cerbin@mail.uwlax.edu

Contact

Appendix A:

I used the Middle School Science Problem to teach learning theory. Students worked on the problem for several weeks in conjunctions with reading and writing assignments relevant to the problem.

Arlene thumbed through the papers on her desk, glancing at the scores on the top of each page. She wondered what was happening, why so many students had done poorly on the science test. Here she was in the middle of her first year of teaching and students weren't getting it. Of course a few students did well on the test, but many did not.

She looked at the paper before her. Question three read, "Draw and label a diagram to show how the water that falls as rain in one place may come from another place that is far away."  The student had written, "I do not remember this from the book." She looked through the stack of papers. Another student had drawn a sewer pipe emptying into a pond. Another had actually, shown a truck hauling bottled water. Seven students had left the item blank, and many of the drawings were incomplete and confused. Only 4 of 25 students had answered correctly.

Suddenly, a loud voice boomed from the doorway. "Hey, Arlene! Time to go home!" Arlene jumped but then realized who it was, " Oh, hi Melissa. I was just finishing up. I'll walk out to the parking lot with you."

Melissa asked, "So, how's it going?

"Well, I'm just getting accustomed to the idea that when the school day is over I will spend all evening planning lessons for the next day. Does it ever get better?"

"Arlene, eventually you get your life back, not all of it mind you—but someday you will have some time to yourself."

"I'll look forward to that. . . Melissa, I was wondering. You've been at this several years now. Can you tell me whether you have had to change your expectations of students?"

Melissa looked puzzled, "What do you mean?"

Arlene thought for a moment, "Well, I just read a set of tests that I gave today, and so many students did poorly. This isn't the first time it has happened this term—it has become a pattern. Suddenly, I'm wondering whether my expectations aren't out of line, whether I'm expecting too much."

"I have the same feeling sometimes. It's a real challenge to get kids to understand even basic concepts."

Arlene responded, "Well, what do you do about it? I mean, this test shows that most of the students learned very little in the last three weeks. Now what do I do—go back over the topic? If I do that we lose ground and get behind in the class. And, even if I go over the topic, what's to say that the outcome will be any different? I really want to get this figured out soon."

Melissa stopped walking and said, "Arlene, it sounds like your situation is perfect for our new 'Learning Enhancement Forum.' Last year the Student Learning Task Force recommended that teachers set up weekly sessions to examine student learning issues. Anyway, we just got started, and we meet Thursday afternoons for two hours. Your situation might be a good problem to bring to the group."

"You mean other teachers would actually be willing to listen to this and help out?"

"Well, that's the theory—haven't seen it in practice yet. Tell you what, why don't you put together a description—maybe a couple of pages of what is going on in your science class. Tell us what you are trying to accomplish and how students are responding. Make six copies and I'll distribute them to the group. Then next Thursday we can use this as our topic for the session."

"Melissa that would be great. I'll put something together and get it to you by Tuesday. Thanks a lot."

Report from Arlene Thompson's 7th Grade Science Class

The 7^th grade science curriculum covers many of the traditional areas of science such as life science, earth science, chemistry, and some physics. The main objective is to prepare students for more advanced work in these subject areas. There are a lot of facts to learn, but that is not the sole aim. The curriculum also focuses on improving kids' understanding of science concepts and their ability to think scientifically. So a lot of what we do in the class is not just learning about science, but learning to do science.

I thought the best way to describe the difficulties in my class is to show some of the types of questions, activities and problems I use, and summarize how students do on them. I can also describe some of the ways I teach the class.

First, I have noticed a problem with basic comprehension of material. I have been giving some short quizzes. The goal is to make sure the kids keep up with the assignments, and become familiar with the basic concepts. The quizzes usually have 10-20 questions that test simple comprehension of the material. Attached are a few examples of some quiz items, and the distribution of scores from the last quiz. It's amazing to me how many students don't even grasp the basic ideas from the readings.

Second, I really do want these kids to get beyond the simple facts, and begin to understand how to do science or think scientifically. This calls for something beyond rote learning of facts. Students have to make connections, analyze, put things together, and so on. On the second page I have included some examples of questions that require a little more thinking from them, and some of the students' answers. As you can see, a few students are able to develop good ideas, but most of them are far from the mark.

Third, in order to learn about science you need to do more than read about it. It is important to become involved in scientific investigations and inquiry. Science is about discovering new knowledge through a process of scientific inquiry. It is difficult with 12 and 13 year-olds, but I think students can learn important ideas by carrying out science experiments. So, in the class we do a variety of experiments and investigations that put the students in the position of asking questions, testing their ideas, collecting and analyzing evidence and so on. One of the experiments in life science is included on the last page.

These three types of questions and activities represent the range of goals in the class—to help students understand scientific concepts and principles and also to develop some capacity to investigate questions scientifically. As you know this is my first year of teaching, and I'm really interested in understanding these problems better. I want these kids to learn about science and also to experience some of the wonder and gratification that comes from working in science.

So here it is--I hope you can help me develop more effective ways to teach and to help these kids learn.

Some examples of quiz questions that test for basic understanding of the material followed by some student responses. The distribution of scores for the last quiz is at the bottom of the page. Students take the quiz after reading several pages from the textbook.

From what materials are fossil fuels formed?

fossils (6)

sea water (1)

oil and gas (1)

dirt and rocks (4)

dead plants and animals (4)

don't know (9)

Write down one reason why the ozone layer is important for all living things on earth?

It protects living things from over exposure to the sun's harmful rays.

Living things need it to breathe.

It keeps the atmosphere from going into space.

It creates rain.

It keeps water from going too deep in the ground.

Distribution of scores on the last quiz. There were 20 questions and 25 students in the class.

20(1) 19(0) 18(0) 17(1) 16(0) 15(1) 14(2) 13(0) 12(2) 11(2) 10(0) 9(0) 8(1) 7(0) 6(0) 5(0) 4(4) 3(4) 2(4) 1(3) 0(0)

Some examples of questions that require a little more thinking from the students. These questions appear on tests, but not quizzes.

Why is it cold in the winter and warm in the summer?

Most of the students in the class said that in the summer the earth is closer to the sun than in the winter.

A few said that the days are shorter in the winter and longer in the summer.

Several said that it's colder in the winter because it snows!

Only three students explained the change of seasons in terms of the tilt of the earth on its axis, and the 

  angle of the sun's rays.

Draw and label a diagram to show how water that falls as rain in one place may come from another place that is far away.

Below is one of the drawings that is a fairly good answer to the question. Only 4 students produced this kind of drawing.

Other answers included such things as a drawing of a (n)

sewer pipe emptying into a river.

truck loaded with bottled water.

an underground river.

hurricane with no labels or description

Below is an example of science experiment students had to design. Students worked in groups of three to design and explain their experiment. They worked on this for an entire class period.

A nursery received a shipment of unmarked seeds from a seed supplier. The head florist called the company, but no one remembered what the seeds were. Rather than waste the seeds, the florist decided to grow them even though she did not know how much sunlight the plants needed. Design an experiment the florist could do to determine the relationship between exposure to sunlight and plant growth.

Several groups said to grow one plant in light and another one in the dark.

Several groups said to grow one plant in light for a week then in half the light for a week.

A few groups just did not know how to begin.

One group figured out a reasonable experiment, growing groups of plants with each group getting different amounts of sunlight, but the same amount of water and nutrients.

As the class worked on the Middle School Science problem I provided additional information to their questions. My answers insured that they focused on learning theory and did not drift into other areas.