Applying Strategies that Work in the Science Classroom
Facilitator: DJ Juan Cool - Miguel Guhlin (@mGuhlin) | https://tinyurl.com/stwsci
Looking for ways to blend evidence-based strategies into science instruction? In this livestream, we'll uncover how high-effect size strategies can impact every aspect of science lesson planning.
Topics
- Evidence-Based Strategies for Science
- Steps in the Process
- Set goals
- Pre-Assess
- Build Learning into Lesson Activities
- Interactive Science
- Resources
- Amazing Lesson Design Outline (ALDO)
1-Evidence-Based Strategies For Science
Today's presentation is informed by a variety of texts. In his book, The Fundamentals of Teaching, Mike Bell shares five steps to the perfect lesson. Watch video shown left.
John Almarode, author of Visible Learning for Science, also shares his approach. See video to the right.
2-Steps In The Process
Step #1 - Set Goals for the Science Lesson
Dr. John Almarode, who wrote Visible Learning for Science, suggests setting the following goals for science lessons. The goals are straightforward and represent a wonderful response to the question asked.
- Get students interested in lifelong learning and science that works.
- Give students more control over their own learning.
- Build in ways to assess students to discover where they are, and then match strategies to what they need to learn.
The first goal is practical and makes learning relevant to the learner.
The second ties into John Hattie’s strong belief in the need for students to be self-regulated learners.
The third enables both you and students to track their progress. In tracking their own growth towards learning targets, they can make decisions, which gives them voice and choice.
1) Get students to set goals for the subject, breaking larger goals into small, achievable steps they can check off through the term.
Strategies: Self-Regulation Strategies (d=0.54), Metacognition Strategies (d=0.60)
2) Engage in retrieval practice, where students develop their own assessments.
Strategy: Retrieval Practice or Practice Testing (d=0.46) | Learn More
Use quizzes often. This provides students with feedback on whether they are right or wrong in their grasp of concepts and vocabulary. These strategies can lead to deeper understanding, not only memorization of facts.
Keep it low stakes. Avoid grading the use of the assessment. The goal is to spread out assessments over time, as you can see in the figure below.
Revisit old content. Don’t be afraid to make quiz questions about content you have already covered. In this way, students are able to better learn and retain content they have been introduced to before.
Step #2 - Pre-Assess Student Learning
When determining what students already know about a topic or skill, you have to ask, “How do we pre-assess students where they are at?” This leads to the question, “What are some formative assessments we could use?” These assessments provide insights into where students may fall on the SOLO Taxonomy. SOLO stands for “Structure of Observed Learning Outcome.”
COLOSO statements appear as part of the CUE, DO, and REVIEW or Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR).
Content Objective (CO): This tells students what they will learn during the lesson. It is the WHAT of a lesson and flows from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) or core standards.
Example: “Students will re-analyze archetypes in mythic, traditional, and classic literature” (TEK 2B).
Language Objective (LO): Students are told how they will learn and/or demonstrate their mastery of the lesson in four ways. Those four ways include reading, speaking, writing and/or listening. This is the HOW. It describes how students show what they are learning. The English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) are relevant.
Example: “Students will use interactive notebooks to enhance understanding of key vocabulary and examples.”
Social Objective (SO): This objective describes how students will engage in a physical activity. This includes how students engage with classmates.
Example: “Students will work in pairs and small groups to read common texts and identify archetypes.” (Source: English II syllabus, Mrs. G. Robles for Grades 9-10).
Step #3 - Build Learning into the Science Lesson
“Science education needs a mix of demonstrations, labs, and experiments. It also needs reading, writing, and discussing with other scientists,” says John Almarode.
a) Paired Demonstration and Writing Down Observations
Demonstration
Encourage students to write about what they observed
b) Clarifying Terms and Vocabulary
Discussion about vocabulary terms
Have students revise their writing using correct terms
c) Wrap-Up
Final wrap-up
b) Clarifying Terms and Vocabulary
"We think with words, therefore to improve thinking, teach vocabulary."
-A. Draper and G. Moeller
-A. Draper and G. Moeller
Per Visible Learning MetaX database, the effect size for Vocabulary Programs is 0.63.
Strategy Spotlight: Vocabulary Programs
One of the oldest findings in educational research is the strong relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Word knowledge is crucial to reading comprehension and determines how well students will be able to comprehend the texts they read" (Source: Visible Learning for Literacy).
Frayer Model
Semantic Map
Concept Sorts
C) Wrap-Up
Known as self-judgment and reflection (d=0.75), research has shown the importance of a student’s ability to reflect on her work, discern its relationship to established standards, and decide its worth.
