Making sense of the world

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Making Sense of Things in the Real World Phenomenon and Problem-driven Weather Curriculum (Pre-K to K)

Mary E. Short – Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) Karen McDonald – Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)

Mary E. Short Science Curriculum Developer Smithsonian Science Education Center

Karen McDonald Education Director and STEM Program Coordinator Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

What is the Smithsonian Science Education Center?

The Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) is transforming K-12 Education Through Science TM in collaboration with communities across the globe.

Jointly Founded in 1985:

Smithsonian 2010:

What is the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center?

SERC is a research branch of the Smithsonian, located on 3,000+ acres of the Chesapeake Bay. With over 200 scientists and 20 labs, we are world leaders studying human impacts on the environment, from climate change to ocean acidification.

SERC.si.edu

Overview 1. Discuss the collaboration between SSEC and SERC 2. Explore learning and teaching that is Phenomenon-driven 3. Discover how phenomenon can support student sensemaking 4. Learn about the SSEC unit "How Can We Be Ready for the Weather?"

5. Think about how you might use phenomena from your community

Following the presentation, you will be emailed a copy of there lessons that you can use in your educational community!

Collaborating

1

Collaborating with Scientists and Writers

• Why did we collaborate?

• Grounding in realworld science

• Relationship building

ssec.si.edu/smithsonian-science-for-the-classroom carolina.com/smithsonian

Phenomenon and ProblemDriven Kindergarten

2

Next Generation Science Standards: Three-dimensional learning Science and Engineering Practices

Disciplinary Core Idea

Crosscutting Concepts

Developing and Using Models ESS2.D: Weather and Climate Cause and effect • Use a model to represent • Weather is the combination of • Events have causes that generate relationships in the natural world. (Ksunlight, wind, snow or rain, and observable patterns.

ESS3-1) temperature in a particular region at a • Simple tests can be designed to particular time. People measure these gather evidence to support or refute Constructing explanations conditions to describe and record the student ideas and claims.

• Use information from observations weather and to notice patterns over (firsthand or from media) to construct time. (K-ESS2-1) an evidence-based account of phenomenon.

Asking questions • Ask questions to find out more about the natural and/or designed world(s).

Explaining Phenomenon How did the pole get wet on only one side?

• What evidence from the picture might support your idea?

Explaining Phenomenon Initial ideas – Things to build on!

• What are “good wrong answers”?

• How can we build on students'

initial ideas without pressing them towards a “right answer”?

• How do we generate lots of ideas?

Explaining Phenomenon Building new ideas

• Share new examples that may contradict initial ideas

• Alternative explanations

Explaining Phenomenon Building new ideas

• Share new examples that may contradict initial ideas

• Make observations and ask questions

Explaining Phenomenon Building new ideas

• Share new examples that may contradict initial ideas

• Make observations and ask questions

• Create opportunities for

children think about and share stories about weather they have experienced or seen in media

Explaining Phenomenon Building new ideas

• Share new examples that may contradict initial ideas

• Make observations and ask questions

• Create opportunities for children think about and share stories about weather they have experienced or seen in media

• Offer new information through stories, media, or hands-on learning, or investigations

Explaining Phenomenon Revising ideas over time

Supporting Student Sensemaking

3

What is student sensemaking?

Sensemaking in Science Instruction

Making ideas publicly available to activate additional prior knowledge

Now Let's Get Real: What Does Supporting Sensemaking Look Like?

• Leveraging students' existing

knowledge, language skills, and ways of knowing

• Going deeper with students' initial ideas

• Students engage with others' ideas to identify gaps or inconsistencies in their thinking

“Can you think of something you have seen outside of school that reminds you of this?”

“That’s an interesting idea! Can you say what makes you think that?”

“I heard Hallie say _____ caused the phenomenon, but I heard Aman say _____ caused the phenomenon. Both can’t be true. How can we find out more about what happened?”

How Can Phenomena and Problems Drive Student Sensemaking?

4

Supporting Teachers with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Performance Expectations (PE) Being Assessed • K-ESS2-1: Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

• K-ESS3-2: Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather

Students must figure out what they need to know to prepare for a hike at SERC

Asks children to look at ageappropriate weather data and use it to help plan for a trip

Asks children to recognize a pattern in the SERC weather data and communicate about it with peers

Grounding Phenomenon in Places

• Using SERC as a real place

• Incorporating real weather data

• Students use a weather

forecast to plan a hiking trip at SERC

Grounding Phenomenon in Places •

Planning for the weather at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Grounding Phenomenon in Places Using Weather Data

Phenomenon in Your Community Think about a place in your community, and a phenomenon that happens there that you or your students might want to explore.

Think of:

• Your chosen location • The Phenomenon or problem

• What you might observe Example: Our creek has trash in it.

Example: The pond is an icky green.

Example: Our creek water levels get higher and lower times every day.

Review

5

Review

• Phenomenon-driven Problem-solving • Teaching for sensemaking • Place-based problem solving • Opportunities in your community • Keep an eye out for a link to three lessons!

Questions?

For More Information

Mary E. Short Science Curriculum Developer Smithsonian Science Education Center ShortM@si.edu

Karen McDonald Education Director and STEM Program Coordinator Smithsonian Environmental Research Center mcdonaldk@si.edu

Connect with the Smithsonian Science Education Center & SERC! facebook.com/SmithsonianScienceEducationCenter

facebook.com/smithsonian.serc

Twitter.com/SmithsonianScie @SmithsonianScie

Twitter.com/smithsonianenv