Tianyi Ma

GA

Inference or Observation?

Tue, Oct 23, 2018 10:37 AM
Inference

This article explains the difference between inference and observation by showing an example of looking at a picture of a tree and talking about what you see. Finson states that an inference is one’s best explanation for why something occurred; an observation is information about an object or event (Finson, 2010, p.45). In addition, Finson provides five useful tips for the teacher to understand the definition of inference and how to teach students the importance of quality inferences more thoroughly. Those tips include that the quality of the inferences depends on the observations on which it is based. The more observations students make, the more accurate the inference is likely to be. Also, inferences are only one of many possible explanations. When students meet the difficulty in the process of making an inference, the teacher can ask questions like “ Is there a good alternative to explain what you observe?”, which may help students to think more. Inferences are not always correct, prior knowledge has an effect on inferences, and the teacher should help students check the assumptions they use when making inferences, preventing false assumptions leads to false inferences. As far as I am concerned, this is a great article which helps me to distinguish the difference between the observation and the inference. I will definitely use the activity of asking students to see a drawing and ask them to share their opinions about the drawing, then analyze whether the student's point of view is the observation or the inference together with them. I believe that students can see and understand the difference between the inference and the observation through this activity, and it will also provide them with the ability to process higher order thinking skills.

Science 101: How is reading science books different from reading other kinds of books?

Tue, Oct 23, 2018 10:35 AM
science and literary

The article mainly stated a fact that reading science books often takes longer time than other books like history stories, explained the reasons, and provided some suggestions about how to read like an expert. The author Robertson said when people read the science texts, they need to understand the specific concepts. Sometimes, a simple word can be important for people to understand the concepts. Therefore, they read relatively slowly. Also, he stated that “novices often see details but not the big picture while experts see the big picture and use the details as necessary” (Robertson, 2007, p.54). To read like an expert, he suggested that the reader should read slowly, reflecting on what they have known, and how it fits into what the reader already knows. The reader should make sure that they can connect the reading to the real-world experiences and make sure that those concepts they learned from the book can make sense. In the future class, I would like to teach the children the strategies about how to read like an expert. Sometimes, if the students just read the science texts book, they will feel bored. Therefore, I will choose some suitable science books and put them in our classroom library allowing students to read freely. I believe that teaching them to connect the reading with what they already know is significant, which can allow them to compartmentalize the content to already know science facts to build a more complete system of scientific knowledge. In addition, I would like to insert activities which are related to concepts students read and learn to help them better understand concepts.

Ask the Experts – February 2007

Tue, Oct 23, 2018 10:34 AM
metric system

This article addresses the question why the United States does not use the metric system like the rest of the world when it was supposed to be in use by the 1980s. The expert Ian MacGregor analyses this question from two aspects. On the one hand, Ian Macgregor believes the economic problem is one reason. If the United States were to switch to the metric system, existing factory machines and infrastructure would need to be retooled and adapted to the new system. It's going to be a huge expense. In addition, the size of the North American market is sufficient for individuals and groups to abandon the difficult task of converting and continue to operate as usual. On the other hand, the experts argues that people are used to the old system, that they think the metric system is foreign and suspicious and teaching the masses a new system is a costly and difficult task. As a result, people refused to use the new metric system. In my future class, when I teach the students the metric system, the students may ask me why the U.S. is not metric. At first, I will ask them to use the critical thinking to think by themselves. Then, I will share those valid reasons from this article with my students. In addition, I may ask them to contrast the advantages and disadvantages of the American system and metric system and lead students to analyze that with the influence of the globalization whether the U.S will use the metric system in the future.