The major aim of the K-12 Science program is to develop scientific literacy in students. The key question that arises is "What is scientific literacy?".
For Saskatchewan schools, scientific literacy has been defined by seven Dimensions of Scientific Literacy that are the foundation for the renewed curriculum (Hart, 1987). Actively participating in K-12 Science will enable a student to:
The study of science should help students make better sense of the world in which they live. The objective is not to have students be able to repeat the words which teachers or scientists or others use to describe the world, although they may do that. It is to have students create their own conceptual maps of what surrounds them every day, and to realize that those concepts and the maps which describe the links between concepts are tentative, subject to questioning, and revised through investigation.
Carl Sagan, in the introduction to Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, addresses the relationship between science and creative questioning. He writes:
We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world... Except for children (who don't know enough not to ask the important questions), few of us spend much time wondering why nature is the way it is... (page ix)Creative questioning drives science. The ability to conceive creative questions should be fostered at the Middle Level. To do this, educators can:
Each of us has our own idea of what is meant by the term science. For many of us, our opinion was formed during science classes we took in high school and in university. We also have our own view of how science should be taught. This also may have been formed by modelling ourselves after what we saw in our science teachers. The first step in science teaching is to sort out our thoughts about science and about the teaching of it.
Science involves constructing an understanding of how the natural world works. We observe what is around us, ask questions, and seek answers. The questions we ask and the way we seek the answers is what distinguishes science from other ways of knowing about the world. This construction process is done through activities. Words in textbooks are not the way understanding is communicated. Words do not give meaning to concepts. Words in textbooks are useful as a comparison between what the reader understands and what the writer understands. Words in textbooks may serve as examples of how to communicate understanding, or may confirm or contradict an understanding. But concrete experiences are the basis for insight into the concepts. This is what Middle Level science must provide for students.
The core of a good science program is activity-based. Through activities comes the broad view of science expressed above, the science which is defined by the seven Dimensions of Scientific Literacy. When activities are analyzed, we find that they always encompass more than one of the Dimensions of Scientific Literacy, and most can be adapted to develop understanding of all seven Dimensions. The factors of scientific literacy are the primary foundational objectives for the K-12 science curriculum. Students who understand these factors understand how science works, and understanding of the factors is developed best through activities.
Middle Level students are immersed in the world of their peers, their environment, their problems, and their development. Early adolescents are aware of the reciprocal nature of peer and community influence. They are curious about things that interest them, capable of mature thinking, and concerned about the quality of their lives. They can be emotional, reluctant to accept authority, and easily bored. Therefore, Middle Level science classes must provide opportunity and guidance for students to discover the science in what is around them and in what they do. They must see what they study as relevant to themselves and to their situation. The Middle Level curriculum guide is designed as a foundation and support for teachers who are trying to encourage such inquiry.
To capture students' interest, ask students to examine the phenomena that they encounter everyday. Students come into science classrooms with vast experience in identifying, prodding, manipulating, and investigating phenomena in order to cope with the world. Bicycle riders have vast experience in the physics of force, motion, balance, momentum, and friction. They also have learned to infer much about their surroundings through visual cues. How deep and muddy is the puddle? How soft is the path?
All students have a constantly changing "picture of the world". Science class gives them a chance to reexamine, rethink, and reconceptualize their experience from a scientific perspective. To be scintifically literate is to be able to view the world with science as a frame of reference. This does not mean extinguishing other points of view. Scientifically literate people understand how science works and how science interprets events. Scientifically literate people do not think that science is the only mode of explanation. Science is one context for examining themselves, their ideas, and their lives.
Saskatchewan Education, Training, and Employment's view of science instruction is expressed in the recommendation for lesson planning in this guide. Science lessons feature four phases:
Such lessons may last for a number of class periods. Activities should form the core of each phase in this lesson planning framework.
Engaging ties the science curriculum to students' prior experiences, and to students' interests and needs. During this phase of the lesson, students' conceptions are explored, clarified, and stated. Students are encouraged to share their ideas, understandings, and reactions with each other. Such peer interaction fulfills one of the basic needs of adolescents. The direction the next phases of the lesson take is determined by what is discovered and discussed during this phase.
Exploring involves the investigation of questions raised during the engaging phase of the lesson. The investigations may involve student-designed investigations or activities suggested by teachers. Students should be encouraged to identify and use both community and multimedia resources to further their investigation. Community resources may be persons with expertise, sites to visit, or people who can suggest where information can be obtained. Multimedia resources may be oral histories, written materials, CD-ROM information bases, computer networks, or audio-visual productions.
