David F. Jackson

Managing the Conflict Between Evolution & Religion

creation versus evolution conflict smolderson. Courts and curriculum committees haveclosed the issue repeatedly at national, stateand community levels, but the embers still glow.Occasionally, the controversy re-erupts into full flame.Parents band together and file suit against theirschool board claiming that the teaching of evolutionundermines their children’s worldview. State legisla-tures argue laws designed to de-emphasize the roleof evolution in the curriculum. University scientistsgather to champion the need for an uncompromisedapproach to the teaching of evolution in secondaryschools. Often, though, the controversy remains juston the brink of flare-up, a tension that biology teach-ers feel more than any other players in the conflict.Biology teachers face the demanding challenge ofcrafting a learning environment that mediates collid-ing agendas. They want students to deepen theirunderstanding of biological evolution in order tobecome scientifically literate citizens. At the sametime, they also want to support, rather than under-mine, the values of students, parents and communitieswhose worldviews can oppose the teaching of evolu-tion. On a private, and often unspoken level, manybiology teachers themselves must face their ownunresolved conflicts between biological evolution andtheir personal worldviews. Teachers from variousreligious and philosophical backgrounds face conflictsbetween their beliefs and biological evolution thatrange from simply thought-provoking to deeply dis-turbing. Is it possible for teachers to actually resolvethese conflicting ideas?

Teaching and Learning Science Through Song: Exploring the experiences of students and teachers

This qualitative, multi-case study explored the use of science-content music for teaching and learning in six middle school science classrooms. The researcher sought to understand how teachers made use of content-rich songs for teaching science, how they impacted student engagement and learning, and what the experiences of these teachers and students suggested about using songs for middle school classroom science instruction. Data gathered included three teacher interviews, one classroom observation and a student focus-group discussion from each of six cases. The data from each unit of analysis were examined independently and then synthesized in a multi-case analysis, resulting in a number of merged findings, or assertions, about the experience. The results of this study indicated that teachers used content-rich music to enhance student understanding of concepts in science by developing content-based vocabulary, providing students with alternative examples and explanations of concepts, and as a sense-making experience to help build conceptual understanding. The use of science-content songs engaged students by providing both situational and personal interest, and provided a mnemonic device for remembering key concepts in science. The use of songs has relevance from a constructivist approach as they were used to help students build meaning; from a socio-cultural perspective in terms of student engagement; and from a cognitive viewpoint in that in these cases they helped students make connections in learning. The results of this research have implications for science teachers and the science education community in developing new instructional strategies for the middle school science classroom.

The Design of Software Tools for Meaningful Learning by Experience: Flexibility and Feedback

Experience in using commercially available software to teach students about principles of graphical data analysis suggests that several critical design modifications are advisable. In a quasi-experimental study, three different versions of an original graphing program were used by inner-city high school students solving scientific data analysis problems. A version incorporating “coaching” feedback into a highly flexible interface was found to be significantly superior to either an “open” version giving no extrinsic feedback or a “restrictive” one that disabled program options whose use was deemed inappropriate based on the data analysis context. As an illustration of one of the graph-based critical thinking skills developed by the students, results are presented as contrasting pairs of graphs in which one is designed to emphasize, and the other to downplay, the effects/of interface design, gender, and their interactions.

Implementing “real science” through microcomputers and telecommunications in project-based elementary classrooms

This is a study of an ongoing collaborative project in which science education faculty and upper elementary school teachers investigate the potential of a project-based, technologyrich, environmentally oriented approach to science education in an urban school serving a racially diverse population. Major conclusions based on the experience of participants in this study include: (1) teachers describe their instructional roles in terms highly consistent with student-centered, project-based, experiential learning; (2) teachers believe that what makes science “real” for students is the feeling that they are working on a truly current problem that is also being investigated by others outside their classroom. This is achieved by KidsNet, a microcomputer- and telecommunications-mediated curriculum, in a way that would not be possible without this technology; (3) teachers describe the actual and possible role of computer technology in terms which, while insightful and generally positive, are not clearly related to its flexible use in project-based learning; and (4) while teachers recognize meaningful connections between “off-line” science activities and the use of computer and telecommunications technologies, their students often do not.

Measure the Volume of a Tree: A Transformative Modeling Lesson on Measurement for Prospective Middle-school Science Teachers

Measurement is an essential skill that students need to develop in both mathematics and science classes. However, many students only develop very superficial understanding regarding the nature of measurement. Building upon modeling-based work, we construct a framework that views measurement as a complex set of knowledge and skills one can use to transform a model and/or a referent and their variations and bring them together in a coherent way. We use this framework to guide the design and implementation of a unit on measuring the volume of a tree with two cohorts of prospective teachers of middle grades. With selected examples, we illustrate our framework in terms of the relationship between modeling and measurement. We provide insights on how to design activities that enhance students’ in-depth understanding of measurement.

The scientist as Cracker-Barrel Philosopher: Implications for the concept of scientific literacy

This study aims to identify an internally consistent and readily teachable philosophical approach to the nature and practice of science. The primary sources are anecdotal material and oral reflections prepared for the popular media by and about an eminent contemporary scientist, the late physicist Richard Feynman. Examples of “real people” working on technological problems can provide a useful foil to the customary study of “great men” in the history of science, yet both of these approaches can have serious drawbacks. Feynmans anecdotal reflections provide an excellent “middle ground” case study: a pure scientist, yet with a personal background anchored in practical problems, who combines the traditional credentials of authority with an endearing humanity. There are striking similarities between the account of the nature of science, technology, and good teaching implied by Feynmans musings and that expressed more abstractly in the recent American Association for the Advancement of Science report,Science for All Americans.