The Cosmos Project: a journey to the stars

There seems to be some agreement that ‘science for all’ does not necessarily mean ‘one size fits all’ (Lynch, 2001). Teaching scientific disciplines in schools has been traditionally concerned with delivering science as a product with a main focus on its conceptual structure. In our research we propose to concentrate on science as a process, putting it in the societal context. We introduce the Cosmos project that aims to explore the use of narrative and performative languages, as well as new media technologies in relation to delivering complex scientific topics to pre-school children aged three to six. We created a theatrical piece and developed a set of new interactive preschool activities that enabled young learners to participate and contribute to their learning through physical engagement enhanced by modern technologies. This paper presents a critical discussion about the recent tendencies in teaching science to young learners; the rationale for the Cosmos project and its main research objectives. It will conclude with evaluation of the pre- and postperformance educational activities

Preschoolers Explore Greenhouses by Visiting a Greenhouse, Making a Model, and Growing Plants

This practical lesson on greenhouses implements standards of the Next Generation Science Standards (K-2 ETS I-2; K-LS1-1) and the preschool objectives from the Teaching Strategies GOLD. Teaching Strategies GOLD is an assessment tool available online and in print that can be used with any developmentally appropriate early childhood curriculum. The lesson structure follows the 5E’s Learning Cycle Constructivist Model for teaching and the project-based, hands-on approach to learning. The preschool-aged children went on a field trip to a working greenhouse and then collaborated in groups to produce a three-dimensional model of a greenhouse as arts integration into this science project. The children affixed photo stickers from their greenhouse visit onto a recycled plastic container to make the greenhouse building. They used clay, toothpicks, and colored paper leaves to recreate models of plants they had seen and then planted real seeds. The following lesson on plants and greenhouses serves as a successful example of positive arts-integrated science; the children worked together with enjoyment and took pride in their work while the teacher evaluated it as rewarding

Primary Physical Science for Student Teachers at Kindergarten and Primary School Levels: Part II—Implementation and Evaluation of a Course

AbstractThis is the second of two papers on a novel physical science course for student teachers that develops and uses an imaginative approach to Primary Physical Science Education. General philosophical, cognitive, developmental, and scientific issues have been presented in the first paper; here, we briefly recapitulate the most important aspects. In the main part of the current paper, we present in some detail concrete elements of the implementation of the course at three Italian universities where Primary Physical Science Education has been taught for more than 6 years. After a brief description of the course structure, we discuss which parts of macroscopic physics are taught, and how this is done in lectures and labs. Most importantly, we show how the science is entwined with methods related to pedagogy and didactics that (1) help our students approach the science and (2) can be transferred quite readily to teaching children in kindergarten and primary school. These methods include the design of direct physical experience of forces of nature, embodied simulations, writing and telling of stories of forces of nature, and design and performance of Forces-of-Nature Theater plays. The paper continues with a brief description of feedback from former students who have been teaching for some time, and an in-depth analysis of the research and teaching done by one of the students for her master thesis. We conclude the paper by summarizing aspects of both the philosophy and the design of the course that we believe to be of particular value

The use of Wittgenstein\u27s language games to promote argumentation in children at the beginning of scientific literacy: a proposal for analyzing the argumentative process.

The insertion of the individual in the scientific culture goes through scientific literacy and this, through teaching that privileges research and argumentation in the school scenario, mainly in Science classes. Based on indicators found in the literature that point to scientific literacy and models proposed by Lawson to define the structure of the argument, a table was elaborated to relate the argumentation of children in the second year of elementary school, leveling it in five levels that point to the logical reasoning and the dominion of content, taking into account Wittgenstein\u27s linguistic games. To analyze what level the children were at, a didactic sequence was elaborated that allowed the observation and study of the arguments used by them. Considering such activities and the children\u27s age group, it was observed that they tend not to complete the argumentative sequence, but they already have strong traces of scientific literacy

