Enhancing Science Teaching through Performing Marbling Art Using Basic Solutions and Base Indicators

Basic solutions are an indispensable part of our daily life. Basic solutions are commonly used in industries such as the textile industry, oil refineries, the fertilizer industry, and pharmaceutical products. Most cleaning agents, such as soap, detergent, and bleach, and some of our foods, such as chocolate and eggs, include bases. Bases are the fundamental concepts of chemistry. Indicators are chemical compounds that can be added to solution to determine whether it is a base or not. This article describes an activity whose primary aim is to teach base indicators to preservice elementary teachers. In this activity, the authors turned the traditional art of marbling into something achievable with the chemical substances that are the basic solutions and base indicators found in nearly all chemistry laboratories. Therefore, this activity can be called chemical marbling. The preservice elementary teachers learned the base indicators and basic solutions throughout this activity. The purpose of the study is not only to teach the science concepts to the preservice elementary teachers with fun but also to promote the development of their attitudes toward science, creativity, and aesthetic feelings. Suggestions stress that chemical marbling might be a good tool to acquire the preservice elementary teachers’ cognitive and affective learning outcomes.     

An exploratory study of student teachers’ conceptions of teaching life science outdoors

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to investigate elementary student teachers’ conceptions of teaching life science outdoors. The study involved 99 student teachers who were enrolled in an elementary science methods course at a large public university in the United States of America. The study utilised drawings, and narratives to investigate the nature of these teachers’ conceptions. Data analysis revealed that three conceptions of teaching life science were common among the participants: (1) teaching life science is predominantly conceptualised as being situated in the schoolyard, (2) teaching life science outdoors is teacher-directed, and (3) teaching life science outdoors is disconnected from in-class science instruction. Implications include the need for (1) teacher education programmes to provide reflective supports that explicate student teachers’ conceptualisation of teaching life science and thus exposing prior frameworks; and (2) teacher educators to examine student teachers’ prior frameworks for teaching life science outdoors and provide knowledgeable theory and practice platforms that will serve as frameworks for student teachers to adopt, connect and routinize outdoor life science teaching with in-school teaching of life science.     

Gardening for Homonyms: Integrating Science and Language Arts to Support Children's Creative Use of Multiple Meaning Words

Curriculum integration can increase the presence of science at the elementary level. The purpose of this article is to share how two second-grade teachers have integrated language arts content as a part of science-language arts instruction in a garden-based learning context. One application was a teacher-designed Gardening for Homonyms lesson, which supported new ways of thinking about words and wordplay while developing science vocabulary related to structure and function, diversity of life, and interdependent relationships in ecosystems. This article provides the lesson and discusses its implementation in two second-grade classrooms. Examples of student work illustrate children's creative thought around and application of multiple meaning words. Pre-, post-, and extended posttest measures of students' ability to generate and to use homonyms demonstrate that this science-language arts integrated lesson can result in both short- and long-term learning. Applications and follow-up from the lesson over two subsequent years have engaged second and third grade students in study/inquiry about plant growth and life cycles while utilizing many facets of language arts, which have ranged from labeling an experimental design and writing predictions and results to conversing about digital “GigaPan” images on growing strawberries.     

Using Team-Based Learning to Teach Grade 7 Biology: Student satisfaction and improved performance

Team-based learning (TBL) is an innovative form of collaborative learning. The purpose of this study was to evaluate TBL’s effect on the performance and satisfaction of grade 7 students in biology in a private school in Lebanon, as well as teachers’ willingness to implement this new methodology. An exploratory study was performed whereby two biology units were taught to two groups of students using either TBL (60 students) or traditional lecture-based instruction (30 students). Later, a summative test was administered to evaluate students’ performance. Students’ attitudes were evaluated using a questionnaire and teachers’ classroom observations. Finally, science teachers’ willingness to try TBL in their classes was assessed using a questionnaire (14 teachers). Results showed that underachievers taught according to TBL did better than underachievers taught with the lecture-based approach. The majority of students enjoyed TBL and found it useful and fun. Finally, science teachers agreed that TBL is a good alternative to the traditional lecture-based method.     

