GPS and Critical Thinking

7th Grade Science

How many of the standards are focused on critical thinking skills? How many not?


I don't know if all subjects are organized this way, but the GPS for science are presented as co-requisites. There are two parts in meeting the GPS, you have Characteristics of Science and Content. The two must be taught together, and are therefore called co-requisites. The Characteristics of Science section is exactly what critical thinking is. To question, gather, interpret, analyze, communicate, etc. Basically, how to think like a SCIENTIST! One example standard from the "Habits of Mind" section is "S7CS3. Students will have the computation and estimation skills necessary for analyzing data and following scientific explanations." Any part of the Content of science can be used to strengthen critical thinking skills, at least that's the goal...


Pick one and discuss how it could be taught using critical thinking skills and technology.


Ok, for this I'll be using the following standards:

Characteristics of Science - S7CS9. Students will investigate the features of the process of scientific inquiry.
Content - S7L5. Students will examine the evolution of living organisms through inherited characteristics that promote survival of organisms and the survival of successive generations of their offspring.  


We will include technology by having the students visit the following site:
http://www.techapps.net/interactives/pepperMoths.swf

For this activity, students learn about the life cycle of the Peppered Moth, the story of how pollution effected the population of Peppered Moths, scientists' research on the matter, and finally play a game where they get to be the bird and simulate natural selection. The game at the end allows students to make predictions, gather data, and draw conclusions (process of scientific inquiry). 

Critical Thinking...

To what extent do you teach, model, and have students engage in critical thinking? Is it important? What more do you need to learn/feel comfortable about with regards to critical thinking? 


Critical thinking is very important in the classroom, especially in science. So much of education requires students to just memorize, memorize, memorize then take a test. the problem with this method is that students have trouble committing information to long term memory...where it makes learning the material really worth the time! Critical thinking is a process... where questions are raised, information is gathered, and conclusions are drawn. This is exactly the scientific method...how scientific knowledge is born. Critical thinking also requires an open mind and communication between peers. 


I've been in classrooms where teachers just give worksheet after worksheet to keep their students quiet and busy. It's my personal goal as a teacher to think deeper and design lesson plans with critical thinking involved. We can all remember instances where we had to think critically to solve a problem...and guess what? We REMEMBERED it! This is how we truly learn :)

Telecommunications

 http://www.globalschoolnet.org/


I was really impressed with the above site. Global SchoolNet is an online site that strives to improve education through online collaboration. They "engage educators and students in meaningful e-learning projects worldwide to develop science, math, literacy and communication skills, foster teamwork, civic responsibility and collaboration, encourage workforce preparedness and create multi-cultural understanding". On their site, you have many different program options including "Online Expeditions", "International CyberFair" where students create online exhibitions and grade each other, and "Letters to Santa" where they exchange letters with students from around the world. This website is very impressive and offers a variety of projects from many different subjects.

E-Learning

This chapter was very interesting. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but I reminds me of what I posted last week about my experience with eLC. I loved the section on the three types of e-learning: Synchronous, Asynchronous, and Blended. Blended is the way to go in my opinion. Students need independent work and reflection (synchronous) and also a mix of teleconferences (synchronous) to share and collaborate.

After reading this chapter, I reflected on the pros and cons of e-learning. I think the biggest pro is that its convenient for all walks of life. It can be for high school students taking college courses or the working mom trying to finish up her degree. One big con is that it requires self-motivation. I know many students that simply can't stand e-learning because they easily fall behind or miss assignments because they lack the motivation on get online everyday.

Supporting Communication

Communication in education is vital. It's how we teach and how we learn. Because communication plays such a big role in education, it matters how we use it. We are no longer confined to classroom communication within the four walls of a school. Today, many online tools allow students and teachers to accomplish communication efficiently and effectively. Some tools that come to mind are blogs, chat rooms,  Skype, Twitter, Google (Sites and Docs), and countless others. All of these tools allow learning to take place beyond the physical classroom.

I can't help but think of my own experience with online learning. Because I'm living in Alpharetta, I've tried to take as many online courses for my master's degree as possible. I've taken a total of seven online classes, including the three I'me currently in this semester. All were taken through eLC and some used live Wimba meetings and some did not. I have to say, the classes I took with Wimba meetings were much more beneficial than those that didn't use the technology. When taking online classes, you can feel very distant from what is actually happening in the course. That's why meeting in Wimba helped with my motivation to learn and stay on top of the content. This has everything to do with communication which, and I'll say again, is vital for learning.

Creativity - Worth it?

So my original idea was to have students get into groups of 3 or 4 to teach a certain area on Cellular Respiration to the class. They will make a short 5-7 minute video to present and the presentation must be interactive.... I think this is where creativity may play a role. 


Students need to think outside of the box to make some sort of interaction with their audience. This may include having the audience manipulate cut-outs on their desk (e.g. the process of mitosis) as the presentation occurs, creating a dance or routine for the audience to mimic, etc... Students will need to CREATE a video with a CREATIVE interactive portion to get full credit. I think creativity and innovation is definitely worth it for my project. Any teacher must be creative in their teaching to grasp students' interest, so for this project, the "student teachers" will do just that - create! That's where a lot of the learning takes place! :)

Assessment

Assessment is something a teacher keeps in the back of their mind at all times. It's the way we figure out if we've achieved our main goal: student learning. To me, rubrics are a very important tool that can be used to measure student learning. They break down your criteria into different categories where you can rate or score each using a scale. Another type of assessment can be through a test or quiz.

I think informal assessments can be quite valuable as well: student responses in class, ticket-out-the-door exercises that aren't graded, but used to gauge how much your students have learned. Informal assessments help you along the way.

Overall, teachers use a blend of formal and informal assessment strategies to see where their students are at. You do have to think very carefully about how you're going to assess and what's important and not important to assess, keeping the end goal in mind....