Philosophy and Framework
Science Philosophy Statement
Topeka Public School students will use scientific processes including active engagement in hands-on exploration, problem solving, and communication of ideas as well as integration of other subject areas ensuring that students understand the natural world.
Students will design investigations and collect information. As a result of these investigations, students will construct their own knowledge to explore science in the world around them. Inquiry incorporates diversified learning strategies that strengthen student engagement in their learning adventure.
Solving problems using engineering practices is an integral part of science. Students will apply techniques such as questioning, critical thinking, mathematical reasoning and creating models to help them answer their inquiry questions.
Scientific literacy is essential to understanding the universe. Students will communicate and evaluate ideas and discoveries, asking additional questions that will require further study.
Three Dimensions of Science Learning
Within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard—or performance expectation—and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time.
Fundamental Shifts in Science Education: Three-Dimensional Learning
To prepare students for college, career, and citizenship, teachers utilize the Next Generation Science Standards to create a three-dimensional learning environment. Three-dimensional learning means that students are making sense of phenomena and developing solutions to problems. Students should be the ones who evaluate their own ideas, using the evidence they have collected as a class. A consensus around accepted scientific ideas should be developed by students, and they are deciding if the ideas are reasonable based on the evidence. Consensus is based upon evidence and not opinion or persuasion. There should be constant reflection by students to determine if they have enough evidence to support the claims being expressed.
Real-World Application
This diagram shows how science works in the real-world. Science is not a simple step-by-step process but a continuous back and forth between the real world and how we make sense of it. How do we get students to understand this? By doing it! This is the reason that a Science and Engineering Practice is attached to every performance expectation. There isn’t a division between learning about science and doing science.
Modeling Instruction
The Modeling Method has been intentionally developed to correct many weaknesses of the lecture-demonstration method of instruction typically seen in STEM classrooms. These weaknesses include the fragmentation of knowledge, student passivity, and the persistence of naive beliefs about the physical world.
Instruction is organized into modeling cycles which move students through all phases of model development, evaluation and application in concrete situations — thus promoting an integrated understanding of modeling processes and acquisition of coordinated modeling skills.
The teacher sets the stage for student activities, typically with a demonstration and class discussion to establish common understanding of a question to be asked of nature. Then, in small groups, students collaborate in planning and conducting experiments to answer or clarify the question.
Students are required to present and justify their conclusions in oral and/or written form, including a formulation of models for the phenomena in question and evaluation of the models by comparison with data.
Technical terms and concepts are introduced by the teacher only as they are needed to sharpen models, facilitate modeling activities and improve the quality of discourse.
The teacher is prepared with a definite agenda for student progress and guides student inquiry and discussion in that direction with “Socratic” questioning and remarks.
The teacher is equipped with a taxonomy of typical student misconceptions to be addressed as students are induced to articulate, analyze and justify their personal beliefs.
Elementary Science
Students in kindergarten through fifth grade begin to develop an understanding of the four disciplinary core ideas: physical sciences; life sciences; earth and space sciences; and engineering, technology, and applications of science.
In the earlier grades, students begin by recognizing patterns and formulating answers to questions about the world around them.
By the end of fifth grade, students are able to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in gathering, describing, and using information about the natural and designed world(s).
The performance expectations in elementary school grade bands develop ideas and skills that will allow students to explain more complex phenomena in the four disciplines as they progress to middle school and high school. While the performance expectations shown in kindergarten through fifth grade couple particular practices with specific disciplinary core ideas, instructional decisions should include use of many practices that lead to the performance expectations.
Secondary Science
Students in middle and high school continue to develop understanding of the four disciplinary core ideas. The secondary grade level performance expectations build on the K – 5 ideas and capabilities to allow learners to explain phenomena. The performance expectations blend the core ideas with scientific and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to support students in developing useable knowledge to explain real world phenomena in the branches of sciences. Performance expectations at the middle and high school grade band focus on students developing understanding of several scientific practices. These include developing and using models, planning and conducting investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematical and computational thinking, and constructing explanations; and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. Students are also expected to demonstrate understanding of several of engineering practices including design and evaluation.