Linking the experiential,affective and cognitive domains in biology education: a case study – microscopy

A greater emphasis in school curricula on the technology of science would encourage teachers to engage their students more in practical work. This in turn might be expected to improve students’ attitudes towards science and enhance cognitive outcomes. The paper presents findings from a study on first-year university students’ school experience of, attitudes towards, and knowledge of, microscopy. The findings reinforce the general expectations alluded to above. They also draw attention to the importance of the lower secondary science experience – often a suboptimal one owing to a poor resource base – to the formation of student attitudes and cognitive development with respect to science.     

Using Inquiry to Learn about Soil: A Fourth Grade Experience

In this article, we describe a fourth-grade inquiry unit on soil. The unit was designed and taught by preservice elementary teachers as part of a university science methods course. Using a student-driven inquiry approach to designing curriculum, the unit engaged fourth graders in learning about the physical properties soil, erosion, worms, and plants. Hands-on activities, literacy strategies, and informational texts and websites were used to build student learning.     

地方院校《环境工程微生物学》课程改革与实践

《环境工程微生物学》是环境工程专业的核心课程之一,为提高教学质量,以湖南文理学院环境工程专业为例,从明确课程定位、提升教师教学水平、提高学生兴趣以及加强实践教学几个方面进行了探讨。首先需明确该课程不同于普通的微生物学,教师在授课中应将微生物学相关理论知识与环境科学、环境工程领域实践相结合。其次,教师应通过多种方式提高自身教学水平。在授课中应注意通过合理使用教具、引入热点问题以及善于使用多媒体设备、提高学生课堂参与力度等方式来培养学生的学习兴趣。同时,在实践教学中也应注意促进学生对于环境工程微生物理论知识的理解和运用,提高动手能力和实验独操能力,以期达到更好的教学效果。     

The Mathematical Basis of Mendelian Genetics

In a climate where increasing numbers of students are encouraged to pursue post-secondary education, the level of preparedness students have for college-level coursework is not far from the minds of all educators, especially high school teachers. Specifically within the biological sciences, introductory biology classes often serve as the gatekeeper or a pre-requisite for subsequent coursework in those fields and pre-professional programmes (eg pre-medicine or pre-veterinarian). Thus, how helpful high school science and mathematics experiences are in preparing students for their introductory biology classes is important and relevant for teachers, science educators and policy makers alike. This quantitative study looked at the association between students' high school science and mathematics experiences with introductory college biology performance. Using a nationally representative sample of US students (n?=?2667) enrolled in 33 introductory college biology courses, a multi-level statistical model was developed to analyse the association between high school educational experiences and the final course grade in introductory biology courses. Advanced high school science and mathematics coursework, an emphasis on a deep conceptual understanding of biology concepts and a prior knowledge of concepts addressed in well-structured laboratory investigations are all positively associated with students' achievement in introductory college biology.     

Perspective: evolution's struggle for existence in America's public schools

The ongoing creation-evolution controversy in North America thrives on the widespread special creationist beliefs of a significant portion of the public. Creation science supports a literal interpretation of the Judeo-Christian Bible, an earth that is no more than 10.000 years old and created ex nihilo in six days by a monotheistic God, with no new kinds arising since the period of creation, and with a single flood of staggering force shaping layers of rocks and trapping the organisms fossilized within them. Despite decisions in numerous court cases that specifically exclude creationism and creation science from primary and secondary biology classes in America's public schools, creationists now work locally to minimize or remove evolution from science teaching standards. The nationally organized movement to resist the teaching of evolution has proven highly effective, influencing state and district school boards in addition to individual teachers and schools. Thus, if teaching about evolution and the nature of science is to survive in America's primary and secondary schools, scientists must likewise work with teachers and reach out to state and local school boards. In this perspective we outline the typical creationist arguments we encounter from students, teachers, school board members, and neighbors. We explain briefly how knowledge of both microevolution and macroevolution is important in medicine, agriculture, and biotechnology. We describe a science education controversy that arose within our own school district, how we responded, and what we learned from it. Finally, we argue that even modest outreach efforts to science teachers will be richly repaid.     

