Teaching Fellows' Meetings
2007 Physical Science Cohort Fellows' Meetings
October 3-4, 2008
The fall meeting of the 2007 Physical Science Teaching Fellows was held in Tempe, Arizona. The purpose of this meeting was to study the physics and chemistry modeling curriculum developed at Arizona State University. This curriculum views a small set of basic models as the content core of physics and chemistry. Its developers state that one of its goals is "to engage students in understanding the physical world by constructing and using scientific models to describe, to explain, to predict and to control physical phenomena." The 07 fellows spent a day and a half working with two expert teachers, Larry Dukerich and Kelli Gamez-Warble, on this curriculum. Larry and Kelli have extensive experience facilitating modeling workshops and using modeling with high school students.
In addition to the modeling workshop, the fellows collaborated on their lesson study and used a critical friends' protocol to develop individual goals for their annual KSTF teaching portfolios.
April 4-5, 2008
The 2007 Physical Science Fellows met in Seattle, Washington for their spring meeting. On Friday, the fellows engaged in an “Astronomy by Sight” inquiry lesson conducted by the Physics Education Group (PEG) at the University of Washington. This workshop, part of the Physics by Inquiry (PBI) curriculum, prompts participants to apply observations of the phases of the moon to construct models that can be used for making predictions of physical systems. In addition to deepening their content knowledge, the fellows investigated the use of inquiry in science classrooms. Also on Friday, the fellows were invited to observe inquiry lessons being conducted in science classes at Interlake High School. A panel discussion with the participating teachers from Interlake High School concluded the day.
On Saturday morning, the fellows participated in a workshop on fostering evidence-based explanations in inquiry given by Dr. Mark Windschitl of the University of Washington's Curriculum and Instruction Department. The workshop pushed the teaching fellows to extend their understanding of the desired outcome of an inquiry lesson. They were introduced to the idea that this outcome should encourage student to develop an understanding of the patterns and relationships of observable phenomena in order to construct a theoretical and conceptual model. At the close of the day, the fellows used a critical friends’ protocol to further develop their KSTF teaching portfolios.
October 19-20, 2007
The fall meeting of the 2007 Science Teaching Fellows was held in Arlington, Virginia. Drs. Randy Bell, Associate Professor of Science Education at the University of Virginia, and Kathy Cabe Trundle, Assistant Professor of Education at The Ohio State University, facilitated a workshop on the Nature of Science (NOS.) This workshop was designed to challenge the fellows’ thinking about the nature of their disciplines and how their knowledge of NOS can be used to teach high school science. They engaged in activities designed to help them explicitly and effectively teach their students the differences between observations and inferences, reminding them of the impact that inferences have had on the entire body of scientific knowledge. They also participated in activities and discussions about the differences between theories and laws and the power that context and existing frameworks that students bring to a subject affect their learning. Drs. Bell and Trundle modeled activities for the fellows that would elicit students’ ideas in science and help the fellows determine their students’ knowledge and beliefs with regard to the nature of the discipline of science.
The fellows also worked on their lesson study units which they started at the summer meeting and began discussions of their 2008 teaching portfolio goals.
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