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Teaching Science in Secondary Schools Syllabus

General Information

CPED6547 is the methods course for science teacher candidates. The course runs in the Fall only. The goals, topics, and activities described in this syllabus are adapted from the Fall 2014, Fall 2015, and Fall 2016 versions of the course. The Fall 2014 course was designed by Dr. Tiffany-Rose Sikorski (co-PI) and co-taught with Dr. Hartmut Doebel (co-PI). The Fall 2015 course ran as a combined math/science methods course. The Fall 2016 course enrolled only biology teacher candidates, and this biology focus is reflected in the selection of readings and videos below.

Course Information

This science methods course is built on the idea that teaching is first and foremost about listening to students and seeing the world from their point of view. All key activities of this course—assessment, instruction, lesson planning, and curriculum design—will be guided by our close attention to students and their ideas as portrayed through interviews, videos, field observations, and education research articles.

Course Goals

While some of the course goals will emerge from our work together, we will aim to:

  • Differentiate images of science as traditionally taught in schools from how science is practiced in its many forms outside of the classroom.
  • Appreciate what the education research community currently knows (and doesn’t know) about how students think and reason, and how they come to learn science.
  • Use evidence of student thinking from a variety of sources to design for scientific inquiry, and to support students’ inquiry in the moment.
  • Recognize and establish classroom norms and routines that support all students’ progress.

Required Texts

Harvey, W. (2013). The Anatomical Exercises: De Motu Cordis and De Circulatione Sanguinis in English Translation. G. Keynes (Ed.). New York, NY: Dover. 

Keeley, P. (2016). Uncovering Student Ideas in Life Science: Volume 1. 75 More Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning 2nd Edition. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press. 

Levin, D., Hammer, D., Elby, A., & Coffey, J. (2013). Becoming a responsive science teacher: Focusing on student thinking in secondary science. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.

Course Meetings

This course will be organized as a workshop, whereby you, your peers, and the instructors work closely to design two, classroom-ready unit plans in the content area(s) for which you seek licensure. In addition to unit planning, we will engage in a semester long science inquiry ourselves and explore trends in science teaching based on your ideas and interests. In course meetings, you will:

  • Analyze student thinking as evidenced in student work, field observations, and classroom video.
  • Observe science learning environments and consider what meaning students draw from those learning experiences.
  • Design new and analyze and modify existing instructional materials.
  • Do science, and reflect on our doing of science.
  • Engage in bit teaching experiences in preparation for your teaching internship in the Spring.
  • Iteratively and collaboratively design assessments, lesson plans, and unit plans.
  • Review seminal pieces of literature on learning theory, pedagogy, and studies of science.

Course Calendar

Topics, activities, and deadlines are subject to change based on the questions and topics that arise in class.

Session 1: Setting Expectations for the Semester

Due for class:

Come with questions about the syllabus/class and a few sentences about what you want to get out of this class. Watch video of TIMSS heart lesson called U5-Blood (31 minutes). Directions to access the video are on the page. Make a list of things that you notice in the video, and your reactions to what you see and hear, in your google doc folder. Call the document Professional Vision Notes.

Focal questions for today:

  • What expertise do we bring to this class?
  • What do we hope to accomplish with our time together this semester?
  • What does good (biology/chemistry/physics) learning look and sound like?   
Session 2: Professional Vision

Due for class:

Read Star & Strickland (2008). Go back to your Professional Vision notes from last week. Sort your noticings into the categories described in Star and Strickland. Read Levin and Richards (2011). Go back to your Professional Vision notes and note any instances of evidence that you were attending to student thinking. In class, we will re-watch the US-5 Blood lesson and code the teacher’s attention.

Focal questions for today: 

  • What do we notice when we observe classrooms, and why?
  • Why is attention to student thinking important?
  • How can we become more attentive to student thinking?
Session 3: What is "Doing Science?"

Due for class: 

Read De Mortu Cordis pages vii-18. Keep track of your thoughts and notes about the text in google docs (if you write in the book, you can take pictures of your writing and post it to google) in a document called Doing Science notes. Read the NGSS MS-LS 1 Performance Expectations. Where does the circulatory system fit in? Put your thoughts in a google document called Learning Goals and Standards notes.

Focal questions for today: 

  • What is biological/physical/chemical thinking? According to whom?