Preservice elementary teachers’ willingness to specialize in science and views on evolution

Background

Acceptance and understanding of evolutionary ideas remains low in the United States despite renewed science education standards, nearly unanimous acceptance among scientists, and decades of research on the teaching and learning of evolution. Early exposure to evolutionary concepts may be one way to reduce resistance to learning and accepting evolution. While there is emerging evidence that elementary students can learn and retain evolutionary ideas, there is also emerging evidence that elementary teachers may be unprepared to teach evolution. It may not be possible to train elementary teachers like their secondary counterparts who receive specialized training in science. This exploratory study was designed to determine if the 147 surveyed preservice elementary teachers (PETs) who are most willing to specialize in science maintain a greater understanding and acceptance of evolution. Such a relationship could have implications for teacher training and science instruction at elementary schools.

Results

As willingness to specialize in science increases so too does acceptance of evolution. For both measures, there was a monotonic increase with increasing willingness to specialize in science. There was a significant correlation (p?=?.047) between willingness to specialize in science and acceptance of evolution as measured by the MATE. There was not a significant correlation between willingness to specialize in science and understanding of evolution as measured by the CINS (p?=?.21). The thirty-two PETs who are enthusiastically willing to specialize in science had the highest understanding and acceptance of evolution.

Conclusions

It may be possible to identify prospective elementary teachers that could assume roles as specialists simply by identifying PETs’ willingness to specialize. Such students appear to enter elementary teacher preparation programs with the science background and enthusiasm for science required to be specialists without the need for much additional training. Thus, science teacher educators could help local elementary school principals identify graduating, and recently graduated, elementary teachers who are willing to specialize in science. Identified teachers could serve as specialists to work with their building and district colleagues to develop, among other topics, evolution related curricular materials and facilitate the implementation of those materials through co-teaching and peer coaching.

     

新时代背景下创新型专业人才培养模式的探索及实践

创新是推动经济发展和社会进步的重要途径。近年来,生物科学发展迅速,在国家政策支持和人才市场需求下,培育创新型生物类人才是回应社会需求及创新型国家建设的重要举措。本文以浙江师范大学针对生物科学专业实施的创新型生物科学专业人才培养模式为例,从几个方面系统地进行介绍,即以专业导师制的实施为基础,依托项目竞赛和实践平台开展课程教学改革,推进产学研的协同育人。此培养模式在实践中取得了积极的成效,促进了生物科学专业创新型拔尖人才的培养,同时对同类专业的人才培养改革发挥了示范引领作用。     

Patterns of Change: Forces and Motion

Patterns of Change: Forces and Motion is an integrated science lesson that uses the 5E lesson cycle to tie together science with language arts, mathematics, literature, technology, engineering and social studies in an engaging format applicable for young learners. This lesson has been uniquely designed for the purpose of providing elementary teachers with ideas for using hands-on minds-on activities to foster inquiry and discussion, while engaging their students to use technology as a learning tool. This lesson has been used on the elementary level to teach students about the forces that have an effect on motion.     

Using Amphibians and Reptiles to learn the Process of Science

The National Research Council's document, Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards (2000) describes an elementary science classroom as one that is composed of learners who are engaged in scientific processes. In such a setting, children ask real-world questions and seek real-world solutions. As students pursue their inquiries, they often move away from science textbooks, and they implement mathematical skills, read literature, conduct research in electronic databases, write stories, and so forth in a larger context. What was originally a regular science lesson becomes an opportunity for integration across the curriculum. This article describes an integrated unit on bats and specifically addresses the National Science Education Standards.     

Prospective elementary science teachers’ understanding of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in the context of multiple biological levels as nested systems

In this study, Turkish prospective elementary science teachers’ understanding of photosynthesis and cellular respiration has been analysed within the contexts of ecosystem knowledge, organism knowledge and interconnection knowledge (IK). In the analysis, concept maps developed by 74 prospective teachers were used. The study was carried out with prospective teachers in their final year who were enrolled in the special teaching methods course. The results show that prospective teachers’ understanding of photosynthesis, cellular respiration, energy flow and matter cycling is quite different from one another’s. In addition, the present study revealed that prospective elementary science teachers showed weak understanding of energy flow and matter, cycling and cellular respiration concepts and IK category but they had strong understanding of photosynthesis concept. Prospective teachers also experience difficulties in understanding connections between macro- and microbiological systems. The study concludes with suggestions for more meaningful biology education.     

