My question is still forming, but its current form is, “Can I use writing to make science accessible to all of the class, not just the top 10%?”
This question types up much dryer than it is to me. Some of my influences in choosing this question include:
∑ A late night Father’s Day discussion with my wonderful nephews, age 19 and 23, who have so very much to give to the world. Late at night they said that they aren’t smart about science and things like that, looking abashed and shrugging their shoulders. It hit me as wrong and sad. I’ve observed their great capacity for figuring out life – I’m so sad they have been demoralized and don’t trust themselves as competent to figure out and use science. They are so quick-minded and promising.
∑ A sharp comment from a failing and frustrated student in my class when she said that she didn’t understand and that she wasn’t the only one. I know that what she said was true, and I feel responsible to build expertise in teaching to the lower-level students like her.
∑ So very many conversations over the years with people who feel that science is something for other people, not them.
∑ The next generation will be facing questions of global warming, a change in energy sources, species extinction, loss of habitat, and the continuing acceleration of technology. If they feel competent in science they can be informed voters and active citizens equipped to deal with these challenges. Everyone needs to be science-literate and science-confident, not just the chosen few.
“Living and thinking green is the most intelligent global economic-strategic course. Green is the new red, white, and blue.” Tom Friedman, 2006
Some thoughts on sub-questions that may come into play:
Would self-publishing their science writing on the web help students feel they can contribute to the ever growing and changing body of science knowledge? (Teaching this philosophy is written into the TEKS. Wouldn’t having them actually publish be more effective in teaching this than having them read the biography boxes in the text?)
Can writing help students make connections and build understanding in a science subject?
Does science have to be “linear”? Is it true that for most students its better to show the practical application and big picture before you dive into the details? How can writing be used to do this?
Can writing make science more concrete and less abstract?
Is there a connection between developing a personal writing voice and developing the independent thinking confidence that makes a better scientist?
In doing my lit research, I’ll try to pick a focused research area that gives me a start toward my burning question.
I'm thinking that for a reasearch question I need to narrow the topic to one of the "subquestions", or a similar one. I can't say that these questions "burn" in the same way as the umbrella question of making science accessible for all the students, but they still carry some spark.
Questions that I'm considering:
Would publishing science writing (to a blog?) increase student motivation and effectively demonstrate that they can contribute to the body of science knowledge?
If writing is "thinking out loud" can writing be used as to tool to demonstrate and encourage metacognitive processes? I would hope that this would increase concept retention, transfer of knowledge, more effective change of misconceptions that students bring with them, and facilitate the construction of a coherent understanding of linked science concepts. What sorts of writing projects could be used? What sort of graphic organizers?
Good science takes independence of mind, and the mental habit of observation and asking yourself questions about what you notice. For more on this idea see any of the books by Richard Fineman. Can these skills be encouraged and improved by the practice of writing? I predict a link between a strong writing "voice" and a happy independence of mind.
Can writing be used to increase interest in science? Can writing be used to show relevance and importance of the science topic? Can writing projects be used to show the big-picture in science topics? Can writing projects be used as part of an attention-grabbing strategy at the beginning of a unit?
Yeah, I know - what data will I collect. I'm not that far yet,but I'm aiming for positive results in increased interest in science, more correct and in-depth understanding, and retention of understanding.
While I like all these questions, I'm thinking that the last one is maybe the best place to start.
You have a lot of great questions! What do you think you will narrow your topic to be? You know, writing is just thinking on paper. It's like re-telling a story to someone -- you have to know it to be able to repeat/teach it to someone. Writing is a continuation of that.
You said you know how you will collect your data. What are you going to use? Test scores give a quantitative balance to surveys and journal responses.
Barabara, I read through your narrative, and wondered how Mrs. Disney used writing with science. What were the elements of good instruction that this wonderful teacher used--along with trusting and respecting her students.
You're right. She did use writing. I hadn't even noticed it because I was thinking about classroom environment when writing that essay, and I had moved on.
We were very proud of our science notebooks. She taught us to record notes in an organized sort of way. I don't know if this is in sinc with modern teaching theory - a lot of the notebook was carefully copied diagrams, pictures, and organizers. We didn't design them ourselves, she did. She insisted on neat and correct illustrations, complete with colors from colored pencils (a luxury item back then). If I had students do this now I think I would get them involved in the process of designing how the diagrams and illustrations should be.
We also wrote out experiment plans, and had to convince her that our plans were good ones. I felt good when she approved your plans and said nice things about them.
I remember one day when we had to think and write a plan to convince an alien from another planet of the existance of air on Earth. Then she played the alien and we had to one at a time read our papers and / or demonstrate something to convince her. We never did convince her of the existance of air, but we all got pretty wound up and involved.
We could write science books reports for extra credit.
Thanks, I'll keep thinking of how we used writing.