Biology Education Student Teacher Seminar #1 Jan 16, 2009 Eat and greet; share some experiences School Report Card Data Your Methods –Lesson planning: objectives, assessments, activities –Learning about your learning –Ch 9 Designs for Learning Aligning Objectives and Assessments General Timeline; Syllabus part VII, Permission Forms

Chapter 9 Designs for Learning

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) PCK is a teacher’s knowledge of how to help students understand specific subject matter. Key questions include: –What shall I do with my students to help them understand this science concept? –What materials are available to help me? –What are my students likely to already know and what will be difficult for them to learn? –How shall I best evaluate what my students have learned? How would this help you teach about water on Mars?

Mini-Unit Design Process

Design Step 1: Brainstorming This should be a fast, free-flowing listing of terms, words, and phrases for the topic of your mini-unit. Work with a few peers to generate ideas. You might want to look at the Standards and/or Benchmarks to spark your brainstorming.

Design Step 2: Name Your Mini-unit This is way to give your unit focus-naming it helps. Some ideas from your peers include: –What’s Up with the Weather? –The Well Cell –Sensational Sediments –We are Family: Study of Periodicity –What if you had a volcano in your backyard?

Design Step 3: Identify Focus Questions Focus questions should help you define the heart of your unit or course. Two or three well designed questions will help your students draw upon prior knowledge and keep sight of the “big idea”. Focus questions should center around the “enduring understandings” that promote science literacy.

Design Step 4: Identify Intended Learning Outcomes Use your initial list of ideas to create a list of intended learning outcomes. Outcomes are statements of what you want students to know or be able to do. They are skills, concepts, and values you intend the students will learn. Write these as precise statement starting with a verb, that indicates what learners should be able to do to demonstrate their knowledge.

Design Step 5: Categorize Outcomes In this step, you will sort your outcomes into skill and nonskill categories. Here is an example of intended outcomes from an environmental unit categorized into nonskill and skill groups.

Design Step 6: Develop a Concept Map of the Unit Use the ideas developed by Novak and Gowin to develop a map of your mini-unit. You will probably revise this as you further develop the unit. Novak and Gowin The map is a tool for your planning and your student’s learning. Share it with them.

Design Step 7: Write a Rationale At this stage you’ve worked with your unit enough so that you can write a rationale. How might this learning: –affect the students’ future? –contributes to societal issues? –reflects the spirit and character of the scientific enterprise? See the samples in the text. Here is part of one rationale. The abilities, interests, needs, and talents of your students must also inform the rationale and emerging plans.

Design Step 8: Categorize Outcomes- Cognitions, Affects and Skills This step you will actually delay until after you have listed potential activities (step 9), and written lesson plans (step 10). You can then pull your outcomes from your lesson plans, and categorize them into four groups: –Cognitions –Affects –Cognitive skills –Psychomotor skills You should, however, review the nature of these categories of outcomes before you go to the next two steps. Use the map on the next slide, and text material to write out one outcome for each category related to your mini-unit.

Design Step 9: Develop an Assessment Plan Assessment in your mini-unit should include: –Daily Formative Assessments of various types (observing, listening, informal quiz, written quiz, lab work, project, etc.) –One end of unit Summative Assessment (performance task, project, or traditional test) Start with your initial ideas about assessment, then look ahead to Chapter 10 for more assessments ideas.

Design Step 10: List Potential Activities Now that you have a framework for your mini-unit, you can do some exploring of science activities (use online and print resources), and then brainstorm with peers a list of potential activities. For web resources, check the section On the Web in The Art of Teaching Science text, or at the Art of Teaching Science online site.

Implementation & Revision Teach your mini-unit to a group of middle or high school students. If you can’t do this, present one lesson to a group of peers. In either case, video tape one lesson. Reflect on your mini-unit by using the feedback you obtained from students, and peers. A complete list of reflection questions is located in the text. One example is: –To what extent did students attain the learning outcomes (objectives) of the unit? What revisions would you make in the unit?

