Week 6- What is the utility of Making Thinking Visible for STEM learning?

Engage

In your opinion, what defines thinking and the culture of thinking in your area of STEM?

The Bozeman Science video NGSS - Next Generation Science Standards (linked below) explains how scientists and educator jointly created these standards. Those standards reflect what I feel is the culture of thinking in science. The framework rests in the practice, concepts, and ideas. The standards focus heavily on engineering because as Mr. Bozeman points out in the video, it is the application of science. Knowledge and skills are key to the culture of thinking in my area of STEM-science. Developing skills and gaining knowledge are furthered through creating and using models. It is crucial. Also included in this way of thinking is the use of fundamental crosscutting concepts that bridge gaps between ideas such as cause and effect.

Also of note in the field of science is the standard to which scientific thinking is held. When they do research, write papers, publish works, there is a process of peer review. This is a critical process that says that we as a community need to be open and honest in our thinking. I feel that part of the culture of thinking in science is tied to something I learned while taking a course titled The Evolution of Biology with Dr. Betty Smocovitis at the University of Florida. The class interested me so much that in addition to taking the course I read her book

"Unifying Biology: The Evolutionary Synthesis and Evolutionary Biology." I think this passage encompasses what I think the culture of thinking in science, especially Biology, is today:

"Biology, then, is the science that stands at the center of all science. It is the science most directly aimed at science's major goal and most definitive of that goal. And it is here, in the field where all the principles of all the sciences are embodied, that science can truly become unified.‎" (Smocovitis, 1996, p. 176)

http://www.relatably.com/m/scientific-method-memes

From the content of these videos, what can you infer about the following:

What constitutes the essential elements of mathematical and scientific thinking?

Mathematical and scientific thinking possess many of the same essential elements. They both have roots in conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and problem-solving. As Professor William McCallum pointed out in the above video "The Importance of Coherence in Mathematics," mathematical thinking requires a high cognitive demand for reasoning and sense-making. This idea also applies to science.

Content and skills should be connected in both fields. Also vital are the elements of focus and better coherence. Coherence is established by following the progression of skills and the connection of ideas that logically flow from one idea to the next. There exists relevance to our daily lives through the application of math and science. Higher ordered structures with a flow and progression of ideas lead to mastery that is built on a strong foundation. An essential element is the unification of crosscutting concepts. Both types of thinking are served by reason skills, making and using models, and making connections.

How are external representations related to the elements of mathematical and scientific thinking?

External representations bolster thinking and aid learning. Seeing concepts and ideas represented in various ways expands mathematical and scientific thinking. Scientists and mathematicians gain new insights into solving problems through external represenations such as models. Taking one's internal representation and making it an external representation aids in communicating ideas and seeing solutions. The elbow modeling problem is a good example of this. I knew in my mind some of the forms and functions of an elbow such as wanting it to extend to no further than 180 degrees, not close to 0 degrees. Picturing it internally was not sufficient. Creating several iterations helped to hone the focus of

What defines the role for external representations in the knowing and learning of STEM?

I think what defines the role of an external representation is determined by the purpose of the representation. If the external representation is vital for the understanding of what the model represents it is of paramount importance. For example, a detailed model of a heart would be crucial to a heart surgeon's learning.

https://www.pinterest.com/mochajolt123/biology-memes/

References

Smocovitis, V. B. (1996). Unifying biology: the evolutionary synthesis and evolutionary biology. Princeton (N.J.: Princeton

University Press.