Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

Strategies to promote Belonging with Communication:

Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information is done on a daily basis and must be practiced to make it a more ‘scientific’ experience. Students must become responsible consumers of information and can practice belongingness by reviewing information in groups where they first critique the text before determining how to communicate and evaluate each other. Students can use role play, scripts, sentence stems, organizers and protocols to practice communicating information in a way where they properly hear each other and effectively communicate their findings. Lastly, to ingrain this practice into the culture, teachers can have informal communication on a daily basis for any problem or phenomenon using established norms. To learn more visit here.

Strategies to promote Confidence with Communication:

Obtaining and evaluating information in science can be very very difficult. Even the most literate struggle with scientific texts especially when it does not follow a textbook format that students may be more used to. To develop confidence in consuming scientific information, students will need plenty of structure and scaffolding. Teachers can model reading text, selecting sources, and evaluating the information by doing think-alouds. This is a great opportunity to work with ELA teachers on vocabulary and reading comprehension. Students can even share best practices with each other when obtaining and evaluating information. Lastly, teachers should utilize multiple modalities as well as silent reading, re-reads, chunking, text previews, and other reading strategies. To learn more visit here.

Learning Orientation for Communication:

For a proper learning orientation, students should view multiple ways of communicating information and understanding the decisions behind the form of communication. Students can also view each other's work (anonymously) to enhance the belief that there are multiple ways to consume and deliver information. It's important for students to properly process and critically evaluate the information that they are obtaining, evaluating and communicating. Students that don’t have the correct orientation may wish to “just get by” and say whatever is needed to protect themselves from being perceived as incompetent.To learn more visit here.

Strategies to promote Autonomy for Communication:

Supporting student autonomy means giving students plenty of opportunities for decision making. This can mean communicating information in whatever mode is most appropriate for the students. This can also mean that students can choose the types of information they seek and perform their own research process. Students should also be given examples of times when information was miscommunicated, misinterpreted, or misused for students to better understand the importance of being a responsible consumer of information. To learn more visit here.

Strategies to promote Relevance for Communication:

Relevance in science can often have additional barriers to overcome for students as they are often so technical and vocabulary heavy. This means there is an added importance to making sure the information is connected to students' lives. Information can be obtained from local new sources and be used as current events practice. In addition, students should practice modifying their communication based on the audience. Lastly, students should consider how they engage with this practice on a daily basis in their lives. To learn more visit here.

Standard Name: HS-PS2-6 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

Standard: Communicate scientific and technical information about why the molecular-level structure is important in the functioning of designed materials.

Observable Features of Student Performance by the end of the Course: 

1. Communication style and format

• Students use at least two different formats (including oral, graphical, textual and mathematical) to communicate scientific and technical information, including fully describing the structure, properties, and design of the chosen material(s). Students cite the origin of the information as appropriate.

2. Connecting the DCIs and the CCCs

• Students identify and communicate the evidence for why molecular level structure is important in the functioning of designed materials, including: 

  • • How the structure and properties of matter and the types of interactions of matter at the atomic scale determine the function of the chosen designed material(s); and 

    • How the material’s properties make it suitable for use in its designed function.

• Students explicitly identify the molecular structure of the chosen designed material(s) (using a representation appropriate to the specific type of communication — e.g., geometric shapes for drugs and receptors, ball and stick models for long-chained molecules).

• Students describe the intended function of the chosen designed material(s).

• Students describe the relationship between the material’s function and its macroscopic properties (e.g., material strength, conductivity, reactivity, state of matter, durability) and each of the following: 

  • • Molecular level structure of the material; 

    • Intermolecular forces and polarity of molecules; and 

    • The ability of electrons to move relatively freely in metals.

• Students describe the effects that attractive and repulsive electrical forces between molecules have on the arrangement (structure) of the chosen designed material(s) of molecules (e.g., solids, liquids, gases, network solid, polymers). 

• Students describe that, for all materials, electrostatic forces on the atomic and molecular scale results in contact forces (e.g., friction, normal forces, stickiness) on the macroscopic scale.

Standard Name: HS-PS4-5 Waves and their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer

Standard: Communicate technical information about how some technological devices use the principles of wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy..

Observable Features of Student Performance by the end of the Course: 

1. Communication style and format 

• Students use at least two different formats (e.g., oral, graphical, textual, and mathematical) to communicate technical information and ideas, including fully describing at least two devices and the physical principles upon which the devices depend. One of the devices must depend on the photoelectric effect for its operation. Students cite the origin of the information as appropriate. 

2. Connecting the DCIs and the CCCs 

• When describing how each device operates, students identify the wave behavior utilized by the device or the absorption of photons and production of electrons for devices that rely on the photoelectric effect, and qualitatively describe* how the basic physics principles were utilized in the design through research and development to produce this functionality (e.g., absorbing electromagnetic energy and converting it to thermal energy to heat an object; using the photoelectric effect to produce an electric current). 

• For each device, students discuss the real-world problem it solves or need it addresses, and how civilization now depends on the device. 

• Students identify and communicate the cause and effect relationships that are used to produce the functionality of the device.

Standard Name: HS-LS4-1 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

Standard: Communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence.

Observable Features of Student Performance by the end of the Course: 

1. Communication style and format 

• Students use at least two different formats (e.g., oral, graphical, textual and mathematical), to communicate scientific information, including that common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence. Students cite the origin of the information as appropriate. 

2. Connecting the DCIs and the CCCs 

• Students identify and communicate evidence for common ancestry and biological evolution, including: 

  • • Information derived from DNA sequences, which vary among species but have many similarities between species; 

    • Similarities of the patterns of amino acid sequences, even when DNA sequences are slightly different, including the fact that multiple patterns of DNA sequences can code for the same amino acid; 

    • Patterns in the fossil record (e.g., presence, location, and inferences possible in lines of evolutionary descent for multiple specimens); and 

    • The pattern of anatomical and embryological similarities. 

• Students identify and communicate connections between each line of evidence and the claim of common ancestry and biological evolution. 

• Students communicate that together, the patterns observed at multiple spatial and temporal scales (e.g., DNA sequences, embryological development, fossil records) provide evidence for causal relationships relating to biological evolution and common ancestry.

Standard Name: HS-ESS1-3 Earth's Place in the Universe

Standard: Communicate scientific ideas about the way stars, over their life cycle, produce elements.

Observable Features of Student Performance by the end of the Course: 

1. Communication style and format 

• Students use at least two different formats (e.g., oral, graphical, textual, and mathematical) to communicate scientific information, and cite the origin of the information as appropriate.

2. Connecting the DCIs and the CCCs 

• Students identify and communicate the relationships between the life cycle of the stars, the production of elements, and the conservation of the number of protons plus neutrons in stars. Students identify that atoms are not conserved in nuclear fusion, but the total number of protons plus neutrons is conserved.

• Students describe that: 

  • • Helium and a small amount of other light nuclei (i.e., up to lithium) were formed from high-energy collisions starting from protons and neutrons in the early universe before any stars existed. 

    • More massive elements, up to iron, are produced in the cores of stars by a chain of processes of nuclear fusion, which also releases energy.

    • Supernova explosions of massive stars are the mechanism by which elements more massive than iron are produced.

    • There is a correlation between a star’s mass and stage of development and the types of elements it can create during its lifetime. 

    • Electromagnetic emission and absorption spectra are used to determine a star’s composition, motion and distance to Earth.