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.