Rise and Thrive with Science Teaching PK-5 Science and Engineering (2023) / Chapter Skim
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3 Starting Strong with Investigation and Design
3 Starting Strong with Investigation and Design
Pages 53-82
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From page 53... ...
How can you structure investigations and design tasks to not only engage and motivate all students but guide them to understand and use disciplinary core ideas and key practices of science and engineering? And how can you craft classroom experiences that advance equity and justice?
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From page 54... ...
In an instructional setting, effective engineering design is grounded in solving problems that children feel are important and interesting to them. The role of scientific and engineering practices in investigation and design As students undertake investigation and design work, they use the eight science and engineering practices laid out in the National Academies' A Framework for K–12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas:1 • Asking questions (for science)
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From page 55... ...
Children engage in the practices listed above not only to experience the delights and satisfaction of working as scientists and engineers do, but also for a clear purpose -- to construct new knowledge and be able to use their growing knowledge to answer questions and solve problems. Each investigation or design task will integrate crosscutting concepts (dimension 2)
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From page 56... ...
. National Science Teaching Association.
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Children vibrating tuning forks against their arms and faces, from various groups start gesturing and talking they observe that touching can make the vibra about objects shaking back and forth. tions stop and that the sound stops, too.
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see that many of the children's ideas map onto the disciplinary core ideas for the science unit on (Only a few children raise their hands.) sound.
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In addition, students record their observations and thinking in science notebooks; both drawings and words are acceptable modes of representation. Starting Strong with Investigation and Design 59
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Children are engaging in sensemaking when they do actions like these: • Ask more sophisticated or more targeted questions as learning progresses • Formulate and express their initial ideas about a phenomenon or design problem by talking, writing, gesturing, drawing and/or making models • Make predictions about what might happen next • Analyze data from investigations and design tasks and consider how this data and other evidence confirms or contradicts their initial ideas • Share and explain their ideas and critique the ideas of others using evidence • Revise their initial ideas and fill in gaps in their knowledge based on new evidence in individual and collaborative work Engaging in sensemaking does not require students to do all of these things at once. Nor do these actions need to occur in a specified order.
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From page 61... ...
An effective way to foster the aspects of sensemaking is to engage students in authentic science and engineering practices. As you work out a viable set of strategies and supports to help students engage in sensemaking, you will be rewarded by the vision of students doing vigorous "minds-on" work and becoming competent with science and engineering practices.3 3 Group interview, Jan.
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From page 62... ...
Many high-quality curricula provide detailed teachers' guides for managing investigations and design tasks, along with the specific disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts the units are targeting. Some curricula also come with relevant readings, physical materials for conducting investigations, and tools you can use to guide students' discussions and collaborative work.
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From page 63... ...
These characteristics are summarized in Box 3-1 and BOX 3-1 CHARACTERISTICS OF SUITABLE PHENOMENA FOR INSTRUCTION · Are interesting and puzzling to children · Are relevant to children's experiences · Are aligned to the disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and practices that you want students to use and learn · Can be observed and investigated over time using science practices and are too complex to explain after a single lesson · Can be an event (Why did pine beetles infest the forest?
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From page 64... ...
For example, if you're teaching a group of urban kindergarteners about how sunlight warms the surface of the Earth, you might choose to have them observe hot concrete instead of hot sand.4 If you're exploring ecosystems, you might choose a desert landscape if your school is in Arizona, whereas you might focus on ocean systems if you're located in Maine. Aligned to the ideas and practices children are expected to learn and use A useful phenomenon can be explained with the disciplinary core ideas that your stu dents are expected to learn and be able to use for their grade span, based on the NGSS or similar state standards.
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Can be observed and investigated over multiple lessons using science practices For preschool and elementary science, appropriate phenomena are occurrences that children can observe themselves. In the case of Ms.
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In the Wonder Farm exploration, for example, preschool children look at two pictures of the same plant taken on different days, say what they notice and wonder, and use a digital app to see how variables like water and sunshine affect plant growth over time.7 Further, a suitable phenomenon can be explained using some or all of the eight science and engineering practices listed earlier in this chapter.
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From page 67... ...
They gather and analyze data as they sort school lunch garbage into categories, study a local landfill, and observe what happens to jars filled with food and non-food materials. Over time, students develop an understanding of targeted disciplinary core ideas in physical and life sciences.
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Hamerstrom calls it, is the kickoff for the grade 5 unit on garbage which connects to disciplinary core ideas about matter in physical science and decomposition in life science. As students stare at the garbage, they begin to recognize pizza boxes and other items related to what they just had for lunch.
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At the end of the unit, they construct an explanation for what happens to garbage by using disciplinary core ideas of matter and composition. 10 Interview, Mar.
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They might also compare and evaluate different possible solutions. Effective design tasks for teaching engineering share some of the characteristics of suitable phenomena and also have characteristics particular to learning engineer ing.
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In the following example, fourth graders are inspired by a fictional story to demonstrate their problem-scoping abilities and creativity in a design task. Starting Strong with Investigation and Design 71
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The boys plan to connect a perforated plastic bag to a dustpan using a cardboard tube wrapped in duct tape, so the cardboard won't get wet. They argue about whether to add cotton balls and foam peanuts to the bag to "keep it quiet," as Cal notes; "remember [the money]
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13 STEM Teaching Tools, Engineering Hats Design Challenge. https://stemteachingtools.org/assets/landscapes/ EngineeringHats-Supplemental-File.pdf Starting Strong with Investigation and Design 73
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Although children's specific designs or models created in class may be constrained by available materials and other factors, these kinds of questions create opportunities for discus sions about the impact of engineering design decisions on people, animals, plants, and the environment. These discussions can lead to design tasks ranging from devel oping a way to safely get rid of an invasive species in a local natural area to designing a cover for a portable wheelchair ramp.15 14 Letourneau, S
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The flexibility within this design task and the opportunity for multiple decisions points allows for a range of solutions to be developed.16 Scaffolding for planning The goal of a design task is to help children learn the disciplinary core ideas and practices of engineering. To make that happen, an effective design task begins with a systematic plan for solving the problem -- in other words, with an engineering design process.
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From page 76... ...
When students analyze why something didn't work and then take steps to address the flaws in their ideas or design, they are engaging in authentic engineer ing practices. Meaningful design problems You may find it challenging to select meaningful problems for engineering design tasks that are accessible to children and are not too contrived.
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From page 77... ...
As you read the case below, notice how the task and the instruction introduce children to core science ideas about light at the same time children are learning to use engineering practices. 18 Youth Engineering Solutions https://youthengineeringsolutions.org/curricula/ Starting Strong with Investigation and Design 77
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A design task for young learners Yazmin was fearless on the monkey bars, dark)
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To address this design task, students The take-home activity and family discusdevelop knowledge about how sions make the problem more pertinent we need light in order to see, how and further encourage students to think materials interact with light in dif- about users' preferences and needs. ferent ways, and how light can be used to communicate.
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Chapter 4 describes how you can support students as they carry out key aspects of investigation and design. These include planning and conducting investigations and design tasks, analyzing and interpreting data, developing and using models, and constructing explanations.
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• How do I shift from quickly guiding students to the "right" answer to helping them deeply explore science ideas? • If my school, district, or state provides a scripted curriculum, how can I responsibly adapt materials to incorporate phenomena and problems?
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From page 82... ...
82 Rise and Thrive with Science
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