EMMANUEL COLLEGE
Making Science Matter:
How to Strengthen Connections of Scientific Concepts
Autumn Becker
Secondary Education: Biology
Distinction in the Field of Education
Advised by Fiona McDonnell, Ed. D.
©2015 Autumn Becker
1
Abstract
Often in the science classroom, students are given excessive information without the
necessary instruction to enable connections. Without delivering connections, students lose the
valuable ability to integrate information into knowledge. In my experiences as a science
student, I came to the realization that my own education emphasized content, but was
deficient at explaining necessary context. Science teachers were comfortable with delivering
theory, but lacked explaining application. This form of instruction discouraged critical thinking
skills and proved inadequate when it came to retaining information. As I reflected throughout
my student teaching experience I realized and recognized the need for and significance of
making connections between content and context. By strengthening the connection between
the two, educators can promote both appreciation and interest within the field of science. This
project explores techniques I found useful for making science matter to students through
emphasis on promoting connections, application, and higher order thinking.
2
Many times in my own experience as an undergraduate science student, I've felt the
disappointing feeling of inadequacy. This sentiment of inadequacy developed from both my
inability to memorize and retain large amounts of material, and my mind's failure to
conceptualize theory. Though I was able to perform well on assessments, I frequently was left
feeling a sort of disconnect between content and context. Additionally, I often felt anxious
when required to demonstrate my knowledge and experiences, as I believed that I didn't have
the necessary skills to do so. Feeling that these were my own inadequacies, I never paused to
reflect on the accepted practices of science education and the flaws within the system.
Entering into a secondary science classroom in the fall of 2015 as a student teacher at Mount
Alvernia High School, I brought with me the familiar teaching techniques that I had experienced
within the science classroom. These techniques included lecturing, presenting theory, requiring
memorization,
and assessments that evaluated a student's ability to repeat facts and
demonstrate knowledge that just scratched the surface of understanding. Throughout my
experience student teaching, I often reflected on my practices, and came to the realization that
these practices were insufficient for nurturing and developing deep understanding of scientific
knowledge. This form of instruction discouraged critical thinking skills, proved inadequate when
it came to retaining information, and, most importantly, lacked the requirement for integrating
information into knowledge. As a student teacher, I realized and recognized the need and
significance for making connections between content and context. By strengthening this
connection, educators generate knowledge, appreciation, and interest within the field of
science. This project explores techniques I found useful for making science matter to students
through emphasis on promoting connections, application, and higher order thinking.
3
As I began to dig deeper into science education at present I realized that my opinion
related to science teaching was not exclusive, and that many educators are in agreement that
science teaching needs reform. As such, the practices currently being utilized have resulted in
America facing a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) crisis. This crisis
results from a high projected job growth rate combined with a lack of interest and proficiency
within STEM subjects. America is currently ranked 20th out of 34 industrialized countries in
sciences (National Math and Science Initiative). To make matters worse, 79% of high school
students score below proficiency on national science exams (National Math and Science
Initiative). With a projected job growth of 17% by 2018 within the industry, the nation has
reached
a
critical
moment
for
promoting
interest
and
generating
competent
and
knowledgeable scientists (National Math and Science Initiative). The problem then becomes
how do educators begin restoring the innovation gap, and how will this change matriculate? My
sentiment towards science education provides an acceptable explanation for understanding the
source of the STEM crisis and solutions for restoring interest and proficiency in STEM subjects.
Due to a deficiency in teaching for the purpose of understanding, students are not encouraged
to form knowledge from information delivered. Without the necessary knowledge and
enthusiasm that accompanies it, students feel disconnected and uninterested with the rapidly
growing field of science. At present, science education emphasizes facts, theoretical teaching,
and delivery of content without context. It's up to the next generation of science educators to
resolve the current crisis by transforming the science classroom into a place where facts are
given context, application is delivered, and material is so deeply understood that it's
unavoidably retained. In doing so, students' misconceptions about science are corrected and
4
comments such as, "I'm good at science because I'm good at memorizing" and "why do we
even need to know this?" will be comments heard less frequently. This requires teaching
science in a way that enables student learning and promotes interest. For this to happen,
teachers must promote comfort within the subject. As a science educator, I've recognized the
need and necessity for teaching science with application, context and creativity. Without which,
science at its roots would not exist.