Notes:

  • Start Doing Science
  • Reflective questions about doing science:
    • What "wonderful ideas" (Duckworth, 1997) did we have?
    • What challenges did we encounter?
    • How does this experience inform our classroom teaching?
Session 4: Distinguishing Between and Assessing Different Kinds of Learning Goals

Due for class: 

Read Furtak et al. (2012). Re-watch the TIMSS U5-Blood video and note evidence of student learning along each of the four kinds of learning goals in Furtak’s coding scheme (PECS).  Then watch the first 10 minutes of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner from Levin et al. (2012), and note evidence of student learning along the PECS, and the teacher’s attention to student thinking (Levin & Richardson, 2011). Document all of this in your Professional Vision notes.

Focal questions for today:

  • Furtak et al. (2012) point to the importance of epistemic and social elements of learning. How do we support and assess learning along these dimensions, as well as conceptual and procedural elements, in science?

Notes: 

Session 5: Storylining and NGSS Practices

Due for class:

Read Burns (2016) on NGSS storylining and review the supplementary material at the end of the document if you wish. Read Bybee (2011) on the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices. Then, re-examine the TIMSS US-5 Blood video, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner video (Levin et al., 2012), and the Finland dissection video for evidence of students’ engagement in science and engineering practices. Document your analysis in your Learning Goals and Standards notes.

Focal questions for today:

  • How can I design a unit plan that “makes sense” to me, to students, and to the discipline of (biology/chemistry/physics)?
  • What are practices? How do we design for student engagement in the practices? 
  • What does it mean to build, refine, and  break models?
Session 6: Opening Opportunities for Doing Science

Due for class: 

Read Gallas (1995), Chapter 8. In your Professional Vision notes, briefly describe how Karen Gallas “builds curriculum from children’s ideas.” Based on your reading of Gallas and your readings for Unit Plan Part B., generate three different possible opening lesson ideas for your unit: one that utilizes a video, one that utilizes a text, and one that utilizes materials of some sort (like an experiment).

Focal questions for today: 

  • What does a good opening lesson need to accomplish?

Notes:

Session 7: Knowing What Students Know: Concept Inventories,(Mis)conceptions, and Formative Assessment

This course meeting is completed online asynchronously.   

Session 8: Science Is Not Words

Due for class:

Identify the vocabulary that you believe students need to learn in your unit. Read Feynman’s article Science is Not Words. Revisit your list and note what ideas underlie the terms in your list. Conduct a google scholar search to identify literature on student thinking for the words and topic of your unit plan. Summarize your findings in one page, with a list of citations (Unit Plan Part C.)

Focal questions for today:

  • How do we ensure students learn technical language without reducing our classroom to vocabulary and fact instruction?
  • What can words do for us in science?
  • How do words shape students' scientific reasoning, and vice versa?

Notes:

Session 9: Utilizing Community and Informal Settings for Doing Science

Due for class:

Read Sunderland, Klitz, & Yoshihara (2012), Doing Natural History and Kreuzer & Dreesmann (2016). Bring a question or two about the readings to discuss in class.

Focal questions for today:

  • What are similarities and differences between classroom and informal science instruction?
  • How can informal settings enrich classroom instruction?

Notes:

  • Continue Doing Science (Day 5)
Session 10: Field Trip to Q?rius

In preparation for the trip:

Visit the Natural History Museum collection website to learn more about current research happening in the museum. Then, explore the Q?rius digital collection for specimens related to your unit. You can save the specimens in your digital field book. Create a question related to your unit that we could explore with the Q?rius collection. Examples of questions we can ask of a collection are: "What defense mechanisms have organisms developed to protect themselves?" and "How has the ocean ecosystem changed over time?" We will try out your question at Q?rius! Document your ideas in Utilizing Informal Settings notes.

Focal questions for today:

  • What are similarities and differences between classroom and informal science instruction?
  • How can informal settings enrich classroom instruction?
Session 11: Classroom Norms, Organization, & Safety for Inquiry 

Due for class:

Read assigned chapter from Bresser & Fargason (2013) and be prepared to share what you have learned with the rest of the class.

Focal questions for today: 

  • What kinds of norms can support and inhibit inquiry?
  • What techniques can we use to implicitly and explicitly teach students how to engage with ideas in science class?
  • What steps do we need to take to ensure a safe environment for doing science?

Notes:

Session 12: Staying Connecting to Professional Science Communities

Select from the following options as they fit your schedule. All events are free and open to the public, though some require advance registration and do fill up in advance.

  • GW Biology Department Seminar. Faculty, students, and guests present on their biology research. Meetings are held Fridays at 3 pm. You must attend one seminar in order to count this as your biology content experience.
  • Carnegie Science Seminar. These events are held on Thursdays about once per month, hosted by the Carnegie Institution for Science. Advance registration is required. Most of the talks are biology focused. Attend one event to count this as your biology content experience.
  • DC Art Science Evening Rendezvous. If you are interested in connections between art and science, this event is for you. You can attend in person or watch the live webcast. Meetings are held once a month on Thursday evenings.

