In my experience as a student in the realm of science instruction I have learned and understood that science is not just disjointed experiments and monotonous worksheets; science is a long-traveled journey. In what way is it a journey? I realize as a applicant to be a teacher, while a curriculum will be placed in front of me, a FOSS kit and worksheets are not science. They are experiments that often are disconnected from one another. I understand now that science is based on inquiry. The core features of engaging the students, allowing for evidence collection, having students explain their evidence, giving the student an expert opinion in the form of evaluation, and pushing the students to communicate the final product are what progresses education and learning for a student in the science classroom. The following words will explain science as inquiry and my role in it along with the additions of important readings and my previous vision statement that will allow me to give a visual construction of my future science classroom.
The best way to shape the future is to understand the past. My past science experiences were lackluster and inefficient, meaning I didn’t enjoy the classes I took in elementary and high school and didn’t retain much knowledge from them either. My initial vision statement highlighted the mundane instruction that I received as an adolescent and it comprised of FOSS kits in elementary school and checklists or itineraries paired with experiments in high school. There was no freedom and before I took science methods at the University of Iowa I assumed that’s how science was supposed to be. I now understand science as inquiry is a process in which children truly understand what it is that they are learning. This means that if extra time must be taken on something then it must be so. The article Activitymania explains their concern with pre-packaged experiments in that… “conceptual understanding and scientific literacy are not facilitated with [this kind of] practice.” If there is something that holds true from science methods over any other is that you should not gloss over information. If you do students will likely forget you as a teacher and what they might have learned. Therefore effective science instruction must be based around inquiry. If a lesson does not have at least a form of all five features it is likely that it will not be impactful on the students and tools that progress them forward may be left behind.
My practicum experience helped me understand how to plan a lesson that includes the features of inquiry. It is explained in How Do I Develop and Use Benchmark Lessons? that students need to use the lesson as a tool to build their factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge. When you include these with the five essential features of inquiry it creates a classroom in which students are always processing information in a way they can access it best. This is an important feature of inquiry-based lessons. While many people think that you can’t reach every student in the best way that works for them individually in one lesson, inquiry allows the best possible chance for it to happen because it is student-centered, which allows students to obtain the information in a way that is unique to them.
Since my first vision statement when I believed that science was the same experience for everyone, I have realized that inquiry creates the best chance for students to not only learn information in the best way possible but it is also likely that they will enjoy their experience. Before the inquiry lesson can even begin, I have learned how important it is to identify misconceptions. In the article, Misconceptions Die Hard they highlight an example in which 75% of students believed that if two identical pieces of aluminum foil are measured and you ball one of them up and leave the other flat that the balled up one weighs more than the other. This is just an example of the misconceptions that students bring into class and without identifying them, before enacting the lesson, it is likely that those students will hold onto those misconceptions unless they are made knowledgeable so the teacher may address them. Without doing so a lesson cannot move forward to ensure understanding.
Assessment is a vital part of science as inquiry. In the article containing the Introduction to Classroom Assessment it explains how I would use assessment in my future classroom. It can begin with the pre-assessment probes that I intend to hand out often to not only discover what the students understand but also to discover their misconceptions. I have also practiced assessment during my classroom experience. The most likely of forms of assessment is that of listening to students’ vocabulary as they research and discuss the topic at hand but it can also range to a quiz and more. There are also different ways to map the assessment. You can have a chart with students’ names on them and write notes next to their names as you walk around the room; you can do the same with sticky notes. You can also form a concept/assessment map in which you have expectations, learning goals, and performances clearly outlined. This is a streamlined way to see if a student is grasping the concept or not. I plan on using some form of all of these options based on the lesson plan type.
My future classroom may seem simple on the outside but in reality it will be a complex machine. If you spend time in my science classroom you would understand what inquiry is and how it is the foundation of all the lessons. You will see the students asking meaningful questions to me and to each other and also smiling because they enjoy what they are learning. Inquiry will create an enjoyable experience that allows students of all types to form meaning and those students will be able to communicate their findings in ways that are challenging yet familiar. You will see me walking around the room asking questions to prompt responses while assessing at the same time. In my future classroom you won’t just see worksheets and science kits; you will see a place that is both fun and educational. It will be a science classroom that adults can only wish they had experienced at a young age.
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