SCE 4350 Principles and Methods: K-9 School Science Florida Atlantic University College of Education Fall 2009 Instructor: Dr. Ronald C. Persin Phone : 561-251-1479 Email: rpersin@fau.edu Website: www.Lnk2Lrn.com

What Is Science? Science involves: “Just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.” Henri Poincare French mathematician & physicist (1854 - 1912) Science involves: Building theories and models Constructing arguments Using specialized ways of talking, writing and representing phenomena The committee agreed on some basic assumptions about science and goals for science education. These are informed by research, but are more accurately the stance adopted by the committee as it reviewed research.

Occam's (or Ockham's) Razor A principle attributed to the 14th century logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham.  "when you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better."

Whether A Field is a Science is Based on 6 Criteria Has an organized body of knowledge Results are reproducible Has well-developed experimental methods Enables predictions, including surprises Offers hypotheses open to falsification Deals with natural objects

Students who understand science: Know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world. Generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations. Understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge. Participate productively in scientific practices and discourse. These are the strands of scientific proficiency development by the committee. They represent a framework for thinking about proficiency. In addition, they provided a device for organizing the quite disparate bodies of research the committee considered.

Key Ideas From Ch. 1 (Methods) Students in grades K-8 can do more in science than is currently asked of them Science standards and curricula contain too many topics given equal emphasis Science classrooms typically provide few opportunities for students to engage in meaningful science Good science teaching requires more than expert knowledge of science content

The Scientific Method Define the problem Gather information State your hypothesis Test your hypothesis Form your conclusion Publish your results

The Nature of Inquiry Asking questions Planning investigations Gathering data Using scientific knowledge to make sense of data Communicating results to others Example: What is the average thickness of a sheet of paper?

Recent Important Developments in Science Numerous space missions and landing of astronauts on the Moon. Micro-circuitry and high-speed computers. Imaging techniques used in scientific research and medicine.

The Metric System Created in 1795 by the French Academy of Science to unify existing systems. Original meter was one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator measured along the Prime Meridian. In the 1900’s this was changed to a certain number of wavelengths of light.

Some Metric Prefixes Prefix Symbol Power Example pico p 10-12 picosecond nano n 10-9 nanometer micro µ 10-6 microwatt milli m 10-3 milligram centi c 10-2 centimeter giga G 109 gigahertz mega M 106 megajoule kilo k 103 kilogram

The 7 Basic SI Units 1. Meter - length 2. Kilogram - mass 3. Second - time 4. Kelvin - temperature These are units of the SI System (Système International). 5. Ampere - electric current 6. Candela - luminous intensity 7. Mole - amount of substance

Converting measurements Metric Metric multiples of 10 move decimal *area - move twice *volume - move three times English Metric conversion factors proportion method unit cancellation method (examples)

Proportion method 1 in. 2.54 cm X 12 in. 12 in. = ? cm it is known that 1 in. = 2.54 cm Set up in proportion form. Be sure to match units Cross multiply then divide 1 in. 2.54 cm X 12 in. = X = (12  2.54)  1 = 30.48 Therefore, 12 in. = 30.48 cm

Problem Solving (5 steps) 1. Identify the unknown 2. List the important known data 3. Write the formula that relates the unknown to the known data 4. Solve the formula for the unknown 5. Substitute-in the known data 6. Calculate and express answer in proper form Example – Newton, Law II

Scientific Notation Used for expressing very large or very small values standard form base x 10exponent base is from 1.0 to 9.999… if exponent is positive the value is greater than 1 if exponent is negative the value is less than 1 convert to decimal by moving the decimal the number of places indicated by the exponent (examples)

Proper SI form Used to write numbers in compact form move the decimal to show a value in the range of 0.1 to 1000 include the metric prefix to indicate the number of decimal places moved (more examples) 325,000,000 m = 325 Mm

Significant digits The digits reported in a measured quantity Indicate the precision of the measuring instrument Calculations should not have more significant digits than the measurement with the least number of significant digits (examples) Inquiry Activity: What determines the Force of Friction?