1. SCE 4311 Additional Notes
MAY, 2015

2. Recap What to teach How to teach Why we teach science
Content
Disciplinary Core Ideas
Life Science
Physical Science
Earth/Space Science
Engineering
Cross-Cutting Concepts
E.g. Patterns, Cause/Effect
Science & Eng. Practices
E.g. Modeling Investigating
5E Learning Cycle
Engage
Explore
Explain
Extend
Evaluate
How to teach
Thinking
Skills
Habits Of Mind
Cognitive Tasks
that Demand
Skillful Thinking
What to teach
Why we teach science
Individual and Collective Science ngagement
Utilitarian
Democratic
Intrinsic
Student engagement
Affective
Cognitive
Behavioral

3. Private Universe
See this seed? See this large tree (log)? How did this tiny see grow up to become this enormous tree? What makes up the mass of the log/large tree? How do we know if and what our students understand? See links, below!

4. FA 3 Content/Engage
Engage : Describe how the teacher will capture students’ interest.
What questions will you ask to understand students preconceptions (misconceptions) ?
What kind of questions should the students ask themselves after the engagement?
Thinking
Skills
Habits Of Mind
Cognitive Tasks
that Demand
Skillful Thinking
Content

5. FA2 – Student Concept Interviews
You will be focused on one concept in FA2.
For this one concept, you will want to connect it with the national NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) and the Florida Science Standards.
You have been provided questions to ask five students as individual interviews as a pre-assessment.
You will use a semi-structured interview format so as to follow-up student responses to your structured questions with further questioning to help you discover student understanding of the selected concept.
The goal is to find out what students know and understand or don’t know or understand about the selected concept.

6. Key Terms
Conception means any idea or concept, or a sum of ideas and concepts.
Conceptual level: Based on the students’ responses where are they (compare to the standards)
Misconception a conclusion that's wrong because it's based on faulty thinking or facts that are wrong.

7. Mental Models
An individual’s thought process about how something works in the real world
They help shape our behavior and define our approach to solving problems and carrying out tasks
Why are they important to recognize and acknowledge?

8. “We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.”
~ Anais Nin

9. Classic Mental Model Assumption of Scarcity
The Titanic
Assumption of Scarcity
There isn’t enough to go around.
We’re going down anyway, so grab all you can, while you can.

10. Classic Mental Model The Bummer
Things are the way they are and there is nothing I/we can do about it.

11. Classic Mental Model The Social Trap If others do it, I may as well.
If no one else does it, why should I?

12. Classic Mental Model The Self-Serve Maximize Gains for Self
The “invisible hand” leads all individuals, in pursuit of their own self-interests, to produce the greatest benefit for society as a whole (and vice versa).

13. Classic Mental Model The Rescue Theory of Confidence
The market, technology or someone or something will take care of it.

14. Classic Mental Model The Way We Were
This is the way we have always done things, why should we change?
The way things used to be is the way they are now.

15. Classic Mental Model The Illusion of Away
Our trash goes away, our pollution goes away, our oil spills go away, our food comes from away, etc.

16. Classic Mental Model The Illusion of Other You are different from me.
Humans are separate from nature, there is a hierarchy of living things.

17. Classic Mental Models What’s behind what people say?
“Humans are the central and most significant entities in the universe”
“Resources are unlimited and everything is substitutable”
“We are in control”
“I wasn’t thinking at all”

18. Mental Models Incomplete and constantly changing Not accurate
Uncertainty about their validity does not prevent them from being used even if incorrect

19. Results of These Classic Mental Models
We often operate without the information we need
We ignore and/or can’t see the feedback
If we cannot hear or see feedback, we cannot perceive relevant data for our brains to filter
We exhibit characteristics of insanity
Our “fixes” backfire on us or we shift the burden

21. Mental Models
How might you use the concept of mental models with your students?
How do mental models impact sustainability?

22. Toward Sustainability
“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking
we used when we created them.”
~Albert Einstein

23. Sustainable Mental Model
Live by the natural laws
We must operate within natural laws and principles rather than attempting to overcome them.
They are non-negotiable.

24. Sustainable Mental Model
Consider the 7th generation when making decisions
What legacy will we leave our children?
A guiding principle of the Iroquois Nation

25. Sustainable Mental Model
We are all responsible
Everything we do and everything we don’t do makes a difference.

26. Responsibility
“In the face of rapid destruction of the natural world, how much should we care? First, it is pointless to care for things we cannot affect. Care is squandered where it overreaches our power. Second, our power should not overreach our care. Not to care for things we affect is to act carelessly - that is, destructively.”
~John Nolt
Professor, Environmental Ethics
The University of Tennessee

27. Sustainable Mental Model
We are all in this together
We are dependent on each other and on the natural systems upon which all life depends
We are all connected and part of a system - the web of life