Background Information for Teachers
There are many quality resources available for teachers focused on the topics of methods of science, the nature of science, and scientific proficiency. In this section we will highlight just a few.
This publication from the National Research Council was written specifically to help teachers address the Science as Inquiry standards of the National Science Education Standards. Chapters are short and focused. You may find it helpful to peruse a single chapter or the entire book.
Ready, Set, Science is the comprehensive synthesis of research into teaching and learning science in kindergarten through eighth grade. It summarizes a rich body of findings from the learning sciences and builds detailed classroom cases of science educators at work. The educators are teaching a core concept across a learning progression and striving to facilitate student science proficiency. From these accounts, teachers can begin to transform their own classrooms to mimic these and assist students in achieving both conceptual understanding and skills in science content and methods.
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This article from Science Scope is free for NSTA members or 99 cents for nonmembers. Many scientists and science educators contend that a structured scientific method does not exist; others argue that the scientific method is too simplistic in its approach to scientific inquiry. This article addresses the dilemmas surrounding the scientific method, and provides suggestions that will enable you to meld the method with process skills.
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This free pdf from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) provides the rationale and recommendations for teaching science through inquiry.
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The rationale and recommendations for teaching about the nature of science are provided in this position statement.
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This article from The Science Teacher is free for NSTA members or 99 cents for nonmembers. Although research demonstrates the value of inquiry-based science, many curriculum materials are still based on traditional approaches that fail to engage students in inquiry. Using an example of a typical cookbook laboratory – the "rusty nail"-- this article describes an inquiry analysis tool and adaptation principles that were created to help teachers evaluate and adapt laboratory instructional materials to be more inquiry-oriented. The adaptation principles are clearly listed and are transferable to the curriculum materials you may be using.
The authors of this article on the NOS discuss several events in science history and ask how chance influenced each. They conclude that though many texts credit serendipity, the reality is the scientists involved were probably aware of work done before them on until-then unanswered questions. The scientists used this previous work to inform their own work and thus were enabled to make scientific progress, not by chance but by clever application, creativity and synthesis.
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In this session, participants use the 5Es (engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate), a constructivist approach to learning. The course focuses on the nature of scientific processes; the value and limitations of scientific process; the scientist's use of terms such as fact, law, theory, and hypothesis; and how scientists choose the best solution using fair tests. The outcomes for participants include the ability to develop hypotheses from observations; identify the kinds of evidence sufficient to reject or accept a hypothesis; and apply scientific processes in different situations.
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Copyright
June 2008 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work
supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any
opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this
material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of
the National Science Foundation.
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This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.
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