This chapter was about the process approach to science emphasized by the National Science Education Standards. These standards depict 8 processed of science used to investigate. These processes are observing, classifying, inferring, measuring, communicating, predicting, hypothesizing, and experimenting. Although these processes are not new ideas to me, i found it interesting when the chapter describes how they should be taught in schools. The book says that all processes of science should be used within investigations. When I was in school, we learned about the 'scientific method', which is pretty much another term for the processes of science defined in this chapter. Instead of learning the processes of science within scientific investigations, we had to learn each step of the scientific method on it's own. So, instead of doing an activity like in the book for observing where the teacher presents an object and asks questions about it, we were told things like the definition of observing and eventually for the rest of the other processes.
I liked this chapters explanations of binary and multistage classification systems. I think for younger grades or for the beginning of a lesson it would be beneficial to start by asking students to classify items according to one particular property, and them move to a multistage classification by forming subsets and classifications within classifications. I also liked the chapters description of inferring, and how they showed how it is different than observing. I feel that knowing the different between the two might be a challenging concept to grasp for students with special needs. Therefore, I really like the books examples of asking students to state the senses the use to validate observations and then state the evidence they use to validate their inferences. I had never heard of or seen a histogram before reading this chapter. At first it took me a while to figure out how it would be used, but once I read how to use it i feel that it would be a good thing to use in a classroom. One thing i might change about the particular histogram shown in the book would be to show actual peanuts in different sizes that students could compare their own peanuts to.
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Have you given any thought as to why the textbook authors do not teach "the Scientific Method?" Rather, as you correctly point out, they focus on the processes (in the first half of the chapter) and then on types of inquiries (in the second half of the chapter). This will be a good topic of discussion for the class.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the distinction between observation and inference is a good one. The focus on senses is perfect to help kids know the difference. I also liked the distinction between inferences (based past events) and predictions (based on future events).
I am glad that the section on classification was helpful. There will be many times in the curriculum when students will be asked to classify. Begin simply, according to one property, is spot on!
To understand histograms better, it's good to look at lots of examples. They are an important data collecting tool, and yet we don't often think about collecting data in this way.
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