Content and Big Ideas in Science
- Give an example of a big idea in Biology, Chemistry, Geology, or Physics (BCGP). Why is ____ an example of a big idea? How would you help your students recognize this as a big idea as opposed to an interesting but less important idea?
- What is science literacy? What would someone have to know or be able to do to be considered a scientifically literate adult? What would a student in your class need to know or be able to do in order to be on a developmental trajectory that would make them a scientifically literate adult?
- B - There has been a lot of talk in the media about the teaching of evolution and intelligent design. What position do you take on this issue and how would you defend it from a scientific point of view? From a pedagogical point of view?
- What is the role of the primary research literature in learning about science? Who should use this literature and toward what end?
- It is often stated that an understanding of science is important in order to have an informed public, because so much about science is relevant to our lives. Despite this statement, many adults and students see only a limited relevance of “school science” to their lives. Name three examples of how the science that you teach is relevant to students. Describe what you do to make this relevance explicit.
- B - Three big topics in biology are cells, organisms, and ecology. What fundamental or unifying ideas in biology can be taught and reinforced across all three topics? How would these ideas be represented in both similar and different ways depending on the context of the topic?
- What is science? What should students know and be able to do as a result of a K-12 education?
- B - What is life? What is the implication of life being characterized rather than being defined?
- B - Which of these are big ideas in biology and why? Surface area to volume ratios, mitosis, evolution, the circulation of blood in the heart, genetic variation, osmosis, the structure of carbohydrates, replication of DNA, chloroplasts, the role of water in sexual reproduction.
- B - How are plant and animals similar? Different? (Go beyond the obvious.)
- BCG - What is the role of water in BCG systems?
- BGP - What is the role of sunlight in BGP systems?
- BCGP - What is meant by the conservation of mass and of energy and why is this understanding critical to an adequate understanding of BCGP?
- BCGP - According to the National Science Education Standards, the unifying concepts and processes in science include 1) systems, order, and organization, 2) evidence, models, and explanation, 3) change, constancy, and measurement, 4) evolution and equilibrium, and 5) form and function. Select one of these unifying concepts/processes and describe how you would develop that concept across the school year. Be specific in the teaching and reinforcement of this concept/process.
- B - “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” (Dobzhansky). Interpret this statement to a parent that has come to talk to you.
- B - Select one of the following ideas in biology: photosynthesis, natural selection, respiration, succession, etc. Give 3 to 5 experiments or observations that would act as evidence for how the various aspects of this process works, and as a concrete experience to reinforce the explanation provided in the textbook.
- G - Examine this picture (of some sort of geologic formation). What do you see and how might you explain it? (What is important here is the reasoning that you use and not the correct answer!)
- BG - How can the geology of an area affect the flora and in turn affect the fauna in a given area? How can the flora and fauna in an area affect the geology? Give examples to support your answer.
- B - Discuss why DNA, RNA, and proteins are critical molecules to all forms of life.
- B - Many environmental problems (e.g. global climate change; the introduction of exotic, invasive species; the loss of species and biodiversity) can be understood through the application of basic biological and/or physical principles - the big ideas in science. Select a current environmental problem and discuss the big ideas that aid our understanding.
- G - Imagine being shown a series of slides of a sequence of photos illustrating a weather system as it passes over a fixed location. Describe the sequence of events and identify the types of weather system involved.
- C - Most chemical discoveries have both beneficial and detrimental consequences. Describe some chemical discoveries that had beneficial impacts and then consider what negative impacts these discoveries might also have. Or, describe some chemical discoveries that had negative impacts and describe what the beneficial impacts were intended to be.
- C - Select a fundamental concept of chemistry (e.g., the mole, the parts of an atom, the rate limiting step of a chemical reaction, an endothermic process, the chemical bond, etc.). Describe this concept at the knowledge level of a middle or high school teacher, and for a beginning student in a middle or high school classroom.
- C - Describe chemical and/or physical processes that are involved in three of the following everyday experiences:
- grinding and brewing a cup of coffee
- reheating the coffee in a microwave
- separation of oil and vinegar in salad dressing
- letting a helium balloon rise to the ceiling
- letting a soda go flat
- feeling your ears "pop" when you drive to or from Phoenix
- adding salt to boiling water to cook pasta
- melting ice with salt
- mixing salt and water and oil and water
- adding baking soda to vinegar to simulate an erupting volcano
- cleaning a greasy pan with Dawn detergent
- taking Tums to neutralize an acid stomach
- other or one you think of on your own
- C - Use an x-axis, y-axis line graph to illustrate the following general trends. Be sure to label your axes. Include numbers when indicated.
- volume (m3) increases as pressure (atm) decreases
- cell death (expressed as 0-100% survival) increases linearly with dose of a toxic drug A (0-10 mg/mL)
- Drug B (0-10 mg/mL) has no effect on cell survival (plot this on the same graph as the preceding example)
- each gram of catalyst (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 g) increases the rate of the reaction (M/s) by a factor of 10 (start the rate at 1 M/s for 1 g).
