2006 Physical Science Cohort Fellows' Meetings

April 18-19, 2008  

The 2006 Science Teaching Fellows met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to participate in a workshop on Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) led by Rick Moog, professor of chemistry at Franklin and Marshall College and PI for the NSF-funded POGIL project. POGIL is “a research based learning environment where students are actively engaged in mastering course content and in developing essential skills by working in self-managed teams on guided inquiry activities. In addition to learning, understanding, and applying new concepts, students also develop important process skills in the areas of information processing, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, communication, management, and assessment.” Throughout the workshop, fellows worked in cooperative learning teams to model the team structure used in POGIL activities. In these teams, the fellows engaged in POGIL activities in chemistry, explored the POGIL method and analyzed its alignment with the learning cycle, and had practice in writing their own POGIL activities for the subjects they teach. Rick also introduced the fellows to POGIL lab activities, and fellows worked in small groups to plan a lab experiment aligned with POGIL principles.

October 12-13, 2007  

The fall meeting of the 2006 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 06 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 shared updates about their first year teaching, and used a critical friends' protocol to develop individual goals for their annual KSTF teaching portfolios.

March 30-31, 2007

The spring meeting of the 06 fellows was held in Arlington, Virginia, and focused on understanding and teaching about Nature of Science ideas. The fellows participated in a workshop with Dr. Randy Bell from the University of Virginia. Prior to the meeting, fellows read a selection from the book The Golem: What You Should Know about Science, which details the contentious history behind several famous “textbook” examples of science, such as the Michelson-Morley experiment and Pasteur’s experiments refuting spontaneous generation. Dr. Bell’s workshop led fellows to examine the science skills of observation and inference, the difference between scientific theories and laws, and the uncertain and tentative nature of scientific knowledge. Dr. Bell also presented ways to integrate Nature of Science ideas into subject-area teaching, and provided fellows with materials to use in their classrooms. In addition to their work with Dr. Bell, the 06 fellows continued work on their lesson study units, and also used critical friends’ protocol to evaluate their evidence for their annual KSTF teaching portfolios.

October 13-14, 2006

The fall meeting of the 06 fellows was held in Seattle, Washington, to study inquiry-based methods of teaching science. The fellows participated in a workshop with the Physics Education Group (PEG) at the University of Washington, using their Physics by Inquiry curriculum. Physics by Inquiry (PBI) is a set of laboratory-based modules that guide students in introductory physics concepts through direct experimentation. Participants rely on their own observations to construct explanatory models, and use these models to predict outcomes in physical systems. The 06 fellows observed two classes at Seattle Preparatory School to see how teachers incorporate PBI into their classroom practice.

In addition to this work with PEG, the 06 fellows participated in a workshop with Dr. Mark Windschitl, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at UW's College of Education. Dr. Windschitl worked with the fellows on their lesson study units, using the process of Understanding by Design, a method of developing instruction by focusing on student learning goals. Finally, the 06 fellows used a critical friends' protocol to develop individual goals for their annual KSTF teaching portfolios.