提升实验动物学年轻教员任教能力的几点措施

实验动物学是一门应用型课程,任课教员需要具备较好的理论知识以及较强的操作能力和良好的沟通应变能力。对青年教员制定详细的培养计划以及健全培养评价机制,逐步提升新教员的任教能力,是一项长期值得探索的课题。本教研室坚持以提高教员素质为根本,通过完善年轻教员培养计划、优化新老教员一对一"传帮带"机制、建立青年教员试讲和课堂督导机制、完善教员与学员沟通机制、鼓励学习现代化信息手段丰富教学形式、健全新教员授课质量评价制度等举措,有效提高了年轻教员的专业水平、任教能力,年轻教员教学活动不断创新,学员满意度进一步提高。通过以上努力,教研室形成了一支以中青年教员为主的实验动物学教学团队,有效保障了实验动物学的教学质量,为今后医学院校实验动物学教学改革奠定了基础。     

Gravity is a pull! Exploring forces and motion with English learners

English learners (ELs) benefit from inquiry-based science instruction that includes explicit attention to language learning goals. The purpose of this article is to share a third-grade unit on forces and motion which integrates science inquiry and writing in science notebooks with the goal of developing ELs' engagement in science, conceptual understanding, and academic language and literacy skills. We demonstrate how to engage diverse students' background knowledge and use classroom activities and discussion to create bridges between everyday and academic language. We utilize excerpts from Peter, Lucia, and Andrea's science notebooks to explore and highlight how teachers can use this resource as a means of communicating science, during instruction. Through these EL students' journals, we discuss the importance of developing language goals at the word, sentence, and discourse level while promoting and supporting ELs' use of the language of science.     

Pendulums: A Hands-on Way to Experience Resonance

In this integrated inquiry, students in an elementary teaching methods class investigate a real-world problem outside the classroom. The students use the Cognitive Research Trust (CoRT) thinking strategy to find the causes of, impact of, and possible solutions to the problem. They present their findings and then discuss implementation of this activity in elementary classrooms. The activity is followed by a whole-class discussion about the activity and its application to the elementary classroom. This is an open-ended inquiry that future teachers will be able to do with their elementary school students.     

Tailoring science outreach through E-matching using a community-based participatory approach

In an effort to increase science exposure for pre-college (K-12) students and as part of the science education reform agenda, many biomedical research institutions have established university-community partnerships. Typically, these science outreach programs consist of pre-structured, generic exposure for students, with little community engagement. However, the use of a medium that is accessible to both teachers and scientists, electronic web-based matchmaking (E-matching) provides an opportunity for tailored outreach utilizing a community-based participatory approach (CBPA), which involves all stakeholders in the planning and implementation of the science outreach based on the interests of teachers/students and scientists. E-matching is a timely and urgent endeavor that provides a rapid connection for science engagement between teachers/students and experts in an effort to fill the science outreach gap. National Lab Network (formerly National Lab Day), an ongoing initiative to increase science equity and literacy, provides a model for engaging the public in science via an E-matching and hands-on learning approach. We argue that science outreach should be a dynamic endeavor that changes according to the needs of a target school. We will describe a case study of a tailored science outreach activity in which a public school that serves mostly under-represented minority students from disadvantaged backgrounds were E-matched with a university, and subsequently became equal partners in the development of the science outreach plan. In addition, we will show how global science outreach endeavors may utilize a CBPA, like E-matching, to support a pipeline to science among under-represented minority students and students from disadvantaged backgrounds. By merging the CBPA concept with a practical case example, we hope to inform science outreach practices via the lens of a tailored E-matching approach.     

Desert Survivors: the design and implementation of a television program to enhance local scientific literacy

Outreach efforts by faculty members are oftentimes limited in scope due to hectic schedules. We developed a program to enhance science literacy in elementary school children that allows experts to reach a tremendous audience while minimizing their time commitment. The foundation of the program is a television series entitled "Desert Survivors." The episodes air on local cable access television and are available to teachers on DVD. Each episode features a guest expert who spotlights a particular organism and how that organism overcomes the myriad of hardships inherent to desert survival. Local classrooms are visited to solicit questions from students regarding the organism of interest. These videotaped questions are integrated into Desert Survivors television production and provide the guest expert with the basis to discuss the ecology, physiology, and evolutionary biology of the organism. The program is bolstered through the use of an interactive website. Assessment strategies are in place to ensure program efficacy. Herein, we describe the development of the program as a model for innovative outreach opportunities.