The document discusses strategies for teaching science as a practice. It contrasts typical K-8 science instruction with teaching science through scientific practices like asking questions, investigating, and evaluating models. Current instruction focuses narrowly on validating theories through routine experiments. The document recommends teaching science through practices like argumentation, explanation-building, and interacting with texts. It provides examples of instructional strategies at different grade levels to scaffold students' understanding and engage them in meaningful scientific inquiry.

2.  First section, typical instruction in the United
States K-8 science classrooms.
 Second section, the contrasting view of science
as practice
 Third section
◦ common forms of scientific practice
◦ the different types of instruction design
◦ the challenges students encounter
 Fourth section, strategies that teachers and
curriculum developers can use to promote
students learning of science through practice.

3.  The dynamics of the discipline:
◦ asking questions,
◦ finding ways to explore them empirically,
◦ Investigating
◦ evaluating challenging alternative models,
◦ arguing
 severely lacking :
◦ The U.S. curriculum and classrooms.
◦ Most importantly, in the expectations the
students have about science and what it
means to learn and do science in schools.

4. Activities offered everyday in
class only cover a narrow
portion of Science, so this
practice is leaving students with
limited sense of science and
what it means to understand
and use science.

5.  Whatcan be done to
structure, support, and
develop student’s
knowledge, and use and
understanding of
science?

6. Provide students with the
opportunity to:
 learn topics in depth
 to use science in meaningful
contexts
 to engage in scientific practices

7.  Instructional programs that scaffold
science as practice.
 Students:
◦ develop scientific explanations and models
◦ Participate in scientific argumentation
◦ Design and conduct scientific investigations
◦ work on Meaningful problems
◦ learn the skills in the context of their application

8.  Designing and conducting
empirical investigations
 argumentation, explanation, and
model building
 Interacting with texts
 Evidence of student learning

9.  With appropriate
 Current practice,
provides students with instruction students
narrowly conceived, can engage in making
misleading hypotheses, gathering
opportunities to “do evidence, designing
science” investigations,
 Focusing exclusively in
validating theories by evaluating hypotheses
following routine in light of evidence
laboratory experiments and build their
or doing activities with understanding of the
no clear intellectual
goal. phenomenon they are
investigating.
Appropriate
Current Practices Instruction

10. Argumentation
Students conduct investigations to develop and
apply explanations to observable facts, they
develop claims, defend them with evidence, and
explain them using scientific principles.
 Produce supporting  Representing patterns
evidence in data.
 Convincing peers of the  Generating general
explanation
models to explain
 Responding to critiques
 Reaching consensus topics.
Explanation Model Building

11.  Reading and texts are an important part of
science practice and plays an important role
in science classrooms.
 Students are allowed to:
◦ select a topic in a domain.
◦ Select a book to read related to that topic.
 Innovative books:
◦ offer a combination of exposition,
narration, description, and argumentation.
◦ offer support for the development of
scientific knowledge and reasoning.

12. Elementary grades Middle grades:
 One common approach to
 students acquire
engage students is problem
inquiry skills: based or project based
◦ Develop questions science.
◦ Discuss ways to  A research question about
a problem can provide the
organize their context for extended
questions in investigations
observations  Characteristics:
◦ Understanding
◦ Collect data
◦ Real world application
◦ Interpret data ◦ Apply findings
◦ Debate conclusions ◦ Concentrate on the
original problem
◦ Include a culminating
activity

13.  Social interactions
◦ will help students understand better and
get different points of view.
 Appropriating the language of science
◦ to understand the terms.
 representations and tools
◦ to get a hands-on and visual experience while
learning.
These elements will ensure learning and a
deeper understanding of the subject.

14.  Science is better understood when it is
presented and examined in social
interactions.
 Social interactions:
◦ seeing everyone's point of view
◦ seeing everyone's opinions
◦ Having discussions to get ideas and
thoughts running

15.  Science terms tend to throw students off
track due to the lack of usage.
 Words like “variable” and “hypothesis” are
not used in their daily life so students don’t
recognize them.
 Once the teacher explains the meaning of
these words get a better understanding of
the concepts.

16.  Scientific representations like
diagrams and charts show how things
are done or how they work.
 Some of these give real life examples, to
which students can relate to.
 Actual science equipment can be
helpful since the student is
experiencing what they are studying
using hands-on activities.

17.  There are many methods for learning, as
well as learning aids.
 However, the teacher has to contribute in
order for the student to learn successfully.
 The students still needs assistance from the
teacher at some points.
 Teachers also have to adjust the learning
tools so that students can learn little by
little instead of having everything thrown
at them at once.

18.  Sequencing down or breaking down units
of study is very helpful for learning better.
 Students cant do everything at once since
the beginning, so the teacher breaks down
their unit of study into little parts.
 As the student goes through all the small
parts of learning, the students fits them all
together like a puzzle.
 This provides the students with a more
meaningful experience.

19.  Science is in students daily lives, but not
strictly as to the point where their life
revolves around science.
 However, when learning about science,
students sometimes get confused during the
process.
 An actual scientific task or experience can
change a students initial thoughts about
science.

20.  Scaffolding is used to facilitate learning
for students.
 Scaffolding goes in a process:
◦ first the teacher explains the objective
to the whole class.
◦ Next, the whole class works on it
together,
◦ Then, the class is broken down into
groups so that students can help each
other out
◦ Finally the students work on their own.

21.  Students can become puzzled when
learning about science.
 Students tend to have doubts in science,
questioning its principles.
 Teachers break down the scientific
processes and the reasons why things
happen with science so that in the end
they can fit it all together.

22.  basically students working together.
 Students are often placed in teams by the
teacher or they pick their own team.
 This can be effective if:
◦ Students can help each other
◦ Some students understand better the
topic
◦ Teacher provides one- on- one assistance

23.  Methods and tools:
 Technology for example can make
learning a lot simpler. Computer
programs and websites with educational
resources for example, can show how
things are done.
 Your students can see patterns and trends
by using these tools and get a better
understanding of the concepts.

24.  Articulation is helpful in science when you
have an idea and need to put it into the
appropriate terms for your assignment. It is
also helpful for saying things clearly and in
a way that everyone will understand.
 Reflections in science help students track
what is going on in an experiment and how
it changes.

25.  Formative Assessment helps both the
teacher and the student improve their
learning as they move through their
content of instruction.
 The fact that the teacher knows what their
doing can give a student confidence that
their work is right and has a purpose.

26.  Practices prepare students for an
assessment.
 Practices might help teachers to
improve the outcomes in the future.
 With more practice students get
better results
 Practice assessments prepare the
teacher and the students for the real
assessments.