase levels of inquiry between course sequences. But even within your own classroom, you can start the year with lower-level inquiry, and slowly build student confidence, and put more and more responsibility onto the student.
- Unfortunately, inquiry is a word most science teachers know they should be using. For years I was guilty of saying that I used inquiry teaching methods. But I now know I had misconceptions regarding what inquiry learning is really about. Hands On = Cell model, bug/ leaf collections. Background: Safety and ethics are certainly a concern, let students play..
- An exciting part a being new teacher will be getting your hands on the book or curriculum associated with the courses you teach. I want to provide you some tips, on how to spot NON-inquiry labs.
- My guess is, you are privy to the abundant number of online resources for labs. But even some of those big names (Edutopia for one) may not have the lab at the level of inquiry at the time you need it. No fear! You can tweak existing labs, by making simple adjustments. Reframe the lab as a problem to be solved. This is the single most effective way to begin tweaking cookbook labs to become inquiry. I’d like to demonstrate what I mean by this, by showing you how I modified an earth science lab from cookbook to inquiry. To really spice things up….do this lab BEFORE you talk about porosity and permeability!!!! This will get them thinking by DOING!
- My guess is, you are privy to the abundant number of online resources for labs. But even some of those big names (Edutopia for one) may not have the lab at the level of inquiry at the time you need it. No fear! You can tweak existing labs, by making simple adjustments. Reframe the lab as a problem to be solved. This is the single most effective way to begin tweaking cookbook labs to become inquiry. I’d like to demonstrate what I mean by this, by showing you how I modified an earth science lab from cookbook to inquiry. To really spice things up….do this lab BEFORE you talk about porosity and permeability!!!! This will get them thinking by DOING!
- The second way you may choose to modify an existing lab is to determine how, what, and when materials are available during lab time. In Cookbook labs, the materials listed in the procedure are available and ready for use.
- In a low-level inquiry version, students will be designing their own procedure, but you can “coax” them in the right direction by the materials you set out when you introduce the lab. You can vary this level even more, by either setting out just the right materials, and set them loose. Or you can set out a few items and tell them to ask for any additional materials they may need. On the other end of the spectrum, you can set out way more then they would need, and extra items will force them to think of how/if those materials would be helpful.
- To boost up the inquiry level even more. Have students write their procedures ahead of time, and tell them they must turn in a materials request list. This way they have NO coaxing from items you are “suggesting.” In this photo, students have been asked to separate a mock flood water sample; including rice crispies, oatmeal, vegetable oil, food coloring, and raisins. They had no directions, no procedures, and no materials. They watched the demo (compiling the flood water) had one day to determine a procedure and materials needed, and then several days to complete the lab, with to goal of removing all of the contaminates from the flood water.
- Encouraging Collaboration: If students are using their own procedures, you may want to use a community board that students add to while working. It encourages students to share, troubleshoot, and seek solutions from someone other than you! I love this community board because not only does it make learning transparent and put it into the hands of the students, but it allows people to celebrate finding a way it DIDN’T work, because we’re focused on the process of learning and thinking, not the “answer.” If you’re in a 1:1 program, I suggest putting this into a Google Doc so everyone has access to the file at the same time.
- While elementary in the concept, you often can determine how high level of inquiry a lab is, by how much paper stuff you give to your students. NonInquiry often have prelab questions, detailed procedures with questions throughout to make sure they’re doing it “right” and post lab questions. And because high inquiry labs don’t provide as much structure, the often have a challenge with no prelab, proceudrual or post lab question, so there’s very little paper.
- Saying it another way….The amount of paper is directly proportional to the level in inquiry.
- At this stage in their learning, students want to design an experiment, and then be able to say "it worked." However, because I let them design their procedures, there is a possibility that the method they chose didn't test what they thought it would. An important question to ask students, is "How confident are you that your results answer the question you set out to answer?" You'll need to ask this question in a variety of ways. Such as, "Is it possible that the method you designed, gave you misleading data? How could you improve your procedure to fix this?" In this particular lab, student should address how well their procedure measured permeability and porosity. We've got to stop students thinking they should "get the answer" the first time they try. STEM is about designing ways to find answers, and rarely can we do that the first time!
- I’d like next to talk about the importance of balancing natural curiosity with sound scientific practice.
- Was asked “How do we get more kids to go into STEM careers?” Let kids break stuff. Dr. Tyson says that kids are natural born scientists…its adults who get in the way! Let them play, let them discover. He sees adults as the problem, not kids. While the video is talking about parents, I believe it is true for science teachers as well.
- In this photo, my son and I were out on a nature walk. He’s naturally inquisitive, asking great questions. Why is that fallen log all crumbly? Why don’t we see owls flying during the day? And these are great opportunities for us to talk. But as soon as I brought out the lab notebook, he didn’t see it as fun any more. There’s an important balance we must address regarding our attitude toward lab sciences. One one hand, we can do what Dr. Jeff Goldstien recommends, and poke stuff, and see what happens. But we also must be providing an environment in which students are improving their scientific thinking and practice skills.
- The beginning of the school year, “Poke it, and see what happens” should outweigh our worries of whether students have sound scientific thinking and practice. If we try and make sure they REALLY understand “constants” they’ll never actually get to do science! We are often our worst enemy here! Our motives are good, but we execute poorly! We need to encourage students to find ways to test their ideas….and allow them to hone their skills and thinking throughout the year.
- By the end of the year, we should have moved students closer to the right side of that inquiry table, where they are asking questions, developing sound research designs, analyzing their own data, and are their own worst critic when it comes to finding limitations in their own research.
- Remember this chart? Even with all the tweaking of existing labs, leveling how/when we provide structure for students, providing inquisitive environments…all of this gets us to the second highest level, titled, teacher Initiated. And while this is a wonderful accomplishment, one most teacher never achieve, it still isn’t the highest level of inquiry. The Highest Level is Student-Initiated. This is the level where the student comes up with the topic and the question. But, because most courses have certain content that is “covered,” it just isn’t feasible to allow students to study what ever whim they have. Or is it?
- This is where we will pick up tomorrow morningin my workshop session. How to implement student research.