Class 1 (Lisa Oliverio)

Gunckle Reading:

Finding patterns in experiences is an important scientific practice (Anderson, 2003). Scientists are engaged in a collaborative enterprise to explain how our world works (Gunckel, 2010).

The Gunckel piece elicits the idea and importance of classroom scientists collaborating and working through inquiry-based situations and explorations. However, educators often place science on the low priority, the back-burner, classroom filler category, neglecting the subject that actually allows children to ultimately explore their curiosity, ask questions and become critical problem solvers. Students need experience where they can explore such curiosity using hands-on and minds-on learning through inquiry, make connections and discover patterns, thus allowing students to make their own conclusions and explanations. With this students will become more invested and thus more motivated in inquiry based lessons. In such an environment, students will be acting like scientists themselves, investing time and effort into coming up with conclusions and see their curiosity shift from explorations to discoveries. Another valuable piece of inquiry based science learning is the emphasis on collaboration. In this way, students will benefit from learning and observing through others and working together as a team to become critical scientific problem solvers themselves.

As I read through this piece and noted the importance of self-discovery, I began to imagine my classroom this year. I have often heard my teacher discuss the need for students to read in content areas. Does an inquiry-based science classroom leave room for such instructional tools? Is this avenue within science learning important to consider when thinking of my own classroom in the future?

Ready, Set, Science! Reading:

“Science as practice involves doing something and learning something in such a way that the doing and the learning cannot really be separated.” (Michaels, Shouse, et al., 2007)

As students learn through inquiry, they are essentially practicing “doing” and then learning from their own doing. It is particularly interesting that this piece discusses that students who are engaged in scientific practice and inquiry not only learn about the content but also are developing process or social skills as well. Students are then able to apply and generate explanations to come to better understanding about the world.

While reading the biodiversity project, I noticed the rich experiences of the students through inquiry based learning as well the integration of other subjects within the science fieldwork. This allows students to make connections among subjects, building enthusiasm and motivation. Integrated curriculum provides meaningful learning experiences while building conceptual understanding and relationships.

I did find myself questioning the reasons for the order of the strands. It seems as through scientific inquiry based learning would begin with participating productively in science in order to generate evident, understand explanations and reflect on knowledge acquired.

Gunkle Reading - Laura Mastin

This article by Gunkle was directly applicable to what science my students are currently learning in our classroom. We just started a new unit on the states of matter. The first two days of this unit were exploration. The first day students were given a bag full of objects that they were to just have and explore. It was fun watching them because like we did with flashlights in class, they made comments, realizations, and had ideas about the objects. The second day students were given the same bag of objects and working in pairs were told to build a tower. Students had all different towers, but the objective was for them to use solid materials to build one big structure which was another solid. As you can tell, we spent a substantial amount of time exploring. We did not address any explanations those first two days.

I am anxious to see the result with my students. As shown in this article’s many charts, it is believed that the inquiry process of learning is beneficial by allowing students time to explore and identify patterns and ideas. At the start of this week, we will be continuing this unit, and working more towards the explanations. I hope to see patterns associated with this article.

-Laura M.

Ready, Set, Science - Laura Mastin

I found that reading chapter 2 of Ready, Set, Science after reading the previous article written by Gunkel was very interesting as I was able to compare the strategies discussed. Mainly, Gunkel stresses the importance of exploration and inquiry, where as Ready, Set, Science has stressed the value of all aspects of science. I am unsure which one I agree with, but I find both of them of value.

In Ready, Set, Science, their strands and uses of those strands make sense when thinking about teaching children. Children need the four aspects of science to fully understand a concept. Strand one is understanding scientific explanations. Students will be unable to comprehend a topic or use a the information being taught if they are unable to understand the vocabulary and concepts. Secondly, all children value learning from experience. This is what strand two is about. I have grown to understand that children need hands on examples, and multiple experiences. The third strand is reflecting, and without this teaching seems pointless. If students are unable to reiterate what they have learned, and to explain their experiences then they have learned little reasoning behind the science. Lastly, which I believe is close to experiences and inquiry from the Gunkel article, is participating in the science. When children get to put what they have learned into practice, they own that science. I agree with this article in the fact that all four strands are needed for maximum learning to take place.

-Laura M.