GEMS: Oobleck, What Do
Scientists Do?
Salina Allen and Beverly Pairett
| Description |
| Concept Map |
| Assessment Plan |
| Rubric |
| Calendar |
| Resources |
| Lesson Plan 1 |
| Lesson Plan 2 |
| Orientation Video |
| Clinical Interviews |
| Modifications |
| Elementary Science Methods Home |
Beverly Pairett
CI 5329
Worksheet: The Clinical Interview
Planning the Interview
What information do I want to
discover through the interview?
I want
to discovery the concept that a student has on what a scientist is,
what they do, and how they go about making discoveries. I want to see
if the student can give me specific information on what a scientist
does and how they do this. Is this information coming from learned
classroom material or from societal and family influences? I want to
discover any misconceptions that the student might have about
scientists. If a misconception does
exists, what is the possible source of this knowledge.
What do I expect the
interviewee(s) to say? Why? (Because of reviewing the research
literature? Specific previous experience?)
I want to see if the
student is retaining knowledge that he/she is taught in the classroom,
or if they are pulling in societal information and misconceptions. According to research reviewed, children use
personal themes in the retention of knowledge relaying on episodic
memory from incidents in their lives to aid in retention. (Hellden
& Solomon, 2003) With this in mind, I
expect the interviewee to be vague in the knowledge learned in the
classroom, while bringing in knowledge learned through family, friends,
and societal connections.
How can I avoid steering the
interviewee(s) in the direction of my expectations?
I will give the interviewee questions that are open ended
about the subject that I am inquiring about. I
will be inquiring about their concept of whom and what a scientist is.
After a few direct questions about their name, age, and grade, I will
begin formulating all the questions to be general open ended questions. From these general open ended questions, I
will guide the students with questions that are asking about more
specific information.
Opening Questions:
Hello my name is _____ what is your name?
How old are you?
What grade are you in?
Are you taking a science class?
What are you learning in your science class?
Questions to introduce the main
idea?
Can you tell me what a scientist is?
Who can be a scientist?
Can you tell me what a scientist does?
Probes for specific information
How do they make discoveries?
What do scientists study?
What else do scientists study besides
medicine?
Possible follow-up questions
What do they look at or observe?
Why do scientists look at and test ideas?
Why are scientists important? Can you think of a scientist that you have already learned about?
What did they discover?
How did their discovery help the society?
This is the actual interview.
Hello my name is
How old are you? 11
What grade are you in? 5th
Are you taking a science class? yes
What are you learning in your science class? only an experiment…what absorbs more water with paper towels.
What are you trying to discover? That the paper towel absorbs water
What else do you do in your science class? The rest of the time is rules
Can you tell me what a scientist is? A person who studies about science and animals
Who can be a scientist? Anybody
Can you tell me what a scientist does? Studies stuff…studies about the moon
How does a scientist study the moon? I don’t know…looks at it
Why do scientists look at things? I don’t know
Why are scientists important? Scientists predicts about the hurricane but they don’t know 100%
Can you think of a scientist that you have already learned about? We study about a scientist that studies about volcanoes…his shoes melted and then he died…I don’t remember the name
What did they discover? I don’t know….volcano is hot
How did their discovery help the society? Don’t know
In conclusion, I thanked Marissa for letting
me interview her and that the information that she provided would help
me with my science class.
Summary of interview:
I found that Marissa was vague in her knowledge of what a scientist is. While she did not indicate an obvious misconception, her information was very limited and concentrated on specific areas, i.e. a scientist studies science and animals. She did not understand that a scientist can study everything. In addition, she did not know how a scientist investigates and makes discoveries. She knew very basic information on whom and what a scientist is. This might be due to the fact that the information that she is receiving is in the form of memorizing terms and rules. She provided little information on the experiment and showed no understanding of why the experiment was being conducted. She was only able to make small inferences from prior classroom knowledge to the definition of a scientist. She has a narrow view of what a scientist does. According to research, semantic memory is used when students are learning conceptual scientific knowledge and necessary cues need to be used in order to retrieve this information. (Hellden & Solomon, 2003) This understanding of memory operation is necessary when the teacher is providing instruction. Specific clues need to be incorporated in instruction that allows the scaffolding of information from the conceptual to the perceptual real world. She was more confident in her information that she obtained through societal resources (real-world), i.e. scientists making predictions about hurricanes. According to Vygotsky, learning and meaning are acquired through social interaction from family, books, media, and culture. (Leach & Scott, 2003) Hurricane Ike was a recent weather and news event that received increased media attention which was evident in her answer. The student was able to make a connection from the conceptual ideas of scientific information learned in class that a scientist makes predictions to her own personal understanding of a societal event. According to Leach and Scott, individuals need to be able to make sense of information around them by relating that talk to existing ideas. Based on this interview this student exhibited a lack of scaffold information and cues that are necessary for the retrieval of conceptual scientific terminology and understanding, yet she express basic scientific knowledge as related to societal influences.
