No Question Left Behind:
Bringing Guided-Inquiry Curricula into
Science and Mathematics
Classrooms
A
one-and-a-half-day workshop for middle- and high-school science and mathematics
teachers
University of
Monday, June 25 –
Sponsored by the University
of Maine Center for Science and Mathematics Education Research and The Jackson
Laboratory, with support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the
Bank of America Company, trustee of the Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation
Monday, June 25
Picture Album
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TIME |
EVENT |
LOCATION |
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Registration and
Continental Breakfast |
Atrium |
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Welcome! Dr. Susan McKay, Director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education Research
and Professor of Physics |
Atrium |
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David
Hammer, Professor
of Physics and Curriculum & Instruction, |
Auditorium |
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The Role of Inquiry in the Teaching and Learning
of Mathematics
Karen
J. Graham, Professor of Mathematics at the |
Auditorium |
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Break |
Atrium |
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Integrating Digital Libraries into Teaching
and Learning
Holly
Devaul, Manager of Educational Programs and Services for the Digital
Learning Sciences, Digital Library for Earth System Education,
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research |
Auditorium |
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Down By the River – A Multidisciplinary, Collaborative
Study of the David
Pysnik, chemistry/research instructor at Sidney High School, New
York |
Auditorium |
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Lunch |
Atrium |
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Interactive Workshops |
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DLESE
Teaching Boxes: the Familiar “Box on the Shelf” Goes Digital (Devaul) (Limited to 20 participants) |
Room 102 Computer Lab |
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Implementing
and Assessing Inquiry-based Teaching in the Mathematics Classroom (Graham and Paddack) |
Executive Seminar Room 1 |
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How
to Design Project-Based Inquiry Biology Curricula For Meaningful Understanding (Kanter) (Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop
with audio) |
Room 106 |
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Let’s
Go Down to the River (Pysnik) (Participants are invited to bring water samples
from their local streams and ponds) |
Room 105 |
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Break |
Atrium |
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3:15:5:15 |
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Attending and Responding
to Student Thinking (Hammer) (Participants
are encouraged to bring a laptop with audio) |
Executive Seminar Room 1 |
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Providing Learning Opportunities
for Middle School Students to Reason Algebraically: An example
of the “delicate balance” (Stephan
& Underwood-Gregg) |
Room 105 |
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Was This Winter Warmer Than Usual?
Finding Evidence From Online
Data. (Schauffler) (Limited to
20 participants) |
Room 102 Computer Lab |
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Executive Seminar Room 2 |
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Poster
Presentations (appetizers served) |
Atrium |
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Dinner |
Atrium |
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What
It Looks Like When It Works (Hammer) |
Auditorium |
Tuesday, June 26
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TIME |
EVENT |
LOCATION |
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Hot Breakfast Buffet – |
Atrium |
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Donald
R. Sprangers, science teacher, |
Auditorium |
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Learning
Biology Using Project-Based Inquiry In David
E. Kanter, Assistant Professor in Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology in
Education (Science Education) |
Auditorium |
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Break |
Atrium |
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Inquiry
Teaching as a Dynamic System Michelle Stephan, 7th grade mathematics teacher, Lawton Chiles Middle
School, Florida & Graduate
Associate Professor, University of Central Florida and Diana Underwood-Gregg,
Associate Professor of mathematics
education & Director of the Purdue Calumet Center for Mathematics
Teaching and Learning, Purdue University Calumet |
Auditorium |
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Open Space: How
can we collaborate to implement the method of learning we talked about here:
in my classroom, in my school, & in Jon
Geiger, Director of Educational Programs and Affiliated Scientist at The
Jackson Laboratory, |
Auditorium & breakout rooms |
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Conference Evaluations (lunch ticket) |
Auditorium |
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Lunch Open Space reports Concluding Remarks Thank you for coming! |
Atrium |
Presenters
Holly Devaul is Manager of
Educational Programs and Services for the Digital Learning Sciences, Digital
Library for Earth System Education, University Corporation for Atmospheric
Research (http://www.dlese.org). A graduate of the College of the
Karen J. Graham is a Professor of Mathematics at
the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and was appointed as the inaugural
director of the University’s Joan and
David
Hammer is a professor of Physics and Curriculum & Instruction at the
1998 he moved to the
David
E. Kanter is Assistant Professor in Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology in
Education (Science Education)
Megan
Paddack is a Ph. D. candidate in mathematics education at the University of New
Hampshire (UNH). Her scholarly interests include mathematics teacher
development and the use of proofs and reasoning in the classroom. She
holds a fellowship in the NSF-funded UNH GK-12 initiative, Promoting
Research to Benefit Understanding (PROBE), and leads teacher workshops for
the state-funded UNH- Middle School Mathematics Partnership. She
has taught undergraduate mathematics courses at UNH since 2003 and in 2005 she
was the recipient of the
David Pysnik is a chemistry/research instructor at
Pysnik did his
undergraduate work at
He is the author
of scores of grants funded by such organizations as New York State Energy and
Research Development Authority, Hewlett Packard, Procter and Gamble,
Mead-WestVaco, American Chemical Society, National Science Foundation, Camile
and Henry Dreyfus Foundation and the Otis A. Thompson Foundation. His present interests include the development
of programs which attract students into the science pipeline. Two major projects which are ongoing are the
Upper Susquehanna Watershed Project and The Sidney Science Express, a mobile
chemistry laboratory available to science educators in the southern tier area
of
Donald R. Sprangers is a science
teacher at
Sprangers earned the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and
Science Teaching in 2003 and is this years’
Michelle
Stephan is a 7th grade mathematics teacher at
Diana
Underwood is an associate professor of mathematics education and the director of
the
Presentations
Holly
Devaul
Overview
Presentation
Integrating
Digital Libraries into Teaching and Learning
This session will focus on getting the most
out of digital library features and functions to enhance teaching and learning.
