1/12 Laura Mindful Participation

 This week’s readings introduced the contemporary strategies for incorporating authentic scientific practice into the classroom.  The NGSS chapter from A Framework for K-12 Science Education highlighted a cyclic framework, which combines inquiry, modeling, revision, and argument with the more traditionally, though not necessarily effectively, highlighted practice of experimentation.  The chapter goes on to define goals and progression for each practice in both science and engineering classrooms, a distinction which is at times tenuous.

       In their 2009 article “Developing a Learning Progression for Scientific Modeling: Making Scientific Modeling Accessible and Meaningful for Learners,” Schwartz et al focus specifically on the practice of modeling in the classroom.  Through classroom studies, Schwartz et al define progressive levels of engagement with modeling along two dimensions- models as generative and models as dynamic- in order to understand students’ level of facility with both the practice of modeling and the concept knowledge at hand.

The themes and questions that were especially striking to me were:

- What is the value of separating the study of science and engineering?  Are engineering courses on the horizon for schools? Or would it make more sense to incorporate engineering into existing courses? (i.e. chemical engineering into chemistry, etc.)

- Are the levels presented in Schwartz et al necessarily step-wise?

- In our quest for authentic practice, are we asking too much of young students?  Schwartz et al reference young minds’ tendency toward literal over abstract, what are students able to reasonably achieve?

- Understanding that knowledge is not fixed is a significant phase shift in our experience of learning and existence.  How can we encourage our students to consider information sources more critically and scaffold their experience such that this realization is safe and not crisis inducing?

       Both readings highlighted a movement toward more meaningful participation in the study of science and the pursuit of a minds-on curriculum, elements which were attempted over the past few decades with an emphasis on laboratory science, but not often effectively presented.  By focusing on more student driven, mindful practices surrounding experimentation, I think that it is much more likely that students will have a more valuable understanding of both content and what it means to do and know science.  Along that vein, I think it is also valuable to help students see that scientific knowledge is not a fixed entity, however I think it will be important for us as teachers to be especially deliberate when discussing this concept so that our students can successfully make that mental shift in steps without crisis.