References:
Hellden, G.F. & Solomon, J. (2003). The persistence of personal and social themes in context: Long and short term studies of student’s scientific ideas. Wiley InterScience, 885-900. Retrieved October 25, 2008 from http://www/intersciecne.wiley.com
Leach, J. & Scott, P. (2003). Individual and sociocultural views of learning in science education. Science & Education, 12, 91-113.
Clinical Interveiw 2: What Do Scientists Do?
CI 5329
Dr. Dickinson
Clinical Interview
Interviewee: Aubrey, age 10, 5th grade
My
I started off the interview just by asking general questions to get him comfortable. I asked the question, “Do you like Science?” He responded affirmatively and I probed him to tell me what he liked about science. He stated that he liked that you could try out theories. I asked what theories are. He answered that theories was stuff that has not been tested out yet. I thought the use of “stuff” was pretty typical fifth grader.
I was a little worried at first that I wouldn’t know what exactly to ask. I had preplanned questions, but I worried if I was going to have a hard time firing back questions in order to probe deeper. I actually found that firing back questions was easier. We really got into a rhythm.
I went on to ask Aubrey if he thought science was hard or easy. He responded that science was easy because he could use his book. I thought this was very interesting so I asked a follow up question: Do you only use science at school? Aubrey instantly said no. However, when I asked when he used it, he kind of stumbled and said he didn’t know. After about a minute, he said he couldn’t remember but he knows that you use it when you put “stuff” together.
After the introduction, I decided to move on and get to the main concepts I wanted to address. I asked him the question, “How do you become a scientist?” His response was that anyone could be a scientist. Scientists are people who create stuff and tryout theories. According to Aubrey, you “don’t have to be a professional to become one.” This pretty much blew my theory out the water that children stereotype scientists. If anything, he has a completely opposite view. He made it sound so simple.
I moved on to the next concept, matter. I asked him what the states of matter were. He replied, “Solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.” I was very impressed by the plasma response. I went on to ask if matter could be in more than one state. He said that he didn’t know what I meant. I then asked if matter could be a solid and a liquid. My purpose for asking this question was to see if he would think of ice, which he did. He not only named ice, but also stated that there was also a change in matter when you heat liquid and it turns into a gas. He went on to say that some solids could melt and turn into liquid. I probed by asking if changing states of matter took time. He was adamant that it would take some time and sometimes less time “like five minutes maybe.”
Next, I asked, “What happens to the molecules in a solid, liquid, and gas?” He stated that in a solid the molecules were packed together tightly. In a liquid, the molecules were kind of loose and moving around. In gas, the molecules were all over the place. I then asked Aubrey to draw a picture. He drew a picture like you would see in a textbook of how the molecules looked in each. He went on to say that he could not draw plasma because he had no idea of how the molecules looked.
After reviewing Aubrey’s drawing, I referred to the it and asked what happens to the molecules in an ice cube when it melts. He answered that the molecules start spreading out. He went on to say that it takes about ten minutes at the most for this process to take place. I asked where he got ten minutes from and he said it depended on heat and temperature. I then probed by asking what role heat/temperature played. He stated that heat spreads the molecules.
I then wanted to touch on the concept of Oobleck because Aubrey pretty much understands the different states of matter. I asked if Aubrey knew of any substances that changed states just by touching it. He immediately said no but thought that it was possible. He wanted to know if ice cubes counted. I then stated, “What if I told you that there’s a substance that easily changes back and forth from liquid to solid?” He responded that a freezer could change something like that. I went on to show him the Oobleck and asked what he thought caused the Oobleck to change so rapidly. He stated that the molecules had the ability to spread out and then come back together quickly.
After experimenting with the Oobleck, I asked Aubrey if he knew of any other substances that acted like Oobleck. He said no but he’s read about some “sinking sand.” He said that there’s places where you step on sand and then start “going down.” I asked Aubrey if he was to step on the sinking sand, how he thought he could get out of it. His response was very interesting. He stated that he would first become very still so that the molecules would pack together and then he would push really hard.
With that in mind, I decided to put both concepts together and told Aubrey to pretend that he was a scientist and that he discovered that the makeup of Mars was like Oobleck. I asked Aubrey how he could design a spaceship that would land on Mars. His response was that the spaceship would have to have wide tracks on the bottom like skis so you wouldn’t sink because the skis would be straight. He also stated that the tracks would have to be like a box and not separated because the Oobleck separated in his hands and that would happen if the tracks were separated. I then asked Aubrey to draw a picture and wrapped up the interview.
I was really amazed by some of the responses that Aubrey gave. He is truly a bright individual. He admitted later that science was his best subject. If I was to do it again, I would choose someone to interview who didn’t really have a love of science to see if I received the same responses.