The key takeaway for Chapter 2 for me was the specific science processes. All of these are important to the learning or investigation process. I found it valuable that there was great detail given to the difference between observing and inferring. This can an area of confusion for elementary students; to be honest I was a little cloudy on the differences.
I feel that an activity at the beginning of a unit to emphasize the difference between the two would be helpful. Perhaps activities in the early grades to teach students how to be good investigators would be a key. Students would actually engage in an activity on observing and inferring. As stated in the book, students decide if they were making an observation or an inference and would give their rationale. The activities would need to be age and ability appropriate, but I feel based on the suggestions in this chapter, important to complete.
On page 34 there were suggestions for questions a teacher may use to prompt students to explain the rationale for stating something is an observation or inference. For example, “What sense did you use when making that observation?” would tie into the definition of an observation requiring the direct use of the five senses. I think keeping it simple with science is crucial especially at the early elementary stages. The information I read here will be useful to me in developing my lesson plans for my unit.
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That is a great take away. There are others. We often play loose and fast with science process words. This should be avoided. For example, young teachers will often use the word "experiment" to describe any and every hands-on activity. However, an "experiment" is a very specific type of process, one that involves the identification of variables, controls, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe authors also do well to distinguish between infer (based on past events) and predict (based on future events). All in all, this first half of the chapter is a great reference for understanding science process skills. The second half of the chapter is critical when thinking about designing lessons and units.