Activity #4

Activity 4: Exploration of Science Education Standards

CHEM 105 not only provides an opportunity for students to learn more about chemistry and science, but it also offers an opportunity for future educators, parents and members of society to understand the expectations society has created for science education standards. In the last four activities (5-8) we will explore science concepts and also relate these to the science standards we will first explore in Activity 4.
For this activity please refer to the Wisconsin Science Standards at this website:
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/standards/sciintro.html

At this site you will find Standards A- H for grades 4, 8 and 12.  Since most of the students in this class are future early childhood educators, I would like for you to focus on the Grade 4 Standards.  If you would like, feel free to address the other grade levels if you would like!


To complete Activity 4, choose a sub-standard under each of the Standards A thru H and describe something that you have done either in this class or outside of this class, perhaps in previous classes, that indicates that you have met the sub-standard. Each of these descriptions should be at least a paragraph long.
Here is a link to the sub-standards for Standard A:
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/standards/scia4.html
 

 Science, Standard A: Science Connections
Performance Standards - Grade 12

 I have been able to thing and expand my thoughts and come up with reasonable conclusions to everyday things. It helps us to problem solve and often relates to politics and deductive reasoning. I have had to come up with many hypothesis in the past and continue to do this without even realizing I am thinking ahead.

 

Science, Standard B: Nature of Science
Performance Standards - Grade 12

This standard was particularly helpful in my government class as well as my culture classes. It is important to keep in mine all the history of other cultures and all they have done to adapt and how we are always learning from each other. There isn't always a right way to do something. Sometimes there are several good ways to do something and you can always improve. It is important to look at other cultures in order to achieve this goal. 

Science Inquiry

Performance Standards C Grade 12

 

I feel that I do this in this class constantly. I am always looking online for new facts and looking at the explanations carefully to make sure I have an accurate source. This class and any online class were you have freedom to work on your own to find information achieves this standard. I constantly am looking for the newest information that has been thoroughly tested to see what is the most accurate and testing the information and comparing it to other information found. 

 

Physical Science Performance Standards D Grade 12

 I feel that I have also done this in this class because we are looking for physical changes and trying to find an explanation as to why this has occurred. It is important to see the changes and be aware as to why it has occurred so you can repeat or not repeat the test. We learned a lot about atoms and there structures and motions and why they react the way they do. Knowing the basics of chemistry like solid, liquid, or gas helps you through the rest of the experiments. Being able to break it done and explain why molecules work the way they do.

Science, Earth and Space, Performance Standards E Grade 12

 Knowing the earth’s movements and the basics about how the plants came to be is an important thing to study. I have not learned much about this subject in school since I was in about 8th grade. I would like to learn a little more about the universe and how it has developed over time but there is just some much that we don't understand that it is hard to learn it when there is so much more facts to be studying for, things that I can use on a daily basis.

Science Performance Standard F Grade 12Science, Standard F: Life and Environmental Science
Performance Standards - Grade 12

 Biology and the study of what cells are made of was something I studied in high school. It was very interesting subject for me to learn about and I wish I could remember more facts about it. The study of life and how we are made up, why things function the way they do is incredibly interesting and useful knowledge. The study of evolution was particularly fascinating to learn but was very touchy subject for many people. It is an important thing to be aware of and should never be ignored. It tells us how we can to be and how we must adapt to out environments in order to survive.

Science Performance Standard G Grade 12Science, Standard G: Science Applications
Performance Standards - Grade 12

 In this class as well as my Technology in Education class these standards were brought up. It is important as teachers to be aware that we are educating the future and in order to educate them we must have the want to learn ourselves in order to say caught up with the ever changing technologies that they will be exposed to there whole lives. We must help them to use the tools wisely and always be thinking how this will affect them in the future in education. 

Science Performance Standard H Grade 12Science, Standard H: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Performance Standards - Grade 12

 I not only use these standards in this class but I use them in my everyday life as well. It is important for all students and people to be aware of what is going on and to plan and figure out the best solution for everything they do. I do this a lot when I have to set up and experiment or plan ahead to find the materials I will need to use for this class. Understanding ahead of time the impact it will have as well. For instance, I needed to use common everyday household items to create a model for this class. So I thought about ways to have fun and enjoy my education while still learning. So I bought M&M's and Twizzlers to create my atoms. This way my family and I can eat the candy and learn and I thought of new fun ways to interact with my class someday when I become a teacher.

Also for this activity, you are to explore the Next Generation Science Standards.  These are new standards that are being proposed at the federal level that many states, including Wisconsin, are now in the process of developing adoption plans.
http://www.nextgenscience.org/

As you explore this site, and perhaps others that are related, anwser the following three questions.

1. What do you see are big changes compared to the previous standards?

Times have changed drastically these past years and there is new technology and innovations happening everyday. It is our jobs as teachers to try and keep up with the world and its changes in order to help our students keep caught up with everything that is going on in the world.  This is not only to motivate students to have a well-rounded education. We need our students and future leaders to start to realize at a young age how the 21st century works and we need them to help with engineering and finding new resources and how to preserve and save what we have. We need our students to help us evolve and in order to do that we need to update the standards to catch up to the constantly changing technologies.

2. How are these standards connected to the other disciplines such as math and literacy?

 What I feel they are trying to say is that science is just as important as math or literacy because we need to rely on science for the future. Math is used a lot in science and none of this can be done without being literate. You will be able to see improvement with the new standards and will be able to organize the classes similarly to the way math and reading would be because of the three dimensions they stated.

3. What do you see will be challenges for teachers when considering some of the changes in the proposed science standards?

Change is often hard and as teachers many of these new technologies have never been taught to them so teaching their students about science that they themselves are not aware of is a hard concept to grasp. I feel that many new teachers will be able to adapt much easier than teachers who are set in there ways and have a harder time learning and keeping up with the new technologies and discoveries that have be happening over the past decade.