In the NGSS curriculum, there are eight Science & Engineering Practices. In the last two posts I elaborated on how to use these practices to drive unit development. In my last post, I showed how those are put into action by giving details of our daily plans in chemistry. It actually gets even more detailed than that when I start putting this into action. At our last department meeting, we had a discussion centered around this article, written by the director and a curator of NGSS@NSTA. From this, a colleague mentioned that spending some time looking at the literature behind every SEP could help us become more explicit about these practices in the classroom. We've all read the little descriptors in the blue section of the NGSS matrix, but have we really dove into what this all means and how it connects? I found myself browsing through the SEP information on the NSTA website, and decided to pull out the parts that are specific to me as a high school science teacher. In my next eight NGSS posts, I'm going to share this information with you, and then share the strategies I've learned by working with my teaching & learning coach, as well as our NGSS consultant. Some practices are more developed than others, and they're all in the stage of improvement. This post, I'll be focusing on the SEP, "Asking Questions", which we have labeled as an Investigating Practice.
If you're a middle or elementary school teacher, this post will be a bit irrelevant to you, but you can look at the link I put above to see how you could the same for your grade level.
This information was taken from the NGSS@NSTA website:
If you're a middle or elementary school teacher, this post will be a bit irrelevant to you, but you can look at the link I put above to see how you could the same for your grade level.
This information was taken from the NGSS@NSTA website:
Investigating Practice 1: Asking Questions and Defining Problems
A practice of science is to ask and refine questions that lead to descriptions and explanations of how the natural and designed world works and which can be empirically tested. Asking questions and defining problems in 9–12 builds on grades K–8 experiences and progresses to formulating, refining, and evaluating empirically testable questions and design problems using models and simulations.
| |
Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.
|
Ask questions that can be investigated within the scope of the school laboratory, research facilities, or field (e.g., outdoor environment) with available resources and, when appropriate, frame a hypothesis based on a model or theory.
|
Ask questions that arise from examining models or a theory, to clarify and/or seek additional information and relationships.
|
Ask and/or evaluate questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument, the interpretation of a data set, or the suitability of the design.
|
Ask questions to determine relationships, including quantitative relationships, between independent and dependent variables.
|
Define a design problem that involves the development of a process or system with interacting components and criteria and constraints that may include social, technical and/or environmental considerations.
|
Ask questions to clarify and refine a model, an explanation, or an engineering problem.
|
Analyze complex real-world problems by specifying criteria and constraints for successful solutions.
|
Evaluate a question to determine if it is testable and relevant.
| |
Students at any grade level should be able to ask questions of each other about the texts they read, the features of the phenomena they observe, and the conclusions they draw from their models or scientific investigations. For engineering, they should ask questions to define the problem to be solved and to elicit ideas that lead to the constraints and specifications for its solution. (NRC Framework, 2012, p. 56)
Scientific questions arise in a variety of ways. They can be driven by curiosity about the world, inspired by the predictions of a model, theory, or findings from previous investigations, or they can be stimulated by the need to solve a problem. Scientific questions are distinguished from other types of questions in that the answers lie in explanations supported by empirical evidence, including evidence gathered by others or through investigation.
While science begins with questions, engineering begins with defining a problem to solve. However, engineering may also involve asking questions to define a problem, such as: What is the need or desire that underlies the problem? What are the criteria for a successful solution? Other questions arise when generating ideas, or testing possible solutions, such as: What are the possible tradeoffs? What evidence is necessary to determine which solution is best?
Asking questions and defining problems also involves asking questions about data, claims that are made, and proposed designs. It is important to realize that asking a question also leads to involvement in another practice. A student can ask a question about data that will lead to further analysis and interpretation. Or a student might ask a question that leads to planning and design, an investigation, or the refinement of a design.
