Hard-to-Teach Science Concepts

Hard-to-Teach Science Concepts PDF Author: Susan Koba
Publisher: NSTA Press
ISBN: 1936137453
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Authors Susan Koba and Carol Mitchell introduce teachers of grades 3- 5 to their conceptual framework for successful instruction of hard-to-teach science concepts. Their methodology comprises four steps: (1) engage students about their preconceptions and address their thinking; (2) target lessons to be learned; (3) determine appropriate strategies; and (4) use Standards-based teaching that builds on student understandings. The authors not only explain how to use their framework but also provide a variety of tools and examples of its application on four hard-to-teach foundational concepts: the flow of energy and matter in ecosystems, force and motion, matter and its transformation, and Earth's shape. Both preservice and inservice elementary school teachers will find this approach appealing, and the authors' engaging writing style and user-friendly tables help educators adapt the method with ease.

Hard-to-Teach Science Concepts

Hard-to-Teach Science Concepts PDF Author: Susan Koba
Publisher: NSTA Press
ISBN: 1936137453
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book Here

Book Description
Authors Susan Koba and Carol Mitchell introduce teachers of grades 3- 5 to their conceptual framework for successful instruction of hard-to-teach science concepts. Their methodology comprises four steps: (1) engage students about their preconceptions and address their thinking; (2) target lessons to be learned; (3) determine appropriate strategies; and (4) use Standards-based teaching that builds on student understandings. The authors not only explain how to use their framework but also provide a variety of tools and examples of its application on four hard-to-teach foundational concepts: the flow of energy and matter in ecosystems, force and motion, matter and its transformation, and Earth's shape. Both preservice and inservice elementary school teachers will find this approach appealing, and the authors' engaging writing style and user-friendly tables help educators adapt the method with ease.

Hard-to-teach Biology Concepts

Hard-to-teach Biology Concepts PDF Author: Susan Koba
Publisher: NSTA Press
ISBN: 193353141X
Category : Biology
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
This well-researched book provides a valuable instructional framework for high school biology teachers as they tackle five particularly challenging concepts in their classrooms, meiosis, photosynthesis, natural selection, proteins and genes, and environmental systems and human impact. The author counsels educators first to identify students' prior conceptions, especially misconceptions, related to the concept being taught, then to select teaching strategies that best dispel the misunderstandings and promote the greatest student learning. The book is not a prescribred set of lesson plans. Rather it presents a framework for lesson planning, shares appropriate approaches for developing student understanding, and provides opportunities to reflect and apply those approached to the five hard-to-teach topics. More than 300 teacher resources are listed.

Science Teaching Reconsidered

Science Teaching Reconsidered PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309175445
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 102

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Book Description
Effective science teaching requires creativity, imagination, and innovation. In light of concerns about American science literacy, scientists and educators have struggled to teach this discipline more effectively. Science Teaching Reconsidered provides undergraduate science educators with a path to understanding students, accommodating their individual differences, and helping them grasp the methodsâ€"and the wonderâ€"of science. What impact does teaching style have? How do I plan a course curriculum? How do I make lectures, classes, and laboratories more effective? How can I tell what students are thinking? Why don't they understand? This handbook provides productive approaches to these and other questions. Written by scientists who are also educators, the handbook offers suggestions for having a greater impact in the classroom and provides resources for further research.

Ready, Set, SCIENCE!

Ready, Set, SCIENCE! PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309106141
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
What types of instructional experiences help K-8 students learn science with understanding? What do science educators, teachers, teacher leaders, science specialists, professional development staff, curriculum designers, and school administrators need to know to create and support such experiences? Ready, Set, Science! guides the way with an account of the groundbreaking and comprehensive synthesis of research into teaching and learning science in kindergarten through eighth grade. Based on the recently released National Research Council report Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8, this book summarizes a rich body of findings from the learning sciences and builds detailed cases of science educators at work to make the implications of research clear, accessible, and stimulating for a broad range of science educators. Ready, Set, Science! is filled with classroom case studies that bring to life the research findings and help readers to replicate success. Most of these stories are based on real classroom experiences that illustrate the complexities that teachers grapple with every day. They show how teachers work to select and design rigorous and engaging instructional tasks, manage classrooms, orchestrate productive discussions with culturally and linguistically diverse groups of students, and help students make their thinking visible using a variety of representational tools. This book will be an essential resource for science education practitioners and contains information that will be extremely useful to everyone �including parents �directly or indirectly involved in the teaching of science.

Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards

Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309064767
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
Humans, especially children, are naturally curious. Yet, people often balk at the thought of learning scienceâ€"the "eyes glazed over" syndrome. Teachers may find teaching science a major challenge in an era when science ranges from the hardly imaginable quark to the distant, blazing quasar. Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards is the book that educators have been waiting forâ€"a practical guide to teaching inquiry and teaching through inquiry, as recommended by the National Science Education Standards. This will be an important resource for educators who must help school boards, parents, and teachers understand "why we can't teach the way we used to." "Inquiry" refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and in which students grasp science knowledge and the methods by which that knowledge is produced. This book explains and illustrates how inquiry helps students learn science content, master how to do science, and understand the nature of science. This book explores the dimensions of teaching and learning science as inquiry for K-12 students across a range of science topics. Detailed examples help clarify when teachers should use the inquiry-based approach and how much structure, guidance, and coaching they should provide. The book dispels myths that may have discouraged educators from the inquiry-based approach and illuminates the subtle interplay between concepts, processes, and science as it is experienced in the classroom. Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards shows how to bring the standards to life, with features such as classroom vignettes exploring different kinds of inquiries for elementary, middle, and high school and Frequently Asked Questions for teachers, responding to common concerns such as obtaining teaching supplies. Turning to assessment, the committee discusses why assessment is important, looks at existing schemes and formats, and addresses how to involve students in assessing their own learning achievements. In addition, this book discusses administrative assistance, communication with parents, appropriate teacher evaluation, and other avenues to promoting and supporting this new teaching paradigm.

Taking Science to School

Taking Science to School PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309133831
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
What is science for a child? How do children learn about science and how to do science? Drawing on a vast array of work from neuroscience to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. By looking at a broad range of questions, this book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning. Taking Science to School answers such questions as: When do children begin to learn about science? Are there critical stages in a child's development of such scientific concepts as mass or animate objects? What role does nonschool learning play in children's knowledge of science? How can science education capitalize on children's natural curiosity? What are the best tasks for books, lectures, and hands-on learning? How can teachers be taught to teach science? The book also provides a detailed examination of how we know what we know about children's learning of scienceâ€"about the role of research and evidence. This book will be an essential resource for everyone involved in K-8 science educationâ€"teachers, principals, boards of education, teacher education providers and accreditors, education researchers, federal education agencies, and state and federal policy makers. It will also be a useful guide for parents and others interested in how children learn.

Make It Stick

Make It Stick PDF Author: Peter C. Brown
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674729013
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners. Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned. Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.

Science in Seconds

Science in Seconds PDF Author: Hazel Muir
Publisher: Quercus
ISBN: 1623650070
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 786

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Book Description
Simple and accessible, Science in Seconds is a comprehensive, entertaining introduction to 200 key scientific ideas. Each concept is clearly realized with a helpful visual and a concise explanation. The concepts included span all of the key scientific disciplines, including Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Ecology, Biotechnology, Anatomy and Physiology, Medicine, Earth Science, Energy Generation, Astronomy, Spaceflight and Information Technology. Utilizing vivid, educational illustrations--inspired by scientific research suggesting that the brain best absorbs information visually--these compact and portable reference guides are ideal study buddies or holiday gifts, and enlightening reading for all. Hazel Muir studied astrophysics at Edinburgh University before becoming a staff editor and writer at New Scientist. Currently a freelance writer, she still regularly contributes to BBC Sky At Night magazine, and has also written for Wired UK. She has won international awards for her articles from the American Institute of Physics and the Acoustical Society of America. From the Trade Paperback edition.

How Students Learn

How Students Learn PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309089506
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
How Students Learn: Science in the Classroom builds on the discoveries detailed in the best-selling How People Learn. Now these findings are presented in a way that teachers can use immediately, to revitalize their work in the classroom for even greater effectiveness. Organized for utility, the book explores how the principles of learning can be applied in science at three levels: elementary, middle, and high school. Leading educators explain in detail how they developed successful curricula and teaching approaches, presenting strategies that serve as models for curriculum development and classroom instruction. Their recounting of personal teaching experiences lends strength and warmth to this volume. This book discusses how to build straightforward science experiments into true understanding of scientific principles. It also features illustrated suggestions for classroom activities.

Teaching Science Thinking

Teaching Science Thinking PDF Author: Christopher Moore
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315298619
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Teach your students how to think like scientists. This book shows you practical ways to incorporate science thinking in your classroom using simple "Thinking Tasks" that you can insert into any lesson. What is science thinking and how can you possibly teach and assess it? How is science thinking incorporated into the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and how can it be weaved into your curriculum? This book answers these questions. This practical book provides a clear, research-verified framework for helping students develop scientific thinking as required by the NGSS. Your students will not be memorizing content but will become engaged in the real work scientists do, using critical thinking patterns such as: Recognizing patterns, Inventing new hypotheses based on observations, Separating causes from correlations, Determining relevant variables and isolating them, Testing hypotheses, and Thinking about their own thinking and the relative value of evidence. The book includes a variety of sample classroom activities and rubrics, as well as frameworks for creating your own tools. Designed for the busy teacher, this book also shows you quick and simple ways to add deep science thinking to existing lessons.