In
1956,
Benjamin Bloom and a group of education psychologists developed a
classification for levels of academic behaviors considered important in learning (Overbaugh,
Schultz). In the 1990's, a group of psychologists revised the taxonomy to better reflect learning
in the 21" century (Overbaugh, Schultz). When considering the concept of Bloom's taxonomy
it's easiest to consider a triangle, in that a basic foundation must be established before building
further complexities. In the revised version, starting at the bottom and building into further
complexity is remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and, finally, creating
(Overbaugh, Schultz). For Bloom's taxonomy to successfully work, a student must first obtain
information and understanding. These stages are meant to establish the foundation of abilities
necessary to build simple information into complex and abstract knowledge essential for
application, analysis, evaluation, and creation. When a student is capable of demonstrating
ability at all levels of Bloom's taxonomy, they have successfully obtained a full and deep
understanding of the material. I believe the process of student growth shares many similarities
to that of a flower: when a student has exercised ability at all levels they have bloomed within
their learning, while a student who isn't challenged to exercise higher order thinking remains a
static bud waiting for the proper nutrients to cultivate learning. To me, Bloom's strategy for
5
learning provides an appropriate framework for teaching science. Unfortunately in my own
experiences, I've observed science instruction only reaching some levels of Bloom's taxonomy,
often reaching the surface of understanding, but lacking the vital categories of application,
synthesis, evaluation, and creation. Without emphasizing the high order thinking skills, students
remain stationary buds, lacking the skills necessary to fully appreciate and experience the true
nature of science. To encourage blooming within learning, I've designed a collection of
classroom techniques that I consider to work well for making science matter to students. These
techniques include building on prior knowledge, inquiry based learning, creating models,
providing real world connections, and establishing scientific language. The purpose of this
paper is to describe and explore each of these techniques in detail to demonstrate how each
promote higher order thinking skills and retention within the science classroom.
"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll
understand." I believe this proverb embodies the attitude that's absent within the science
classroom. Science currently remains too focused on ensuring students' ability to recall
information, which as a result fails to provide necessary application and context of scientific
concepts.
This strategy approaches teaching science by reflecting how scientists come to
understand the natural world. Students first observe an artifact, and then, based on careful
observations and questioning, construct their own knowledge by forming and confirming their
own answers. Requirements for this strategy include the use of higher order thinking skills such
as analysis, evaluation, and design, which as previously mentioned are necessary to build and
exercise deep understanding. By encouraging higher order thinking through implementation of
inquiry based learning, student knowledge and retention of concepts are improved. The
6
advantage to scientific inquiry is that it
can be a quick, engaging activity at the
start of a lesson, or it can be the lesson
itself.
Examples
of
both
that
I've
Figure 1 Homologous Structures
implemented
include
inquiry
based
learning through a short pre-lesson activity concerning homology, and a lesson that involves
designing a scenario explaining the mechanism of survival of the fittest. The homology activity
involves presenting students with an index card with a pasted image of a single homologous
bone structure (refer to figure 1) and then asking students, by form of 'think-pair-share,' to
consider what they notice, what they speculate, and what connections they see. For the pairing
portion of the 'think-pair-share,' students would be given time to gather in groups of two or
three to compare their various bone structures. The objective of this activity is to allow
students to observe the similarities between all bone structures, specifically the ulna, radius,
and humerus, regardless of species. This activity would be presented at the start of a lesson
introducing the concept of homologous structures and represents a starting activity meant to
engage students. Another example of using inquiry based learning is a lesson requiring the
application of the concept "survival of the fittest". This lesson would be implemented for an
entire class period, and requires that students design a reasonable scenario explaining the fear
of the dark found in humans. As with all applications of this strategy, both of these examples
involve students constructing their own observations and explanations without being given
specific prior instruction. By having students arrive at explanations independently, it supports
retention of material, as students feel ownership towards their conclusions.
7
Given that scientific concepts are often complex and involved, a suitable approach for
clarifying material for students is to have them build or observe models. Models within the
science classroom represent tools that express scientific theory, making difficult theories
tangible for students. Examples of models that I've successfully implemented within the
classroom include demonstrations, building anatomical models, and creating simulations. For
the demonstration model, an example that I've found effective within the classroom is using a
bowl of mixed candy to representing a population that students prey upon, representing a
demonstration of natural selection. Once students have selected a candy and the bowl with the
remaining candies has been returned, the teacher facilitates a conversation in which students
discuss which candy they've selected and what traits they found attractive about that particular
candy. After students have explained their candy selection, a discussion of how natural
selection has been demonstrated within this activity follows. The power of this demonstration
is derived from requiring a deep understanding of the concept natural selection and challenges
students to apply their knowledge in an unfamiliar situation. In doing so, students are
encouraged to exercise the higher order thinking skills application and synthesis.