Guidelines for the improvement of teaching science at colleges of education

M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies)Dozens of Teaching Science practitioners and educational administrators are asking fundamental questions today about the objectives of teacher education programs, the content of programs, instructional methods and quality of education of teachers. They recognised that current Teaching Science practices must be examined, evaluated, and in some cases, developed. There are obvious limits to the effectiveness of these Teaching Science programs to give prospective teachers skills necessary to be successful in their classrooms. This study investigates the guidelines for the improvement of Teaching Science at Colleges of Education that can ensure prospective teachers with ways of understanding the culture of classrooms and schools. The research was based on the assumption that, for prospective teachers to learn to teach effectively, they should be inculcated with an enriched structure and content of the subject Teaching Science curriculum, and valuable teaching knowledge should be communicated to them during their professional training process. In order to understand this problem in its total context an in depth study of the literature survey on the process of teacher education in the Republic of South Africa and the selected areas in the world was done. Data was collected from the interviews with the Heads of Education Department and beginner teachers and questionnaires were administered with principals of schools, Teaching Science lecturers and second and third year student-teachers. The data corpus includes case observations from prospective teachers on Teaching Practice. Their lesson plans, presentation of the teaching skills and post class reflection notes were analysed. Their subject expositions were also audiotaped to provide contextual descriptions. Findings indicate that there are many areas in which the subject Teaching Science curriculum needs improvement if it is to maintain its high degree of producing school teachers which the community will recognise and respect. The findings corroborated the hypotheses that the subject Teaching Science curriculum helps prospective teachers to be autonomous and active agents in their classrooms. The following are some of the most important findings: With regard to their lecturing, the majority of students claimed that many Teaching Science lecturers are ineffective classroom practitioners. It is revealed that Teaching Science lecturers who are less qualified are unfamiliar with the subject Teaching Science lecturing strategies whereas the highly qualified staff is always satisfied with its lecturing. Many student-teachers regarded Teaching Practice as a stressful time because they were not guided effectively by their Teaching Science supervisors on how to write genuine lesson preparations and schemes of work. Teaching Practice sessions are usually held at the beginning of the professional course. At that time students do not have maturity and knowledge of the theory on which teaching is based. Overall it appeared to show that theory and practice at Colleges of Education are still far apart and student-teachers are not given direct experience with the children they are going to teach. -In all Colleges of Education, Teaching Science facilities such as micro-teaching laboratory. dark room and media centre, are inadequate, -The study also revealed that the subject Teaching Science curriculum at Colleges of Education is more boring, less fun, more repetitious, discouraging, unattractive and less competitive. Students are not equipped with the subject Teaching Science curriculum to present interesting lessons. Beginner teachers are incapable of controlling their classes. marking registers and writing accurately on the chalkboard. It is because of this and other reasons that most student-teachers were always absent for Teaching Science periods. -The survey further revealed that the majority of beginner teachers are shy, self-centred and unable to establish good order in the classroom. -The traditional lecturer/teacher-centred approach in which the educator transfers information to learners is outdated, It was found that new approaches to assist prospective teachers may have important potential which needs to be explored diligently. -Based on the data collected and literature review the researcher provides proposals for the improvement of the subject Teaching Science curriculum at Teachers' Training Colleges. It is the wish of the researcher that this set of recommendations be effective tools in helping preservice teachers become successful teacher

The effect of the teaching of an explicit top-level expository text structure on the structure of year seven children\u27s semantic memory

In order to examine the effect of the teaching of a top-level expository structure through writing on children\u27s schemata for text structure, children in year seven were asked to display graphically the relationships between 42 randomly presented text items related to a central topic. The text items were designed to approximate the kinds of information that may be found in an encyclopaedia or a science text about a given topic. One class of children was then allocated to the control group and the other to the experimental group. The experimental group was taught the top-level structure for a scientific report using a specific writing strategy. The control group were taught the top-level structure for the narrative using a similar basic strategy. After approximately four, seventy five minute, treatment sessions a post test was administered to determine if there were any changes in the complexity of the associations between given text items that the students were able to make. Three weeks later a third test was administered to determine if there had been any long term change to the students\u27 text structure schema. A comparison of the performance of the experimental and control group in the post-test and delayed test supported a hypothesis that the treatment would cause long-term changes to the structure of an individual subject\u27s semantic memory. The results also showed the limitations of teaching reading using only narrative materials. This study supported the research findings of Sloan (1983) which concluded that fluent readers differed significantly from less fluent readers in their ability to generate diagrams showing complex semantic relationships. The effectiveness of the treatment was also compared against previously established measures of reading fluency in order to determine if there were any correlations. An analysis of the data showed that the treatment was effective (p \u3c .01) for two of the three categories of reading fluency established