Research offers two more tips:
1) Cultivate metacognitive knowledge instruction in students.
2) Use self-developed tests more than intervention-independent tests.
Reflection Model for Science
Reflection and Metacognition
The benefits of student reflection on learning include metacognition. Benefits include:
Increasing the depth of knowledge,
Identifying the areas which are missing or deficient,
Personalizing and contextualizing knowledge,
Providing comparative references in learning, and helping learners build structural connections in
knowledge and social connections among learners
Twig Create makes it easy to create videos for free.
You can see some examples to the right. Find more online at their website or via their YouTube channel.
Twig Create combines easy-to-use video editing tools and activities. These activities align to core content areas. Twig Create promotes agency, creativity, and inquiry in all students.
It provides access to stock video clips that include curated content. To these videos, teachers and students can add text, music, and voiceovers.
Digital Tool Spotlight: Twig Create
Students use Twig Create to summarize and share their learning, as shown right. Combine the reflection process with the power of digital storytelling. See more features online, along with pricing for schools.
3-Interactive Science
Periodic Tables
What tools are now available to support learning and understanding of the periodic table?
In case you missed the history of the periodic table, it took almost a century to organize. Several scientists spent their lives working on this table. The periodic table is awe-inspiring for this reason alone. It is also fun to consider because it makes the following possible:
- Analyzing reactivity among elements
- Predicting chemical reactions
- Understanding trends in periodic properties among different elements
- Speculating on the properties of undiscovered elements (source)
Learning the periodic table may be an obstacle for some, but for others, it represents a gateway to another world.
The Scientific Method
The “most reliable tool for determining the nature of the world around us" (Source: Greg Epstein).
Students must internalize the scientific method and engage in metacognition. They must ask themselves,
- What does the evidence say?
- What do I think about that evidence?
- What does it imply for next steps?”
Tool Spotlight: Chemix Lab Diagrams
“I would use [Chemix Lab Diagrams] at the beginning of the school year. It would get students to recognize the lab equipment and how to use them,” says Efren Rodriguez (@EfrenR). Chemix is “an online editor for drawing science lab diagrams. It can be used for drawing school experiment apparatus. The app provides for easy sketching for both students and teachers.” Learn more.
Demo #1: Water Temperature and Effect
Does water temperature affect how fast an Efferdent tablet dissolves? Give this activity a try for middle school students.
Tips for Implementation
Here are some suggestions from Carlos Gomez. I’ve also included some website links I thought might be helpful:
Get a bag of ice in a cooler for the cold water. You can warm up water in an electric kettle. I pour it for the kids into their beakers so they don’t have to use tongs. Use room temperature water from the sink as your control.
Students time from the start (drop tablet) until fully dissolved. Temperature doesn’t need to be recorded because we simply care that one is hot water and the other is cold.
You can do a simple graph (bar or line) with independent variable (IV) being water temperature (hot, room, cold). Time can serve as the dependent variable (DV).
You can also try this with Alka-Seltzer, but Efferdent tablets are less expensive. View lesson plan.
Also use tablets to measure how much carbon dioxide gas is in an Efferdent tablet.
Demo #2: Barbie Bungee
Use scientific method as students differentiate between speed, velocity, and acceleration. They will also compare and contrast Newton’s three laws. Try this activity with high school chemistry students.
Tips for Implementation
Follow the steps in this eighth grade science teacher guide.
Explore Fawn Nguyen’s guide (also source for image shown left).
Tool Spotlight: Digital Physics
Are you a physics teacher looking for simple tutorials, interactives, or concept builders? Digital physics has never been easier. Explore a variety of digital resources you may find useful as a physics teacher. Some Interactives provide game-like environments. You can introduce them with direct instruction (.59) strategy. Use them when students are ready to build a deeper conceptual understanding. Strategies you can use include classroom discussion, reciprocal teaching. This involves students grappling with ideas together. Learn more.
Critical Thinking Examples: One Approach
Are you familiar with the Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) critical thinking framework? It “encourages students to analyze evidence and draw conclusions.”
To support critical thinking, encourage students to reflect on how inaccurate conclusions can be reached when we combine observed evidence with inferences or imagination. Encourage students to ask, "What are some ways they could identify observable evidence?" Learn more.
Resources
Amazing Lesson Design Outline (ALDO)
Amazing Lesson Design Online (ALDO) (left),
a tool for guiding lesson design for diverse learners.
Use the choice board (right) to get you started on designing. It features four choices for each of the lesson design stages in ALDO.