The next model I'm going to introduce is the building of an anatomical model,
specifically the brain, using clay. As the body is a complex assembly of intricate structures,
requiring students to memorize structures solely by use of static models and textbook diagrams
is unreasonable and inadequate for promoting retention of material. When using clay as a
medium to teach anatomy, students are able to represent a visual interpretation of content,
exercising creativity and encouraging retention. When implementing this teaching strategy, I
find it best to use it with detailed structures that are often hard to differentiate within the
8
textbook.
In my experience, the brain's anatomy represents an ideal organ system for
implementing clay modeling as it contains many small structures that can be difficult to
distinguish. By having students build anatomical models, the lesson requires understanding and
encourages retention as students have a feeling of ownership over their learning due to the fact
that they've been involved in
process of it.
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Figure 2 Creating Evolutionary Simulations with Cell phones
construct a simulation of cell phone evolution. This activity would require that students first
build a basic chromosome with specific genes pertaining to an outdated cell phone (refer to
Figure
2).
Next, students would consider how this chromosome could have evolved into a more
advanced version, and then finally into the iPhone of today. For continuity purposes, students
would be provided with what phone versions to use (reference Figure
2 to see which examples
I
chose). This activity calls for students to consider what genetic traits are retained, dropped, and
added to the chromosome and asks them to present hypothetical mutations that could have
reasonably allowed for this. The intention of this simulation is to provide context to the
evolution content being delivered in class and works to integrate prior knowledge from the
previous genetics unit. Additionally, the expectation is that it encourages students to make
scientific connections. All the models described represent ways to clarify and demonstrate
understanding of complicated scientific concepts. Models work well to support higher order
9
thinking skills such as application and creation, which function to promote retention and deep
understanding of material.
The power of science is limitless, as it provides society with chemists who solve
mysteries at a crime scene, microbiologists who discover the influence of tiny bacteria on
human health, and oncologists who study the genetics of a patient's tumor to guide treatment
options. As educators, we can't shy away from informing students about this potential. I believe
one of the failures found in today's science classrooms is the lack of information given to
students regarding both the potential as well as opportunities found within the field of science.
Students won't express interest in something they don't feel familiar with, so as educators we
must expose students to as much science as possible in hopes of generating interest and
familiarity. A method I've found useful to promote awareness about STEM research and careers
is by requiring students to read scientific articles. The overall impact of reading scientific articles
is that it supports synthesis of connections within scientific concepts and also helps build
scientific vocabulary and literacy skills.
Promoting literacy skills is especially
significant
considering the current effort in America's education system to promote literacy within all
subjects. An approach I find meaningful to introduce scientific literature into the classroom is to
start by finding a student-friendly article related to a current topic being taught. After finding
the initial article, I then find the abstract from the original article. To expose and help build
scientific literacy, I first present the students with the abstract. To introduce students to the
abstract, it's best to present it to students with a cooperative approach by asking students to
read and interpret the meaning by way of 'think-pair-share'. Naturally, there is a great deal of
difficult vocabulary and scientific jargon within the abstract, but it provides an opportunity for
10
students to be exposed to this form of literature prior to entering college. Also, by reading
abstracts students begin to explore the significance and purpose to a concept being delivered in
class. Whether students successfully interpret the meaning of the abstract or not, this exercise
provides an opportunity for students to evaluate and consider how a piece of literature relates
to their learning. Once they have completed reading the abstract, we continue the lesson by
offering students the student-friendly version of the article. After allowing students time to
read this version of the article, we facilitate a discussion about how the article relates to
concepts introduced in class. An important reason for reading scientific articles is to inform
students about the various opportunities within science fields in attempts of encouraging
interest in potential careers within science fields, building knowledge and encouraging interest
about potential careers. Another reason to provide students with exposure to scientific articles
is to answer the "why does this matter" question referring to material being presented within
class. Science for students can be difficult because of its microscopic, unseen nature. By
providing students information and connections about how these tiny molecules or concepts
are being applied within research, they will understand the significance for having a deep
understanding of material, as it has a substantial real-life purpose in advancing human health
and technology.
