Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Scientific World View
In reading the 2061 document, I was interested in the idea that studying science as a way of knowing must be very explicit in the curriculum. It is challenging to weave the different aspects of science togethr into a whole. People need a sense of how science works, along with the laws, concepts, theories, to appreciate the role of science in their life (and the importance of science in society).
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It's interesting to read that article and see some of the points that are made that I didn't think about. The portion that talks about who scientists are and how they feed off of each other where two things that stick out to me, because many students have an idea of a scientist in their heads that is very stereotypical and they think that there is only one answer and no one else can change that. One of the most interesting activities that I have seen done in the classroom on this topic is one where you ask the students to draw what you believe a scientist would look like. Most draw a person in a lab coat or looking into a microscope, which are both true, but they dont' think that they could just be a regular looking person in jeans and t-shirt. On the topic of how science is forever changing, I have a heard time explaining or getting through to some students that in science its not always cut and dry. any ideas to help with this?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have never thought to address pseudoscience vs true science in my classroom. Has anyone else already used this in their class prior to learning of this?
Evolution is one of thos hot topics yet is a scientific theory based on evidence such as fossils and DNA. This is s good example of true science and students should understand that additional discoveries may be made to support what is already known. Global warming is of course another topic thatis a theory based on scientific evidence and it is not just a made up idea. We can explain to our students that scientists will continue to collect evience and test hypotheses about the extent to which humans are impacting global warming, but that the phenomena or theory of global warming is real.
ReplyDeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteOne way for students to see how science is not "cut and dry" is to look at some of the discoveries in the past and how the "truth" came to be known. Rarely is it one guy with one experiment but rather several people learning from each other and each's other's findings- right or wrong. We have a class here at VT called the History of Science (sadly not offered online yet) that spends the whole semester looking at this nature of science in this way.