- in the first10 hours, a cell culture population grows exponentially; in the second 10 hours growth remains constant; in the third 10 hours, the cell culture population decays exponentially
- an exothermic reaction that goes through a high energy intermediate (let the y-axis be energy and the x-axis be the progress of the reaction) reactants [intermediate] products
- C - Give appropriate units for each of the following:
- a melting point of a solid
- the pressure of a gas
- the concentration of an organic solid dissolved in water
- the density of a solid
- the molecular weight of water
- the rate of a reaction
- the energy released during a reaction
- P - One set of laws describes all motion: What are these laws, and give a quick example illustrating their proper use.
- BCPG - What does it mean to say that “energy is conserved,” and that it always goes from more useful to less useful forms?
- BCGP - Discuss the following statement: Everything is made of atoms, and the way a material behaves depends on how its atoms are arranged.
- Is science good or bad? Does it really make our lives better?
- Talk for a few minutes about the "State of the World:” What are the really big stories? How does science fit into these stories?
- Use words like heat, turbines, electric and magnetic fields, current and voltage, transformers, energy and power, filaments and light, to tell the story of how train-loads of coal enter a power plant and how that enables grandma to read at night. How could wind and nuclear power fit into this story?
- P - Similarly, how does gasoline make our cars 'go', and what is the difference between 'normal' cars and the newer 'hybrids'?
- What is pollution? Why do we have it, and how can we have less of it?
- BGP - What is life? Will we find it elsewhere (ET)? How will we know? How are we looking?
- What are the "really" big questions in science? Does science have any limitations?
- G – How does plate tectonics result in the transfer of mass and energy?
- G – Give an example of a process at Earth’s surface that results in the transfer of mass/energy. Explain.
- G – What makes a natural geologic process a geologic hazard? Discuss the geologic hazards associated with:
- Volcanic eruptions
- Mass movements (or “landslides”)
- Groundwater extraction
- Earthquakes
- Floods
- Weather-related phenomena (hurricanes, thunderstorms, etc.)
- G – How is geology related to the theory of evolution?
- G – Discuss the major features of planets in the solar system.
- G – Compare/contrast Earth and Mars/Earth and Saturn from a geologic perspective.
Inquiry and the Nature of Science
- Several models exist to help a teacher plan and implement inquiry based lessons, including models such as guided discovery, the learning cycle, the 5-E model, etc. When you design or implement an inquiry lesson, what are the steps or components that you consider? Describe an activity that would follow your described format.
- You are given an example of a lab activity. Read the activity and rate it on a scale of 0-3 (with 0 being the lowest, 3 being the highest) as including the elements of inquiry. Define your rating scale and defend your rating. Based on your analysis, how could the activity be rewritten in order to improve its inquiry score?
- Inquiry has three different definitions. What are they? How do these definitions relate to the definition of science? How do the different types of inquiry impact the goals, outcomes, and teaching practices in your science classroom?
- What is science? How common is the public’s understanding of this definition? What elements of this definition are important for your students to know and why?
- What does it mean to “do” science? Should everyone be able to do science? To what degree?
- Can a middle school student really do science, or are they just imitating what scientists do? What is the difference? Defend your answer.
- What’s the difference between a theory and a law? What is the difference between a hypothesis and a theory?
- What’s the difference between a fact and a concept?
- How are science and religion similar? Different?
Teaching and Instructional Practices
- Improving student attitudes toward science is often mentioned as a goal of science instruction. What teaching strategies might you use to improve student attitudes? How would you measure the success of your attempts to meet this goal?
- How do students learn? Talk specifically to issues of knowledge depth versus breadth, knowledge organization, the role of change in learning, the contexts that foster learning, and the importance of transfer and metacognition. Based on your answer, describe what instruction looks like in your classroom to support student learning.
- In your portfolio/presentation, you mentioned (teaching strategy) as being important to you and your classroom practice. Why is _____ important? What evidence exists to suggest that _____ is an example of best practice? Give 3 examples of what _____ would look like in your classroom.
- Some people view teaching as a linear process with teaching resulting in learning. Others see the teaching and learning process as recursive with one action feeding off of and supporting the other action in a cyclical form, with both being equally important and necessary. Still others believe that learning is the only important outcome and that teaching has only a minor or supporting role in the process. What is your belief about the nature of the relationship between teaching and learning? Based on your belief, what are the roles and responsibilities of the teacher? The student?
- Students must be taught about how to fulfill their responsibilities in the classroom. What are those responsibilities and how would you help students come to understand and excel at meeting them?
- Define inquiry (3 aspects). How can inquiry vary along a continuum from high to low? Based on this definition, describe your instructional goals for inquiry learning and what an inquiry lesson in your classroom might look like.