In addition to the basics of search and discovery, new features that allow for
concept-browsing, educational standards alignment, and customization services
for school websites will be demonstrated in the context of the Digital Library
for Earth System Education.
Interactive
Workshop
DLESE Teaching
Boxes: the Familiar “Box on the Shelf” Goes Digital
The Digital Library for Earth System
Education (DLESE) provides access to high-quality digital resources for
teaching and learning about the Earth, offering support and leadership in
addressing the national reform agenda for science education. Funded by the
National Science Foundation, DLESE (www.dlese.org) provides access to over
12,000 educational resources that comprise a variety of media formats, from
text-based lesson plans to sophisticated tools for interactive visualization of
authentic scientific data. As part of its education and outreach strategy,
DLESE has facilitated the creation of Teaching Boxes: classroom-ready
instructional units collaboratively developed by teachers, scientists, and
instructional designers (www.teachingboxes.org). Teaching Box activities are
designed to model scientific inquiry, allowing teachers to build classroom
experiences around data collection and analysis from multiple lines of
evidence, and engage students in the process of science. - focusing on gathering
and analyzing scientific evidence. Currently six boxes for middle and high
school cover plate tectonics, weather, seasonal upwelling, changing sea level,
earthquakes, and mountain building. Participants will initially discuss the
challenges and benefits of integrating electronic materials into the classroom,
practice search skills, and select a topic they teach to focus their
explorations as they develop their own lesson using library resources. The
workshop will allow for hands-on exploration of the library and the Teaching
Box materials.
Karen
Graham and Megan Paddack
Overview
Presentation
The
Role of Inquiry in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics
This session will present an overview of
frameworks and recommendations related to the role of inquiry in the
mathematics classroom. The relationship
between inquiry, reasoning, and proof will be explored. Rubrics and continuums developed as part of
an NSF-funded project will be discussed.
Other classroom based examples will be presented.
Interactive
Workshop
Implementing
and Assessing Inquiry-based Teaching in the Mathematics Classroom
This workshop will provide participants with
an opportunity to explore in more depth the role of inquiry in the teaching and
learning of mathematics. Hands-on
activities will include examining inquiry continuums, analyzing classroom
examples through case studies and video-tapes, and analyzing
national/state/local curriculum frameworks with an eye toward inquiry. Participants will have an opportunity to set
personal goals and reflect on how their own practice can be more
inquiry-based.
David
Hammer
Monday
evening talk
What it Looks like When it Works
It sure isn't the
typical outcome, but once in a while a course does some truly wonderful things
for a student. I'll tell the story of
Louis, a student from a spring semester introductory course who failed the
first midterm, decided to change his approach, and became one of the top
students in the class. Why did it work
so well for him, and how can we make it work like that for others?
Overview
Presentation
The Goal of
Student Inquiry
The word “inquiry”
has become pervasive in science education, but it’s not always clear exactly
what it means. People speak of “guided inquiry” and “inquiry-based
science instruction,” where the guidance or instruction is toward some ideas in
the canon, and inquiry is the instructional approach toward the goal of
students understanding those ideas. The question that comes up is whether
inquiry-based approaches are more or less effective than other options at
getting students to understand those ideas.
I’m going to argue
that inquiry is better understood as the central substance of what we should be
teaching; inquiry is scientific sense-making. In other words, science is
inquiry (and the products of inquiry), and so we shouldn’t see inquiry as tied
to instructional method; we should see it as inherent in what we are teaching
students to do. That makes for different questions: What does
inquiry look like, when students are doing it? What constitutes “better”
inquiry, and what will help them do it better?
This presentation
will focus on instructional diagnoses and decisions with respect to student
inquiry. I’ll discuss examples from elementary school and college, to talk
about the beginnings of scientific inquiry in children and what becomes of them
later.
