Susan's Web

Interested in learning more about the BSCS 5E Instructional Model? If you plan to attend next month's National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Science Education Conference in Philadelphia, you have a great opportunity to join BSCS Science Educator Betty Stennett for a special three-hour session on the 5E Model titled "The BSCS 5E Instructional Model--Constructintg Your Own Understanding." (This session requires no advance registration.)

You'll learn firsthand how the 5Es work--Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.

Engage your mind by revealing your current ideas about the 5E Instructional Model.

Explore an embedded 5E cycle as you share a common experience (discovering and applying the properties of an unknown substance).

Reflect on your discoveries as you explain what you, and the instructor, were doing both physically and mentally in each phase of the embedded 5E cycle.

Learn what supporting research says by examining the three key findings from How People Learn (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, 2000).

Elaborate on your experience by using examples from curriculum and/or video to examine the model in practice.

Finally, reflect on the session as a whole and overlay the 5E cycle with the session activities as you evaluate your understanding of the model.

Not able to attend this year's NSTA conference? You can still download the full PDF presentation of each and every BSCS session (16 in all) by visiting the BSCS website. Session PDFs will be posted within 48 hours of presentations.

Were you able to take part in NABT's national professional development conference held in Denver this month? BSCS staff presented a full-day Inquiry Symposium as well as several great sessions on everything from climate to evolution to drug abuse.

If you weren't able to make the conference, you can still download the complimentary pdfs of all sessions presented. Once you've looked over things and gleaned a gold nugget or two, we'd be happy to provide more info on the topics in which you're interested.

For a look at what's coming up with BSCS and how you can be involved, check out the Events Calendar.

To download the NABT session pdfs, click here.

Okay, we're almost there! Essential Feature #5 is this: Learners Communicate and Justify Their Proposed Explanations.

In other words, what they explain, they should be able to reproduce. And what they explain will likely be questioned and tested by other scientists, all in the name of great science. And if their explanation is really compelling, it may even ellicit new questions for new scientific explorations.

In order for this to work, scientists (translate - students) must be careful with their claims. This requires clear articluation of the question, procedures, evidence, and proposed explanation.

For you, the teacher, this means students should be given plenty of opportunity and encouragement to craft a solid explanation and be questioned by other students about findings--not as criticism but as opportunities to further explore and observe. In the end, students will be able to "resolve contraditions and solidify an empirically based argument."

Ready to take a look at inquiry in the classroom? Download your complimentary copy of Why Does Inquiry Matter?, turn to page 11, and check out six case studies.

We're almost there! Two essential features of inquiry to go. Number 4 says that Learners Evaluate their Explanation in Light of Alternative Explanations, Particularly those Reflecting Scientific Understanding.

In other words, students ask questions like, "Does the evidence support the proposed explanation?" "Can other reasonable explanations be derived from the evidence?"

Alternative explanations result from students engaging in dialogues, comparing results, or checking their results with those proposed by the teacher or instructional materials.

Your job as teacher is to make sure your students make the connection between their results and scientific knowledge. The explanations they end up with should be consistent with currently accepted scientific knowledge.

That's what inquiry is all about. To learn more, order the complimentary book, "Why Does Inquiry Matter?"

This essential feature emphasizes the path from evidence to explanation. The exact wording is, "Learners Formulate Explanations from Evidence to Address Scientifically Oriented Questions."

Whew! What does that mean? First, explanations must be consistent with experimental and observational evidence about nature. Explanations respect the rules of evidence, are open to criticism, and require the use of cognitive processes like classification, analysis, inference, and prediction.

Explanations allow students to learn about what is unfamiliar by relating what is observed to what is already known. This sentence is worth reading again. In your science classroom, your students will build new ideas based upon their current understandings. This is key. The result is proposed new knowledge.

Think about ways this can work as part of your science activities and investigations. What is the relationship of diet to health, for example, or why do plants die under certain conditions and thrive in others?

Want to know more about this important feature of a successful science experience? Check out Why Does Inquiry Matter?

(Excerpts above from the Why Does Inqiury Matter? booklet.)

Feature #2 in the NSES Essential Features of Inquiry says "Learners give priority to evidence in responding to questions."

The description goes on to say that scientists "obtain evidence from observation and measurements taken in natural settings such as oceans, or in contrived setting such as laboratories. They use their senses: instruments, such as telescopes, to enhance their senses; and instruments that measure characteristics that humans cannot sense, such as magnetic fields."

So here's my question: Since most teachers don't have the luxury of treating their students to natural settings like the ocean to conduct inquiry investigations, what do you set up for your students in the classroom? Do your students spend most of their time reading a textbook and answering questions? Do they spend a good deal of time observing, testing, talking, questioning, and investigating? Do they take measurements, record chemical reactions, journal their observations? Do they gather evidence to help them develop explanations?

Learn more about what you can do to cultivate a great inquiry environment in your school setting. Why Does Inquiry Matter?

In a recent post, I mentioned the five essential features of inquiry. The first feature says Learners are Engaged by Scientifically Oriented Questions. What exactly does this mean?

As described in the Why Does Inquiry Matter? booklet, "Scientifically oriented questions center on objects, organisms, and events in the natural world...They are questions that lend themselves to empirical investigation and lead to gathering and using data to develop explanations for scientific phenomena.

What does this mean for your classroom? "In the classroom, a question robust and fruitful enough to drive an inquiry generates a need to know in students, stimulating additional questions of how and why a phenomenon occurs."

Think about your science classes this week. Would you say your discussions fit this model? Do your students think of great questions on top of great questions? Does the discussion lead to the how and why of science phenomona?

Learn more in the free booklet, Why Does Inquiry Matter?

(The Essential Features of Inquiry are identified in Inquiry and the National Science Education Standatds: A Guide for Teaching and Learning [NRC, 2000])

There are five essential features of inquiry? As identified in Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching and Learning (NRS 2000), they are

1. Learner engages in scientifically oriented questions
2. Learner gives priority to evidence in responding to questions
3. Learner formulates explanations from evidence
4. Learner connects explanations to scientific knowledge
5. Learner communicates and justifies explanations

When you think about the teaching of science in your school and in your classroom, how does your program's approach fit with the five essential features? Not sure all five are being covered?

Find out more about these five features in the free Why Does Inquiry Matter? booklet, then take a look at six classroom case studies, and you be the judge. Which classrooms most closely match the science-as-inquiry scenario? Where would you put your own classroom?