What science and engineering practices will he use to solve this problem?

With any profession, including teaching, experience helps the practitioner be better at the job. Not every part of teaching gets easier with years of experience (unbending my knees) but I no longer have to remind myself to use clear phrases to set limits or further children’s thinking, to plan some next steps in the science inquiry, and to make statements about the practice of science. Learning from research as well as our own practice improves our teaching effectiveness. Researchers are finding better ways to describe the process of learning both the concepts and practice of science and they are calling it “practices of science.” This term does not describe a new whole new way of teaching but a new way of describing this complex process. The new work from the National Academies Press,  A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, uses the word “practices” to “stress that engaging in scientific inquiry requires coordination both of knowledge and skill simultaneously.” Even young children can learn science content knowledge, such as “water can exist as a gas, a liquid and a solid”, and science skills, such as making observations to find out.

When reading the Framework, it is interesting to reflect on the science activities that the children are currently engaged in. Yes, they are learning about the needs of living organisms by caring for and observing roly-polies, but  are they also learning that scientists make observations and record this data to gain understanding of biological systems, and that engineers make observations to be able to design environments (terrariums) to meet the needs of living organisms? To apply this new Framework to my work in the classroom I found guidance in Robert Bybee’s article, Scientific and Engineering Practices in K-12 Classrooms, in the December 2011 Science  & Children. He describes the relationship between science and engineering as written in the Framework and his explanations helped me understand, and hopefully apply, the science and engineering practices he restates from the Framework.

To help bring understanding of engineering practices into your classroom, consider using these resources, and add your own suggestions to this list by commenting below:

• I love to visit other classrooms to see what is working well and think about how to do the same in my  work. Join Margaret Berry Wilson, author of What Every Kindergarten Teacher Needs To Know and the Responsive Classroom approach blog, and take a peek into a classroom where the teacher’s “careful selection of age-appropriate tasks…, along with her careful set-up, cheerful reinforcement, and  appropriate challenges, made all students feel safe and significant.”
• Engineering Is Elementary (EiE) has several videos of children in grades 2 and up learning about engineering through the EiE storybooks and hands-on explorations. At the end of the videos, the teachers offer tips to implement the lessons.
• Engineering for All: Strategies for helping all students succeed in the design process by Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue, Sarah Lovelidge, and Erin Bowling, describes how “the core practice of engineering, the engineering design process, was taught in a third-grade inclusive classroom in which students used this process to design windmill blades” using the EiE unit, Catching the Wind: Designing Windmills (Science and Children March 2010).
• Family Engineering, developed by the Foundation for Family Science and Engineering, with Michigan Tech and the American Society for Engineering Education, is a program for providing informal engineering learning experiences to elementary age children and their families.
•  Engineering, Go For It! (eGFI) sponsored by the American Society for Engineering Education.

What engineering practices do you do in your classroom?

Peggy

I’m hoping that secondary teachers will take a look at the articles that describe authentic investigations conducted by young scientists in their communities: Creative Soil Conservation and Boulder Creek Study. The latter has examples of student work as they studied the water quality in their communities, using various indicators, including the presence of aquatic invertebrates. The authors noted that their students did not have much background in the topic of a “watershed.” If your students need this information also, use the keyword watershed in SciLinks. SciLinks also has websites with information and activities on topics related to soil for grades K-4 and 5-8 (e.g. types of soil, soil erosion, microorganisms in soil).

From hurricanes to earthquakes, forest fires mudslides, and record-setting snowstorms and rainfall, children often ask “Can it happen here?” Three articles are related to this topic. Along with Can We Protect Our Communities From Natural Disasters?,  check out the SciLinks keyword disasters for grades 5-8. Even if you’re not in an earthquake zone, activities such as those in Shake It Up and The Built Environment tap into the creativity of future engineers. SciLinks has lists of related websites on the topic of earthquake resistant structures and the science of bridges. One of my favorites is Building Big: All About Bridges from PBS.

If you like the ideas in the article How It’s Made, SciLinks has more information on pencils (5–8).  Action Figures describes how to hook students into a study of the skeletal system. Even though my curriculum did not include human anatomy, I learned that a brief review of the human skeleton helped students to connect to the skeletons of other vertebrates. In SciLinks, search for bones (5–8) or skeletal system (5–8), which includes other systems of the body. Three examples include Bird Skull Collection, the Mr. Bones interactive puzzle, and Virtual Body, which is also available in Spanish

To extend your activities on growing seeds, check out From Mystery Seed to Mangrove Island (I wonder what other variations on the mystery materials teachers who do not live in Florida can come up with!) and The Farmer in the Lab, which makes the investigation more complex and challenging for older students.

Many teachers are looking for ideas to integrate science with other content areas. It’s challenging to keep the project focused on a theme or essential question, rather than merely putting together a collection of “activities.” Living Off the Land dispels some of the misconceptions children have about Native American cultures as they focus on the relationships between people and natural resources. Outdoor Classrooms has suggestions and resources to use a corner of the schoolyard, a window box, or an outdoor center. And check with a local rescue or rehabilitation center if you have students similar to the Turtle Girls and want to give them ownership of their project.

I’m going to reread Using Learning Progressions to Monitor Progress Across Grades. I wonder how this way of assessing students in science processes is interpreted in schools where science takes a back seat to test prep in reading and math? I’m also curious as to how students beyond grade 4 would “score” on this. This article has related resources in the Connections for this issue, along with ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, for several of the other articles.