Making Bad Much Better

This article talks about a preserve professor who assigns her students the task of finding the worse science activity they can find. She defines worst as an activity that is often defined a... See More

This article talks about a preserve professor who assigns her students the task of finding the worse science activity they can find. She defines worst as an activity that is often defined as a ‘cookbook activity.’ Before doing this they are led to understand what a good activity would look like such as a good inquiry lesson. Also included is a checklist for a lesson, a sort of rubric for judging activities. The purpose of this activity is to help preservice teachers to analyze and modify activities.

Preservice Teachers Hunt for Worst Activity

This article provides a different approach for helping perservice teachers understand exactly what needs to be considered when selecting science activities to use to teach a unit. Working u... See More

This article provides a different approach for helping perservice teachers understand exactly what needs to be considered when selecting science activities to use to teach a unit. Working under the premise that most people have no problem articulating what they dislike about something, this science methods instructor helps her students use their negative comments about an activity to help them come up with important criteria to consider when selecting activities to help teach/reinforce science concepts. The list of criteria that her class generated is included in the article. A sample “Worst Activity” student submission is also provided.