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The nature of science includes understanding what science is and how it works. For teachers, portraying science accurately while teaching content and process is important to help students de... See More
The nature of science includes understanding what science is and how it works. For teachers, portraying science accurately while teaching content and process is important to help students develop robust understanding. The author connected the study of electrical circuits with an interesting exploring activity. It is a good example of effective science instruction which united science content, science processes, and the nature of science. The teacher encouraged students to explore light-up shoes and study the related knowledge by themselves. This activity provided a concrete experience without the difficult terms, so the students can exploring these concepts better when they are in high school.
In the future, in my class, I would also ask my students to do some actual practices to raise their interests and let the feel science processes as closely as possible. When the students get trouble, I will ask some open-ended questions, like "What have you tried so far?" "How else do you think you could make that work?" and "What have you learned from the ones that didn't work?" or questions about students' critical thinking, like "How did that change your thinking?" "What new ideas do you have?" "What could you do to test that?" to inspire them. Moreover, a series of challenge questions and additional explorations with the appropriate difficulty is also important. After each challenge and exploration, I will organize my students to discuss their ideas and introduce related terms. For the students' models, I will ask them to present the models and describe their successes and frustrations to the class. The most meaningful idea I get from this article is that teacher can contact scientists to settle any disagreements with students' responses. Draw a two-circle Venn diagram with "professional science" and "school science" in each circle and make students compare the similarities and differences between them. I will use that valuable formative assessment of students' understandings in my class.