- Imagine that you are working with a novice teacher. What guidelines would you give them to ensure that they can effectively implement the following practices: lecture, discussion, laboratory, demonstration?
- What does “active learning” mean? What is the implication of this term on the role of the teacher and the student in the classroom?
- What is the role of vocabulary in science instruction?
- What is the role of mathematics in science instruction?
- What is the role of technology in science instruction?
- Questioning is an important skill in the science classroom. Describe various forms and uses of questioning. If you were working with a new teacher, what advice would you give him/her about questioning strategies? Give examples of how you have effectively used questioning in your classroom.
- There are thousands of web pages at your fingertips on virtually every topic imaginable. What strategies or criteria would you use to distinguish between high quality, accurate information and those web pages that are based on opinion, or worse? How can we teach our students to make these distinctions?
- You have just taken a job in a new school where you have inherited the chemical closet and classroom of the previous science teacher. What steps would you take to inventory and reorganize your classroom to ensure that it is safe?
- In thinking about an upcoming unit, you find a suggestion for a laboratory activity in an old book. Based on the age of the book, no safety suggestions are listed with the activity. What steps would you take to determine if the activity is safe? Which safety procedures should be used in order to use the activity safely in the classroom?
- Describe safety practices that are in place in your classroom and steps that you have taken to ensure that everyone recognizes their responsibility in maintaining a safe classroom.
Curriculum and Goals of Instruction
- Both national and state standards exist for science. What are the goals for each document? How are the documents similar? How are they different?
- Several resources exist that were designed to impact science instruction in the US. These include the National Science Education Standards, and three resources designed as part of Project 2061: Science for all Americans, the Benchmarks for Science Literacy, and the Atlas. Describe the nature of each of these documents. Is there one that you prefer over the others? Why/why not?
- What is curriculum? How does it relate to content knowledge, assessment, and instruction?
- What elements would characterize an exceptionally well-designed set of curriculum materials? Using these elements, analyze a curriculum unit that you have developed. What are the unit’s strengths? Weaknesses?
- Define standards-based instruction. Distinguish between standards-based curricula and activity - or authority- (text) based curriculum materials. How do standards-based materials attend to the issue of “coverage,” or depth versus breadth? In each of the three curricula types, define the role of the teacher and the student.
- Teachers, tests, and curriculum materials often talk about teaching in terms of “topics.” When is the use of this term appropriate and when can it misrepresent or contradict the goals of developing a conceptual knowledge base for our students?
- Name three essential questions that could act as organizers for the content at your grade level. How might these questions impact the instructional goals that you have for students and the assessment strategies that you might use?
- Science instruction has been a goal of the public schools for over 200 years. What patterns exist in the way science has been taught? For instance, are there shifts in thinking and/or practice that have occurred over time? What are these shifts and what events contributed to them?
- Describe the curriculum design process that is advocated in Understanding by Design. Select a topic and describe how the UBD process could be used to design a unit for that topic.
- You are on the curriculum selection committee at your school. Two textbooks are being recommended for adoption. Describe the process that you would use to determine if the materials will in fact address the vision and content of reform-based science teaching as described in the national and state standards.
- Define the following terms as they relate to a curriculum: coherence, balance, vertical and horizontal articulation.
Assessment and Equity
- There are many forms of assessment and each has instances in which they are more or less effective. As a learner, which forms of assessment do you prefer and why? As a teacher, which forms of assessment do you believe are the most effective with your students and why?
- Where do student ideas come from? For (name topic), what potential ideas might your students have prior to instruction? What ideas do you hope your students will have following instruction? What will you do to take your students from prior conceptions to more scientifically accurate conceptions? How will you know if they have achieved the understanding for which you are striving?
- We often hear comments about “teaching to the test.” When is teaching to the test a defensible pedagogical strategy and when is it not? Give specific examples and indicate learning gains or losses that may occur.
- Can all assignments given during a unit be considered formative assessments? If yes, defend your answer. If no, what needs to occur for the assessment to be considered formative? Whether you answer the question yes or no, what is the role of the teacher and the student in terms of making a formative assessment successful?
- Define and distinguish among the following purposes of assessment: accountability, certification, and learning. For these purposes, in which cases are formative and summative assessments most useful and why?
- What are misconceptions? Where do they come from? Why is it important as a teacher to understand what students know and are able to do prior to instruction? If you were to research student misconceptions, what resources would you use? What instructional strategies would you use to address these misconceptions in your classroom?
- Select a learning goal and define what would count as acceptable evidence that a student had learned.
- We hear much about diversity in the classroom. What does diversity mean to you? Describe how your teaching and assessment strategies attend to diversity. How do you know if your strategies are effective in attending to the learning needs of all students?
- Can all students learn? If no, why not. If yes, how can you ensure that the students in your classroom meet this goal?
Other