As a teacher, I think I focus on the first descriptor, "Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information" more than any other descriptor. In the process of teaching the students what good questions look like, I think I hit a lot more of the descriptors. The area where I don't focus enough attention on is the descriptor, "Ask and/or evaluate questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument, the interpretation of a data set, or the suitability of the design." So how do I teach students what good questions look like?
I'll refer back to my lesson progression I included in my last blog post to show this progression:
Activity
|
Time
|
Purpose
|
Notes
| |
HS-PS 1-3: Plan and conduct an investigation to gather evidence to compare the structure of substances at the bulk scale to infer the strength of electrical forces between particles.
| ||||
Day 1
PS 1-3
|
Initial Reference to SEPs posted in room
|
2 min
|
To familiarize the students with the SEPs
|
Note that the order is not random, that this is how we will progress through our units, as this is how scientists progress through different studies/research. What is the first step? Asking Questions
|
Bozeman Video - SP1
|
5 min
|
To introduce the students to the importance of asking good questions in science, and what this accomplishes. This will also introduce students to Defining Problems as it is related to engineering
|
You can refer back to the boat project where a problem was defined and we came up with a solution, whereas sometimes scientists want to just figure out how or why something works the way it does
| |
Water Demo
|
5-7 min
|
To give the students a phenomenon to wonder about.
|
Remind the students after the first trial that they are to be coming up with good questions about what they are seeing. Invite them to make observations verbally as the demo progresses
| |
Asking Questions
|
10-12 min
|
To allow the students to brainstorm different questions in order to determine what we might model.
|
For the first asking questions of the year, we will have the students write the questions on the board to avoid any judgement for silly questions. This allows students to gain confidence for next time.
| |
Categorizing Questions
|
5-7 min
|
To allow students to understand the difference between open and closed questions
|
Have the students categorize all of the questions into two sets and see what they come up with. Ultimately we would like them to see the difference between open and closed
| |
Progression 1:
Before the students observed their first phenomenon, I introduced the idea of asking questions by showing them the first part of Paul Andersen's video on this practice. The second half of each of his videos are more geared towards teachers. I encourage you to watch it as well.
Progression 2:
After we have an idea of why we as scientists ask questions, I showed them the water demo. Here is the slow-motion video for you to observe yourself. There is boiling water in the florence flask, and ice cold water in the beaker.
Progression 3:
As the students are observing, I told them to remember that we are making observations that we might have questions about. As it's happening, the students began verbalizing their questions, one after the other. This continued for a few minutes until there was a lull. I had them think a bit longer, and sure enough they came up with more questions. I then had the students write their questions all over the front whiteboard.
Progression 4:
After reading through all of the questions, I gave them very little direction as to how to categorize these questions, but challenged them to see common themes in the questions and to create two different categories. We then had a discussion about these ideas, and then I had them record their conversations in a common google doc. Here's what they came up with:
Table 1:
Table 2:
Table 3:
Table 4:
Table 5:
Table 6:
How is this different from …?
How is this similar to …?
Is there another way to do ...?
How does … compare to …?
Discussion summary: The majority of the class had written similar questions, so it had taken us awhile to get to observation vs knowledges sections. At first we thought that we should separate the questions by temperature, by hot and cold. Another option that came to our minds was the color change too. However the questions that had been developed were too broad. We both came to agree that we cannot answer a majority of questions because we have little to no background knowledge in Chemistry. In consideration of that fact, we believed that the remaining questions that did not require that much background knowledge could be answered via observation.
| |
Type 1: Observation
|
Type 2: Knowledge
|
Examples:
|
Examples:
|
Table 2:
Discussion summary: Most questions are very similar, or even the same (there were 4 of one type and 5 of another!) so the overarching theme of those questions was “why did it go that way”. Only the questions were more in-depth questions, either asking about other possible trials we could run or specifically asking the effects of one of the variables (ex. heat).
| ||
Type 1: Going Up Down
|
Type 2: Going Down
|
Type 3: Other
|
Examples:
|
Examples:
|
Examples:
|
Table 3:
Discussion summary: closed questions are questions that require more of a basic answer while open questions require a deeper understanding and a connection to a greater idea.
