Blog #4: Science

 Welcome back to my STEM blog! 

This past session we focused on science in the classroom. A point that struck me during this session is the discussions between scientific facts and scientific method. A scientific fact is a static collection of observations, principles, and laws on how the universe works (Davis et al., 2019). Meanwhile, a scientific method is a rigorous strategy of experimental, observation, and verification that is used to validate scientific facts (Davis et al., 2019).  During small group discussion, the conversation was focused on how in a classroom most lessons tend to focus students' attention on scientific facts. When stepping into a typical classroom during a science lesson, one would typically see students learning from a textbook. To me this is teaching scientific facts. Curriculum guides and classroom resources tend to focus on the facts that need to be memorized, laws that are applied, and procedures to be mastered through classic experiments (Davis et al., 2019). A science lesson should focus on scientific method, teaching children how to inquire about something and then exploring how to find the answer. 

Typical student reading the textbook

Student learning hands-on 

During this session, I felt very hopeful, but also stressed about what future science classrooms will look like. Sitting in a room of future teachers who all agree that students need to be exposed to a more hands on type of learning creates a feeling of hope. I see hope that there may be a change in future classrooms. I want to bring the attention towards an activity that was done in class that connects to these emotions. During this activity, we were instructed on how how to make 3D pop up cards. Following a procedure, folding, cutting, folding, and cutting, a pattern emerged, or a science method. This little activity was a hands-on learning experience that was very engaging. The steps that were followed can be seen as something that would be done in a science lesson that allows students to follow a scientific method. Scientific knowledge is vibrant and emerges in the interactions of people, their ideas, and the world (Davis et al., 2019). This activity is a model, and we can connect it to the use of knowledge and how your knowledge grows just as the card does and a pattern emerges. Inquiry learning in a classroom is to bring learners into the expansive, possibility orientated, evidence accountable attitude (Davis et al., 2019). Overall, this activity shows how following a procedure and doing a hands-on activity engages a classroom of learners and allows a more method-based learning. 

As a future teacher, I want to make sure that my classroom is full of opportunities for a more method-based learning approach. That is, a classroom that allows students to ask questions and then be involved in answering them, instead of just reading facts. As students develop knowledge- building competencies, they come to see themselves and their work and what society sees as meaningful (Davis et al., 2019). In the future, I hope to allow students to have agency in their learning. 

As always, I invite you back to my blog in the next weeks and feel free to leave any comments or questions! 

References 

Davis, B., Francis, K., Friesen, S. (2019). STEM Education by Design Opening Horizons of Possibility. Routledge