Learning Through SE

Implementing the Revised Science and Technology

Curriculum

Discrepant Event

A discrepant event is something that surprises, startles, puzzles or astonishes the observer.Used to engage students in inquiry

Used to engage students in science processes skillsUsed as a mind-on warm-up to stimulate critical thinking

PISA Results

• PISA = Programme for International Student Assessment

• 57 countries participated in 2006

PISA Results

Source: http://www.eqao.com/pdf_e/07/07P105e.pdf

May 16, 2008

PISA Results

• Average score of Ontario students increased 15 points since 2000

• Immigrant students in Ontario performed much better than immigrant students across all Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries

• Students in Ontario achieve a great degree of equity regardless of socio-economic status when compared to other countries

Why Science AND Technology?

What’s New? What’s Different

• Working in groups, flip through your curriculum document

• List any new features or differences that you notice

• Refer to the Strand Comparison Chart– Electronic version posted to BEAM S&T

Folder

What’s New? What’s Different?

• What Brenda and Dennis came up with:– 4 strands instead of 5– Fewer expectations– Achievement chart has Thinking and

Investigation– STSE Expectations

What’s New? What’s Different?

– STSE expectations are ordered first– STSE and Design-Down Planning– Fundamental Concepts/Big Ideas– Expanded Glossary– Organized by grade, not by strand

What’s New? What’s Different?

– Sample Issues, Sample Questions, Prompts, Lots of Examples

– Detailed and Useful Front Matter with literacy/numeracy connections, connections to secondary pathways,

– Action Verbs (investigate, use, assess, describe, list… mostly active, high order verbs, not “demonstrate an understanding of…”

What’s an STSE?

Mississippi Delta

Erosion

Education for Sustainable Development

Today’s Earth

• 50% of global population earns under $1.50 a day

• 10% of population has used 50% of world’s oil supply– Who will use the remaining 50%?

• 100 million children aged 6-11 never attend school

• 90% of school-aged children are in the developing world

• India needs to generate 40 million jobs each year, China needs to generate 30 million jobs

Best-educated nations =

Greatest Ecological Footprint

What mountain range provides irrigation for 60% of

the world’s population?

What role does science and technology play in

education for sustainable development?

What’s in an STSE?

STSE

Science

Technology

Environment

Society

Grade 8 Systems in Action

• Overall Expectation #1:– assess the personal, social, and/or

environmental impacts of a system, and evaluate improvements to a system and/or alternative ways of meeting the same needs;

Systems in Action – OE 1

• Science:– What changes to a given system are

needed to improve its efficiency in terms of its costs to society and/or the environment?

– Conduct a fair test to determine the validity of a hypothesis

Systems in Action – OE 1

• Technology– What are the working parts of this

system?– How were they designed?– How can these components be improved

upon?– What materials are being used for this

system?– What materials are being used by the

system?

Systems in Action – OE 1

• Society– What are the costs and benefits of a

given system to society? (e.g., health, cultural, quality of life, economic?)

Systems in Action – OE 1

• Environment– What are the costs and benefits of a

given system to the environment? (e.g., ecological, atmospheric, climate, water supply)

– Story of single-hulled tankers

What’s in an STSE?

You tell us!!

Skills of Investigation

Design-Down Planning

Design-Down Planning

• Backwards Design Planning• Planning With The End in Mind• Understanding By Design• Fundamental Concepts• Big Ideas• Enduring Understandings• Essential Questions• Guiding Questions

Assessment in Science And Technology

• Knowledge and Understanding– What do students recall and

understand?– Factual information, but also whether

students comprehend the significance of facts

– Danger is that Science and Technology can become a facts-only subject if this is the only lens teachers use in planning

Assessment in Science And Technology

• Thinking and Investigation– This category demands that science and

technology be instructed with investigation skills

– Science and technology cannot be taught through reading and writing alone

– Students need to be critical of what they read and write

– Students need to DO science and technology

Assessment in Science And Technology

• Application– Knowledge and Skills are

applied/transferred to world outside of the classroom

– Essence of STSE expectations– If your students become activists in their

school, then they are applying their knowledge and skills!

Assessment in Science And Technology

• Communication– Can students speak, read, write,

present, convince, argue, share?– Can they do this for different audiences

(peers, teachers, parents…?)– Can they do so using scientific and

technological terminology?