Patricia D. Morrell

Cognitive Impact of a Grade School Field Trip.

The purposes of this study were to design and conduct a three-hour field experience for third and fourth graders on forestry and forest products and to determine the cognitive effects of participation in this field trip on the children. Approximately 700 third and fourth graders participated. These students were tested prior to the field experience, posttested within a week following the trip, and tested again three months after the field experience. Significant differences (p <.05) were found between the pre-and posttests. There was less than a half-point loss in mean scores after retesting three months later. Students not only increased their knowledge after participating in this experience, but they retained that knowledge. Possible reasons for these cognitive gains are offered and discussed.

Helping Preservice Science Teachers Analyze Their Practices as We Study Our Own

This self-study describes the impact of introducing and using a teaching observation protocol, the Oregon Teacher Observation Protocol (OTOP), on preservice teachers’ abilities to examine their own science teaching in light of reform-based teaching practices and the effects of this assignment on us as science methods instructors. Students were introduced to the protocol and practiced applying it by viewing video-taped science lessons. As the contextual anchor for self-reflection, preservice teachers used the protocol to critique one of their practicum science lessons. They were asked to identify particular strategies evident in their lessons and to rate them as major, minor, or absent. This assignment showed them how to analyze their teaching using a lens of reform-based practices for science teaching. It also enabled us to see where we needed to refocus our teaching to better prepare preservice teachers and to identify where we needed to be more transparent about our own modeling of practices.

Using Environmental Education Project Curricula with Elementary Preservice Teachers

Few studies have focused on the use of the Project WET, WILD, WILD Aquatic, and Learning Tree Guides as a means of introducing environmental education (EE) in preservice settings. Four different case studies demonstrate methods of integrating EE through the use of the Project Guides into preservice teacher coursework at four different universities. The integration methods strengthen elementary preservice teachers’ science content knowledge, develop science process and inquiry skills, integrate literacy, and introduce fieldwork. Elementary preservice teachers in all four cases reported positive teaching and learning experiences from their use of the Project Guides.

Constructivism/Conceptual Change

“Be very, very careful what you put in that head because you will never, ever get it out.” While Cardinal Thomas Wolsey may have said that in the 1500’s, it does seem to aptly describes the case with many science concepts. Students seem to come into our classes with many incorrect, but strongly held, misunderstandings. A quick Google search will produce multitudes of lists of misconceptions in science, articles in popular publications, You Tube videos on the topic, and entire texts devoted to debunking popular though incorrect myths and beliefs about science.

A Few of Our Favorite Things

We are all familiar with the expression “teachers’ bag of tricks.” It is fairly easy for K-12 teachers to do a quick web search, scan library shelves, and browse through journals to provide them with numerous lessons and ideas to keep their bags filled. Science teacher educators need to not only provide preservice teachers with resources to help them fill their “bags,” but also include crucial theory and pedagogy; what constitutes “minds on” lessons, not merely “hands on” activities. But where do we science methods instructors find ideas to put in our “bag of tricks” to help us with the pedagogy we teach and model? These kinds of teaching ideas are not so easy to find using the internet or even science methods textbooks. This book is a collection of some favorite teaching ideas from science teacher educators from across the United States and abroad. This book is NOT a collection of teaching ideas about specific science content. This book IS a set of activities that help us prepare our preservice science teachers in the areas of: Constructivism/Conceptual Change; Nature of Science; Integration (including Technology Integration), Scientific Inquiry/Engineering Design; and Diversity/Differentiation. Each section starts with a brief overview of the topic and an introduction to the activities included on the theme. The individual activities include step-by-step instructions, modifications/extensions, references, and additional readings to help you easily and fully implement the idea in your own classroom. These ideas are a few of our favorites; we hope they will become some of yours as well.

Nature of Science

Science is thought of as a three-pronged discipline: it is a body of knowledge, a way of doing (process), and a way of thinking (National Research Council, 1996; Next Generation Science Standards, 2013; Sagan, 1990). Unfortunately, many of our students have been taught science with a heavy focus on the facts. In our methods classes, we need to expand how our preservice teachers conceive of science so their students can learn it as being multi-faceted.

Scientific Inquiry/Engineering Design

Engaging students in science inquiry (SI) is nothing new. Flick and Lederman (2006) cited from the US Bureau of Education in 1893 stressing the need for hands-on science instruction. A Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework) (NRC, 2012) has re-examined what it means to engage students in inquiry and has shifted or refocused attention to include engineering practices (EP) and to replace the idea of “skills” with “practices” (p. 41).