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Uncovering Student Ideas in Science |
The NSTA Symposium: Uncovering Student Ideas in Science took place at the Clarion
Hotel Anaheim Resort in Anaheim, CA, on Saturday, April 8, 2006. Twenty-eight educators
were in attendance. Presenting were the authors of the NSTA Press publication: Uncovering
Student Ideas in Science, Page Keeley, Francis Eberle, and Lynn Farrin. This symposium
was designed for educators grades K-12. In this symposium the presenters focused
on the use of formative assessment probes that can be used to evaluate students'
knowledge of different science concepts. NSTA would like to thank all the participants
and the presenters for a job well done
After an introductory administrative session during which Flavio Mendez, Symposia
and Web Seminars Program Manager at NSTA, familiarized participants with the contents
of their folders (including the agenda, college credit forms, talent release form,
and pre-assessment), Page Keeley started with an introduction to formative assessment
probes. The first probe shared was one that asked a question about the phases of
the Moon, in particular, it inquired about a scenario where two observers are looking
at the Moon on the same night but from two different parts of the world. Just like
students, the symposium participants were asked to respond to a multiple choice
question and to explain their response. The responses were shared with the larger
audience while maintaining anonymity of the responders. It was interesting to discover
that many of the educators at the symposium had similar misconceptions as those
expressed by students of upper elementary grades.
Francis Eberly and Lynn Farrin continued working with the audience sharing with
them their research findings that led to their writing of the book. They talked
about the research already done on how people learn and the idea that students walk
into the classrooms with pre-conceived ideas about how things work, etc., that may
not be necessarily accurate. As a follow-up activity, they organized the larger
group in stations, (one station per table), with topics like, gravity, is it living,
is it an animal, cells, heat temperature, matter, sound, light, etc., and asked
the educators to visit at least three stations to look over students' work that
was collected by the authors over time. After reading through students' sample work,
participants were required to discuss within their stations the different misconceptions
that students presented and to come up with ideas on how to eliminate these in the
classroom.
A guided discussion followed this exercise, with Keeley and Eberle sharing their
research experiences and providing ideas on how to "tackle" these situations in
the classroom. For example, to elicit ideas from students you can do brainstorming,
use classroom clickers, open response questions, engagement activities, etc.
All participants received a copy of the book and a certificate from NSTA noting
the number of seating hours at the symposium. Two web seminars will continue this
discussion, the first one scheduled on April 27.
For more information contact symposia@nsta.org
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Underwritten in part by NSTA Press |