Read information about the topic of your biology event prior to attending. After the event, document your ideas to the focal questions below in your Doing Science notes.

Focal Questions:

  • What is this scientist studying? Why? How?
  • How is the topic of this scientist’s work typically presented in 7-12th grade classrooms?
  • How is my continued participation in the scientific community important for my teaching and my students’ learning?  
Session 13: Peer Critique of Unit Plans.

Notes:

Session 14: Preparation for Internship.
Session 15: Final Reflection

No course meeting. Final Course Reflection due at midnight.

Unit Plan Assignment 

Part A. Unit Rationale, Standards, and Storyline

Provide an overview of the unit which explains the rationale for the topic, where it fits within the sequence of the course, the NGSS standards targeted by the unit, and the logic behind the organization of the lessons in the unit. Clarify which pedagogical models (project-based learning, flipped classroom, etc.) and ideas (information processing, constructivism, etc.) influence the unit. (1-2 pages)

Part B. Historical Development of the Disciplinary Core Idea

Using primary science texts, studies of science, and philosophy of science articles, research the historical development of the idea in your unit plan. Document what problem the idea was meant to solve, how the idea came about, what competing ideas were on the table and why they were discarded, as well as any unanswered questions or areas for research related to your idea. NOTE: This is NOT a timeline task, or a list the scientists in order of their discoveries task. Instead, you are looking for a story of how an idea evolved or developed over time. What were scientists trying to understand or explain that led them to invent this concept? (1 page)

Part C. Review of Research on Student Thinking, Reasoning, and Learning

Conduct a search for literature on student thinking for your unit plan topic. Consider literature on both the conceptual content (i.e. evolution) and ways of thinking (i.e. biological reasoning) related to your unit plan. Summarize the findings and include all citations. (1 page)

Part D. Analysis of Student Thinking

Make copies of ~5 student work samples from the topic of your unit plan. Remove student names. Summarize the student thinking in the work along the following categories: vocabulary, facts, conceptual understanding, math/science practices, and nature of math/science. Alternative: Interview a student using a question from your unit plan, transcribe the interview, and analyze the student thinking evident therein. (1 page + artifacts)

Part E. Safety Contract

Include with your lesson a safety contract that is appropriate for the grade level and topic of the unit. You may use an NSTA, Flinn Scientific, or other contract or create your own. (1 page)

Part F. Two Weeks of Lessons (5 block schedule or 10 daily schedule)

Design lesson plans for approximately two weeks of instruction (either 5 block periods or 10 daily periods). Include for each lesson the handouts, slides, assessments, etc. (any materials that students would receive in the lesson). Your lessons should follow the format introduced in CPED6507, or the format used at your school if you are a current teacher. Include variations to activities for things you might want to try but can’t fit in a single unit plan. Describe activities from the teacher and student's point of view. Each lesson must include safety considerations. (1-2 pages per lesson + artifacts). It is acceptable and even encouraged that you use existing materials in your unit plan, but make sure you note when materials are your own creation and when they are borrowed.

Additional Course Materials

Readings

Chiappetta, E. L., & Koballa, T. R. (2010). Safety in the laboratory and classroom. In E.L. Chiappetta & T. R. Koballa, Science instruction in the middle and secondary schools (pp. 232-254). New York, NY: Allyn & Bacon.

Bresser, R., & Fargason, S. (2013). Becoming Scientists: Inquiry-based Teaching in Diverse Classrooms, Grades 3-5. Stenhouse Publishers.

Coffey, J., Hammer, D., Levin, D., & Grant, T. (2011). The missing disciplinary substance of formative assessment. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48(10), 1109-1136.

Duckworth, E. (1997). Tell me more: Listening to Learners Explain (pp. 166-180). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Levin, D. M., & Richards, J. (2011). Learning to attend to the substance of students' thinking in science. Science Educator, 20(2), 1-11.

National Research Council (NRC) (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Nehm, R. & Ridgway, J. (2011). What do experts and novices “see” in evolutionary problems? Evolution Education Outreach, 4, 666-679.

Star, J. R., & Strickland, S. K. (2008). Learning to observe: Using video to improve preservice mathematics teachers’ ability to notice. Journal of mathematics teacher education, 11(2), 107-125.

Classroom Videos

Curriculum Materials