Other minor but useful techniques that I've used within my classroom have been
intentionally building on prior knowledge and pausing to breakdown scientific language. When
justifying my reasoning for including building on prior knowledge, numerous studies have
confirmed the relationship between background knowledge and achievement. Building on prior
knowledge offers meaning to the learning, as it requires that students consider prior
11
information in order to learn new information. Students are not blank slates when they enter
the classroom, and as science educators it is up to us to introduce and elucidate for students
the everyday science that they subconsciously experience. This technique also has substantial
use within the biology classroom as high school biology is introduced sequentially by starting
small and building into greater complexity. Therefore, prior topics can always be reintroduced,
building further complexity and meaning within the context of biology. The best approach for
implementing this technique is to present students with a science probe that works to uncover
student ideas and knowledge about a concept. An example demonstrating this technique
would be, before starting the evolution unit, requiring students to respond to the following
question involving topics from genetics, "A teenage girl keeps dying her hair pink, finally one of
her friends says to her 'you know...if you keep dying your hair your kids are going to end up
with pink hair too!' How would you respond to this friend?" This question involves students
connecting with their learning, as it's a question that generates interest and can be discussed
by invoking student experiences and conceptions. Many students may contribute to the
discussion by explaining how their parents have dyed hair and mentioning how that hasn't
influenced their own hair color. Ideally, students will also add to the discussion by referencing
the genetics unit that they would have recently been studying, and by making connections to
heredity. After facilitating the discussion for an appropriate amount of time, follow the
discussion by introducing evolution and the major role that genetics contributes to this
concept. By taking a few minutes at the start of class to promote student interest in a lesson, it
pays off in that the students are engaged and invested in the new material because they've
already expressed their ability to make connections to the topics being discussed.
12
A second small but significant technique that I believe to have an impact within the
science classroom is taking time to introduce vocabulary by breaking it down into prefixes,
suffixes, and root words. In my experience as a science major, it was extremely difficult for me
to not only remember but also retain the enormous amount of vocabulary required. As a
teacher within the classroom, I've encountered similar sentiments by students who consider
science difficult due to the vocabulary. One way that I've found useful for teaching vocabulary
is by explaining suffixes, prefixes, and root words within large and often intimidating science
vocabulary. At its core, scientific vocabulary is a collection of little words that are linked
together to have different meanings. If students learn the meanings of the little words, they'll
have less trouble learning scientific vocabulary. For instance, consider the word homology; a
decently confusing vocabulary word, but when broken down into the prefix "homo-" meaning
"same" and suffix "-ology" meaning "the study of", the word is less daunting. In addition, an
advantage to teaching scientific language by form of breaking it down into root words is that it
can be carried through into other subject areas and contexts. Consider "-ology": besides biology
itself,
students will also
encounter
it in other
domains like
technology,
theology,
and
psychology. This technique is therefore useful for building literacy across subject areas and
provides a particularly useful strategy for English Language Learner students who need the
additional support. Together, building on prior knowledge and
breaking down scientific
language represent useful techniques within the science classroom by encouraging retention
and understanding.
Learning requires that students evolve, moving from memorization and recall of facts to
understanding, analyzing, and synthesizing complex subject matter. Science education currently
13
is lacking emphasis on learning and instead is focused on teaching content without context. The
collection of techniques described above, including inquiry based learning, creating models,
making real world connections, building on prior knowledge, and breaking down of scientific
language all represent useful tools for improving current science education. When these
techniques
are
implemented
within
the
classroom
it
allows
for
improved
retention,
strengthening of higher order thinking skills, and promoted interest in the field of science. If
educators can support learning by implementing similar techniques rather than teaching (i.e.
delivering information), then the opportunity is provided for student knowledge, skills and
interest to grow- transforming secondary science students into scientists.
14
Works Cited
Overbaugh, Richard C, and Lynn Schultz. "Bloom's Taxonomy." Old Dominion University. Old
Dominion University, Web. 19 Apr. 2015.
<http://ww2.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm> .
"The STEM Crisis." The STEM Crisis. National Math and Science Initiative, Web. 19 Apr. 2015.
<https://www.nms.org/AboutNMSI/TheSTEMCrisis.aspx>.