Chapter 10 Assessing Active Science Learning Assessment is presented from three contexts: the classroom context, assessment at the national level and assessment at the international level. If you are looking for specific assessment strategies, then you’ll want to focus on the first part of the chapter. If you are interested in national and international assessments then the sections on these reports will be of interest. You will want to come back to this chapter from time-to-time to find examples of assessment strategies that you can integrate into your teaching plans.

Model of Assessment Where are you trying to go? -identify and communicate the learning and performance goals. Where are you now? -assess, or help the student to self-assess current levels of understanding. How can you get there? -help the student with strategies and skills to reach the goal.

Inquiry Activity 10.1: Developing an Assessment Plan Develop a plan for a mini-unit of teaching Include: –A diagnostic assessment –2-3 formative assessments –A summative assessment What are the strengths of your plan? Using materials in the lab (newspapers, toothpaste, modeling Clay, sand, water, flour, glue) make a model of the pattern of You see in the rocks shown in the photograph. Write a brief Story explaining how you think the pattern in the rocks was Created.

Methods of Assessment Diagnostic Formative Summative Formative Assessment: What effect would global warming have on the range of Artic ice shown here?

Diagnostic Assessment Assessing students’ prior knowledge –T-charts –Pictorials –Drawings –Concept Mapping –Probes How could you use this graph as a diagnostic assessment method with a group of ninth-graders?

Examples: Diagnostic Methods Pre-assessment--used to find out student’s prior knowledge. Three methods are presented, including: –The T-Chart –Pictorials & Drawings –Concept Maps How would these pre- assessment strategies help you in planning lessons and designing units of study?

Formative Assessment Asking questions Conferencing Monitoring/observing Alternative paper and pencil Web-Based Formative Assessments Student Writing Open-Ended Questions Content-Specific Tasks Science Journals Formative assessment: Is it true that the green color in leaves masks other pigments? If so, why are some trees in this picture green, and others showing reds, browns, and yellows?

Examples: Formative Assessment Formative methods can involve direct interaction of the teacher with students, during class or nonclass time. Which of these methods would use, and why? –Observing Students –Asking Questions –Student Questions –Conferencing

Summative Methods of Assessment Several formal methods are presented, including: –Traditional Paper-and-Pencil Tests –Traditional Short Answer –Student Writing –Open-Ended Questions –Content-Specific Tasks –Science Journals –Written Reports or Multimedia Presentations

Inquiry 10.2: Designing Performance Assessment Tasks and Rubrics In this inquiry you are going to design a performance task that would assess student understanding of a big idea or concept. Select big ideas/concepts from the Standards and the Benchmarks. Using these statements, you will be asked to create a performance task that will assess learners on the idea. An example of a performance task is shown here.

Paper Tower Assessment Project Science teacher-education students collaborating on The paper tower project.

Rubric for paper tower

Rubric Design Rubistar Use Rubistar to design rubrics for: –Building a structure –A lab report –Science fair project –Scientific drawings –Group projects –Essay writing –Research report

Portfolios Study the sample portfolio provided in the Science Teacher Gazette of this chapter, and use it as a model to develop a portfolio based on your mini-unit, or a chapter from a middle or high school science textbook.

Assessment at the National Level The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a federally mandated organization that administers assessments to measure educational progress in science, and other content areas. Review the material on NAEP in the Art of Teaching Science (pp ). How can the NAEP contribute to the improvement of education in U.S. school districts?

Long-Term Trends in Science Find out how the following have changed over time based on NAEP results (science): Achievement Age Race/Ethnicity Gender Parental Education Level and achievement Type of School Science Curriculum Attitudes Trends in Average Scale Scores for the Nation in Science

International Assessments The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has conducted comparative studies since the 1960s. Known as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), students in more than 40 nations at the fourth, eighth and final year of high school have been tested.Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study PISA--Program for International Student AssessmentPISA--Program ROSE--Relevance of Science EducationROSE-