Teaching Children to Learn, Not to Test

The theory of Experiential Learning states that children develop knowledge and skills through experiences outside of the traditional classroom setting. The knowledge gained from these experiences is more long lasting and more enjoyable to students than the traditional rote memorization approach. The focus of my thesis will be to analyze the theory of Experiential Learning in a first grade classroom during my year in the Education Program at Western Oregon University. I will be designing lessons around principles founded by John Dewey, the father of experiential learning, to teach a Science unit in a first grade classroom. The science unit will focus on the life cycle and structure of insects while implementing hands--‐on learning opportunities at a first grade level in compliance with the state--‐ adopted Next Generation Science Standards for First Grade Science. The lessons will also seek to enhance the personal interest in the subject area. I plan to implement these lessons in a first grade\ classroom in the Dallas School District during my year of student teaching

Measuring Students' School Motivation

Education is supposed to lay the foundation for vocational maturity. However, young people lose their motivation to learn at school instead. Adequate teaching concepts to promote school motivation need to be developed, but efficient tools to evaluate them at the level of school motivation are lacking. For this purpose, we built upon the established Science Motivation measure (SMOT) by reformulating items for a general school motivation scale (SchMOT) and applying it to 281 fifth graders. Since children are active creators and not consumers of knowledge, we consider learning motivation correlated with creativity, as demonstrated by the original motivation questionnaire. A principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation confirmed the hypothetical four-factor structure: self-efficacy, self-determination, intrinsic motivation and grade motivation. Factor loadings ranged from 0.556 to 0.746; cross-loadings never exceeded 0.4. The SEM model of motivation confirmed the factor structure with self-efficacy as the strongest predictor of motivation. The correlation of motivation and creativity revealed the particular importance of self-efficacy. This study has shown its appropriateness in measuring adolescent school motivation. Results emphasised the need for self-efficacy, both as an indicator of conducive teaching and an essential pedagogical goal. Suggestions for creativity-based teaching initiatives that promote school motivation by incorporating self-efficacy are discussed

Organizing principles of a school-museum teaching intervention for pre-school children

This work is part of a wider research on the design and the evaluation of a teaching intervention that is aimed at children of preschool age with the cooperation of school and museum of zoology. This paper refers to the general principles of the proposed teaching intervention. These principles are referring to (a) the structure and content of school knowledge on the subject, (b) the constructive approach of teaching and learning of science in early childhood education and (c) the museological conception on the teaching effectiveness of programs when they are carried out with the cooperation of school and museum environment. In this study will be described the content of those three principles together with the objectives, structure and content of teaching activities that can be implemented mainly in the zoological museu

BIMTEK PENYUSUNAN PERANGKAT PEMBELAJARAN BERORIENTASI LITERASI TANGGAP BENCANA

Educating residents around the coastal areas not only involves the central and regional governments, but also all aspects of the community structure. Considering the number of children who are victims of disasters and the lack of integration of disaster response literacy in the field of education, University of Lampung, in this case the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP) also participated in educating residents around the coast, especially the South Lampung area, through the field of Education. In addition, based on the results of direct interviews with one of the Sciences Teachers of Primary School in South Lampung, it is known that the unavailability of teaching materials that build disaster response literacy and the weakness of teachers' skills in developing integrated lesson plan for disaster response. Therefore, there was a Technical Guidance (Bimtek) activity for the preparation of lesson plan oriented towards disaster response literacy of junior high school students for science teachers. Through this Bimtek, science teachers are equipped with knowledge about integrating disaster response into learning through lesson plan and learning media