| |
Type 1: Open Questions
|
Type 2: Closed Questions
|
Examples: 1,2, 5,6,9,11,12,
|
Examples: 8,10
|
Table 4:
Discussion summary: Broader questions are questions that go beyond the experiment and are further testable. Meanwhile, questions relating to the experiment rely more on observations.
| |
Type 1: Broader Questions
|
Type 2: Questions relating exclusively to the experiment
|
Examples: 3, 4, 12
|
Examples: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10,11
|
Table 5:
Discussion summary: Inside will be questions that can be answered from Inside this experiment while Outside will be questions that would need another experiment to answer.
| |
Type 1: Inside
|
Type 2: Outside
|
Examples: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
|
Examples: 3, 4, 12
|
Table 6:
Discussion summary: After looking at the questions we concluded that each are split into two groups, quantitative and qualitative. There were some questions that pertained to temperature, and we assigned those to quantitative. The others were assigned to qualitative because they were based solely on observation.
| |
Type 1: Quantitative
|
Type 2: Qualitative
|
Examples: 12, 11, 4, 5
|
Examples: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
|
Progression 5:
We then had a discussion about which categories we think would represent good questions that we could potentially test. I also told them that we want to stick to what's happening in the demo we observed, and not varying the actual demo altogether. The students on their own determined that questions shouldn't have just a yes or no answer, and they should be focused on the phenomenon instead of extending beyond the phenomenon (for now). We identified these types of questions as open clarifying questions. We considered ones that go beyond the phenomenon could be considered open extended questions. For example, questions that are based around the "what would happen if..." idea.
Progression 6:
After we decided what good questions look like, we went through each individual question and erased any questions that would simply just have a yes or no answer to it. From there, I asked some guiding questions for us to choose a question or two to investigate, such as, "Which of these questions could you model the answer to?" This is what they came up with:
We cleaned the questions up a bit to be more specific.
1. Why did the cold water go up into the hot flask?
2. Why did the water in the top flask not drip?
This set us up to model this phenomenon to try to answer these questions. Their first versions of their models weren't pretty, but as they revised them, by the end of the unit, they were pretty great!
One of the great gifts we have at teachers is the ability to ask good questions. This seems like second nature because that's what we do for a living, but it's not a skill everyone has. We sometimes forget that this is something that has to be learned. This is also a struggle for people who don't know what they don't know. I am guilty of asking the class, "Any questions?" and when they don't have any, I assume there's no confusion. I was sitting in a doctor's appointment with my mother this summer and when the doctor asked at the end, "Any questions?" my mother could only think of one, while I had a multiple questions buzzing around in my head. My mother had more questions, but she just didn't know it. Passing the skill of question onto our students isn't something they'll continue to use in science, but they'll continue to use it for the rest of their lives in everyday situations. In my AMTA modeling training I attended this summer (which I totally recommend everyone do), there were questioning templates given to us. I think these are great templates to share with our students to help them engage in questioning with their peers. This will be very helpful in the Argumentation from Evidence practice.
Clarification Questions
How do you know ...?
Where did you get …?
Why did you do …?
What does … tell you?
What does … mean?
Where on your graph/diagram etc. …?
Extension Questions
What if we changed ...?
How is this different from …?
How is this similar to …?
Is there another way to do ...?
How does … compare to …?
Now that our students have a solid understanding of how to ask open clarifying and extension questions, their daily conversations with each other will continue to become more rich and meaningful. I can truly step away from the role of the sage on the stage and into the role of a facilitator for my students' path of learning science. What other question stems to you use with your students in science class? I would love to expand my list with your feedback!
Check back next week as we explore Investigating Practice 2: Planning & Carrying Out Investigations!
I also promise to post my second part of my lesson progression next week. I am just waiting until we are finished with it in class so I can post student work and ideas along with the lesson progression. Stay tuned!
Comments
Post a Comment