The evaluation phase involves two levels of evaluation. Students must evaluate the results of their research and investigations. Is the information valid and useful? In addition, they must evaluate their understanding of the concepts in light of the results of their explorations. This is a critical phase. In cooperative learning groups, students can challenge each others' explanations and ideas. The evaluation phase is student evaluation of concepts and their notions of those concepts. This is when it is valuable for students to read explanations and illustrations of the concepts they have been studying.
Extending gives students a chance to take the results of their evaluation and put those results to the test. Follow-up of unanticipated discoveries or hypotheses enhances the understanding of what surrounds us.
The Role of Writing
and Reading in the
Science Curriculum
The goal of science education is to help students become scientifically literate. Scientific literacy for Saskatchewan students is defined by the factors of the Dimensions of Scientific Literacy. In addition, the goals of the Common Essential Learnings and the Adaptive Dimension further diversify the purpose of science education. A key phrase, important to all these goals is 'writing to learn'.
Writing in science classes can play an important role in moving science away from the paradigm of memorizing facts towards understanding the complex interrelationships implicit in the Dimensions of Scientific Literacy, and the Common Essential Learnings. Reading can broaden horizons or be a source of comparison of ideas during concept development. Reading can provide illustrations of how ideas and concepts can be expressed, or stimulate discussion, analysis, and evaluation.
Two forms of writing are important for students in science classes. They may write to inform or they may write to reflect. Both forms foster analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
Writing to inform may include many components. Brainstorming, categorizing, cooperative learning, making experience charts, making books and charts, researching, webbing Ä all may be involved in the process of producing a piece of writing. How these aspects interact is outlined in page 142 of English Language Arts: A Curriculum Guide for the Elementary Level (Saskatchewan Education, 1992). This outline is reproduced in this guide as Appendix 1.
Writing to inform is targeted for specific audiences and for specific purposes. Before beginning writing, students should have a clear understanding of the audience. Is it their parents? Is it the members of a grade four class? Is the purpose to inform, to persuade, or to compare? When students read, they can analyze the writing to determine the audience and purpose. The figure Decisions Writers Make is taken from page 43 in English Language Arts: A Curriculum Guide for the Elementary Level. It will serve as a good model for you to help students learn to express their ideas and conceptions and for the students as they organize their writing. Writing to inform focuses on objective data Ä what the students can observe with their senses. Through writing, students clarify and refine their conceptions and ideas.
What is written could form part of the individual's or group's portfolio, or could be collected as a class newspaper, magazine, newscast, or journal. If the writing is collected, consider reproducing it and distributing it through the school or community. Wherever possible encourage students to use a word processor to draft, revise, and complete their writing assignments. Encourage the use of correct keyboard technique, and investigate the possibility of your school offering keyboarding courses at the elementary or early middle years level.
A quiet time for writing - whether it is five minutes or fifteen minutes - at the end of a class, the end of a day, or while waiting to make more observations during an investigation can give students a time to organize their thoughts, rework their internal concept maps, and reflect upon what they have been studying. The myth of the aloof, objective scientist who records only measurements should be eliminated from the science classroom. Writing and reading about what they are seeing, thinking, and reading should become a daily part of the students' regimen. Writing may include observations, speculations, digressons, information, and synthesis of any of the above.
During the process of writing for reflection, students have an outlet for their feelings about what they are learning, and for expressing their ideas about how they can assimilate or accommodate the information they are acquiring. It is a time for reflection into values and attitudes.
Sentence stems may occasionally be provided to help students get started, but reflective writing should not be turned into student responses to a series of questions. Possible stems are:
Refer to the English Language Arts: A Curriculum Guide for the Elementary Level for a more comprehensive discussion of writing and reading.
Ways to use science writing and reading in a Middle Level classroom are as diverse as the imaginations of the students.
Ask each group to arrive at a consensus on the division of labour for the research, writing, proof-reading, and production tasks. Set a deadline for each phase of the project. Produce some sort of project progress report sheet or chart to hang on the wall, to be completed at various stages of the work.
Decide with the class how the individual reports will be compiled, duplicated, and distributed. This is an ideal opportunity to encourage the use of a word processing program, or a desktop publishing package.
An important type of reading is the reading of material written by peers. Peer review can be an important part in the development of writing ability and focus for both the writer and the reader.
By reading a variety of materials related to what they are studying, students see that not all science information comes from one textbook and that there is intrinsic interest for many people in the topics of science.
