Science Part I: Inquiry Thinking
Hi everyone, welcome back:)
It has been a busy couple of weeks on my end regarding school, as this is the time to get all the assignments and weekly readings done, all while focusing on my mental health and maintaining a routine. But being busy can be good, right? What strategies do you use to keep yourself “stress-free” during such a hectic time?
This blog post will focus on a lesson we had several weeks ago on Science education. Genuinely, I love sciences, especially topics surrounding biology. But science is not just the general topics of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Science is more than this. Science is overlooked as just knowing straightforward facts and laws that can explain why our society works the way it does and our universe. The hardest and greatest part about being a scientist is realizing that there is so much we do not know about our world. Through continuous learning, we can guide our students to think critically as they explore the complexities science can bring in an enriching environment.
“Scientists are experts at embracing the unknown”
Science is not just facts and a rigid method (Mgombelo & Sen, 2022, Week 6, Slide 9). It is a mode of inquiring in pursuit of powerful explanatory theories (Davis et al., 2019, p. 93). To do so, future educators can implement in their classrooms, strategies, and experiments that can engage our students rather than asking them to memorize facts. Students need to learn what is being discovered, rather than knowing what is right from wrong in the lab. In a lab, let’s say in high school, students can become so stressed about getting the correct answer. Instead, these interactive labs should be an experience to experiment while emphasizing the process rather than a final answer. Students need to learn how to inquire by using their knowledge to question and investigate a certain topic as it helps to foster great understanding and challenge previous knowledge. Inquiry is a messy process that is not linear!
Science is always changing. We must teach our students this so they do not get stuck in the mindset that science is all about memorization. Learners will build deeper connections between new and old knowledge when they actually take in information and learn from it, rather than memorizing content. Meaningful learning can help students to understand how all the concepts and pieces fit together and apply what they know to new and old situations. Students need to be active agents in their own learning (Bjerede, 2017). Even when I am in charge of my learning, I find that I will learn more as I am interested in the topic I am researching.
In high school, I would fixate on completing a lab by doing everything correctly, leading me to lose the purpose of the actual lab. I was preoccupied with getting a 100% rather than truly observing and analyzing the content and lab itself. I find that teachers now need to find a way to assess their students in more “fair” ways as labs can be a mode of discovery and assessment. There needs to be a middle ground between students learning factual scientific knowledge and learning through their discoveries. Teachers need to act as a guide for their students to ask questions and explore the unknown! To teach is about designing an enriching environment so students can become their own designers of scientific inquiry (Mgombelo & Sen, 2022, Week 6, Slide 18). Educators need to plan lessons for maximum motivation if they want great learning to take place.
It is imperative that we, in science classroom environments or a class in general:
Challenge our students by settings tasks at moderate levels of difficulty
Increase the meaningfulness of the science content and tasks by relating them to our world and society
Provide continuous feedback
Model enthusiasm, how to deal with challenges
Be supportive and reassuring of student's wants and needs in the classroom
I want to expose my future students to experiential learning and to work hands-on with their peers to enhance their understanding of the content. I want to provide opportunities that challenge students' thinking in science with a method-based learning approach. This would involve students asking difficult questions and engaging themselves in the research rather than reading countless facts. As students develop their knowledge-building competencies, they start to see themselves, what they are capable of, and what society deems meaningful (Davis et al., 2019). I want my students to take charge of their learning and inquiry to become well-rounded individuals.
This is only the first part of the Science segment that we discussed today! The next blog post will be the second part of science, including the scientific method.
Happy November!
Talk soon,
Victoria
📓📝😇
References
Bjerede, M. (2017). What is agentic learning and why is it important? GETTING SMART.
https://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/11/09/what-is-agentic-learning-and-why-is-it-import
Davis, B., Francis, K., & Frieson, S. (2019). Stem education by design: Opening horizons of
possibility. Routledge
Gottlieb-Cohen, S. (2019). Science means not knowing. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/science-means-not-knowing/
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