Most nonfiction is described as expository text, written to inform or to evaluate. It is not necessary to read it as we usually read fiction, from the start of the book to the finish of the book. Most nonfiction can be read in nonsequential chunks without losing meaning. Try reading a mystery novel that way! There are several strategies which can be used to help students make sense of the nonfiction they are reading. Scanning the Table of Contents, headings, illustrations, and first sentences of paragraphs can help the students understand the topic of the writing. If individuals or small groups then create a list of what they know about the topic and list questions they have about the topic, they are then more able to place what they read into their context of how the world works. Once they have completed their reading, writing in reflective reading logs, or revising concept webs or maps drawn before reading can help them assimilate the material.
Consult Science: A Bibliography for the Middle Level for recommendations about fiction and nonfiction which can be used during science classes. One example of a book referenced in the bibliography which mixes fiction, nonfiction, and references to other sources of readings is Force and Machines. Encourage students to keep logs of science-related reading. Additional strategies for guiding students' reading of expository text are found on page 104 of English Language Arts: A Curriculum Guide for the Elementary Level, reprinted as Appendix 3 of this guide.
Science Challenge
Science challenge is a way of giving students the maximum
opportunity to
extend their learning in a direction of their choosing or in a
style of their
own. The starting point may be something that intrigued a student
during the
exploration phase or evaluation phase of the lesson. It may be the
extension
part of the lesson. There is no set formula for what science
challenge is or
what must be done during science challenge.
Structured programs may be used during science challenge. Science Olympics is one such program. The Youth Science Foundation in Ottawa has an information booklet describing how to organize a Science Olympics event in your classroom. Science Is... (see Science: A Bibliography for the Middle Level) has many pages of ideas for Science Olympic challenges.
Science fair projects also fall under the category of science challenge activities. The Youth Science Foundation publishes a series of booklets explaining
how to use science fair projects in the classroom. In addition, Science 10: A Curriculum Guide for the Secondary Level has three pages of suggested topics for science fair projects. Students at the Middle Level may wish to use one of these ideas or they may use one or more of them to initiate a brainstorming session which will generate their own ideas.
Science Challenge may take the form of a logic puzzle for the students to solve in small groups. A question which requires divergent or lateral thinking skills may be used in a class discussion or on an exam as a science challenge. It may be a challenge to build a three-dimensional model to explain some concept, or to create an analogy using the basic form "A ............... is like a ................ because ............................"
In short, science challenge encourages students to step outside the traditional confines of science lessons and get away from asking the question "What do we have to know for the exam?" to asking "Why is ...?" or "How does ...?"
Saskatchewan Education, Training, and Employment has produced the following documents to support the Middle Level science program.
Science: A Curriculum Guide for the Middle Level contains the specific information needed to plan and deliver the Middle Level courses.
Science: Program Overview and Connections K-12 (Draft, 1989) contains important sections on the philosophy and rationale behind the teaching of science, and on planning for instruction in science for all teachers from kindergarten to grade 12. Sections of this document will also be useful for administrators, teacher-librarians, and others.
Science: An Information Bulletin for the Middle Level - Key Resource Correlations lists the key resources which have been recommended to help achieve the factors and objectives outlined in the Curriculum Guide. It is organized so that the resources, with page or chapter references, are listed for each topic in the Curriculum Guide. It was packaged with this guide.
Science: A Bibliography for the Middle Level contains an annotated listing of resources which can be used to enrich the science program and to assist in implementing Resource-Based Learning in the classroom. Each annotation contains a recommendation about the topic(s) for which the resource is most appropriate.
Before using this Curriculum Guide, teachers should be familiar with the Science Program Overview and Connections K-12, a document that provides background information about the factors of scientific literacy. A list of the factors, their definitions, and examples of instances in science where these factors are important, or can be developed, is also found in this Curriculum Guide. Many of the factors identified as components of the Dimensions of Scientific Literacy can be developed during the Middle Level curriculum.
Students will exhibit varying degrees of sophistication in dealing with some factors of scientific literacy. Some may be at a rudimentary level in understanding; others will be advanced. The teacher will need to adapt the course to meet these student variations.
In order to emphasize as many of these factors as possible during the course, and to concentrate on those less well developed, teachers must have a thorough understanding of each factor and exhibit good lesson planning and lesson reflection skills. Lesson reflection means that, at the end of the lesson, the teacher thinks about what happened. Based on assessment of student interests, understandings, strengths and needs, the teacher identifies what was understood and what needs more work. The teacher must verify the connections among the goals, factors and objectives. The section in this Curriculum Guide on Unit Planning, provides general and specific information regarding unit and lesson planning.
The curriculum in K-12 science in Saskatchewan schools is the attainment of the factors of scientific literacy. Attainment of these factors involves understanding, ability, and appreciation. The scope and depth of the Middle Level science curriculum is guided by the factors.