Interactive
Workshop
Attending and
Responding to Student Thinking
This workshop will
pick up where my earlier presentation left off. Participants will watch video
excerpts from middle school science classes, offer possible interpretations of
the students’ reasoning, diagnose what they seem to be doing well and what they
could be doing better, and finally to consider possibilities for how the
teacher might respond. Participants are encouraged to bring a
laptop with audio
David
E. Kanter
Overview
Presentation
Learning
Biology Using Project-Based Inquiry In
This talk explores the extent to which
project-based inquiry science (PbIS) curricula designed with supports for
students’ inquiry into complex scientific data can help students make sense of
such data and ultimately promote their deep understanding of standards-based
content. We review the design of a PbIS
middle school life science curriculum, “I, Bio,” and a high school biology
curriculum, “Disease Detectives.” We
review quantitative and some qualitative data from classroom enactments of
these curricula to gauge the extent to which students deepened their
understanding of the standards-based content targeted by these curricula.
Interactive
Workshop
How
To Design Project-Based Inquiry Biology Curricula For Meaningful Understanding
Project-based Inquiry Science (PbIS)
curricula aim to support students building a meaningful understanding of
standards-based science content by making the inquiry-based learning of the
content instrumental to completing a project.
However, students involved in a performance
PbIS curriculum in particular- in which they have to do or make something- may
focus on the performance at the expense of the meaningful understanding of the
science content. This problem can be
addressed to some extent in how we design the curriculum itself. In this interactive workshop, we will learn
about curriculum design challenges related to creating students’ demand for the
content and providing them with the opportunity to apply the content. We will then learn about curriculum design
approaches for resolving these challenges.
We will do this by doing and reviewing one lesson from the middle school PbIS human biology
curriculum, I, Bio. We will then try our hand at designing a
lesson for a high school PbIS human biology curriculum to teach similar
content, to practice recognizing the curriculum design challenges and using the
curriculum design solutions to resolve them.
We will see how close we come to an existing lesson from the high school
PbIS human biology curriculum Disease
Detectives. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop with audio
David Pysnik
Overview
Presentation
Down
by the River – A Multidisciplinary, Collaborative Study of the
The Upper
Susquehanna Watershed Project has been an on-going study for the purpose of
comparison of water quality, sediment, and meteorological data for the upper
The study
established a baseline for future comparison and analysis. It revealed specific characteristics of the
river during high and low level flow as well as during severe storms. Except for a few point sources of pollutions,
the Upper Susquehanna Watershed proved to be quite healthy unlike lower
portions of the river in
Results of the
investigation are presented to the school communities involved and to the
general public by the students at a mini-conference held once a year at
Various pieces of
test equipment and materials used in the project will be available for
examination or actual use at the conclusion of the presentation.
Interactive
Workshop
Let’s Go Down to the River!
Participants will hike to a local stream and
test the water at the site as well as bring back samples to test. While at the site, characteristics of the
water such as pH, dissolved oxygen, and temperature will be determined. Samples brought back to the lab will be
analyzed for phosphate, nitrate, chloride, turbidity, total solids, alkalinity,
and conductivity. The principle analysis
techniques will be through the use of Hach kits which involves simple
colorimetric comparisons to standard color standards. However, additional testing of water samples
will be done using various types of equipment including selective ion
electrodes, fixed and variable wavelength colorimeters and digital probes. Use of Palm PDA’s and TI-84 calculators,
interfaced to test equipment will also be incorporated in the sample study. The participants are also invited to bring
samples from their local streams and ponds to test.
Molly
Schauffler
Was This Winter Warmer Than Usual?: Finding Evidence From Online Data.
We will download, analyze, graph, and
interpret online weather and climate data to develop evidence that supports
answers to this question. How would you
incorporate these technical skills in your classroom to enhance student inquiry
and independent thinking?
Don
Sprangers
Overview
Presentation
“Environmental education ought to change
the way people live, not just how they talk” (David Orr), and this is best
accomplished through the breaking of boundaries between the disciplines of
knowledge, and by involvement in practical, relevant projects that deal with ecological
relationships within a community.
Ecological literacy in the 21st
Century needs to become a National priority.
The Washington Academy Sustainable
LIFE Curriculum is a place-based educational program that
incorporates topics of ecological concern pertinent to the Downeast Maine
bioregion. A Community Needs
Assessment is used to identify environmental issues of ecological
importance, survey related resources, and identify potential partner
organizations and their roles. Involving
students in the planning and implementation of authentic research that produces a product that will benefit the
school, the community, or the sponsoring partner organization(s) leads students
to the development of an environmental
ethic and the empowerment to transform their worldview, thus preparing
students to be environmental leaders working toward a future of sustainable
LIFE.
The Washington Academy Sustainable LIFE
Curriculum takes a holistic approach to learning and aims to transform the
student’s worldview through the development of an environmental ethic. Ecological
Literacy begins in childhood. Fostering ecological literacy involves
environmental education that is participatory and experiential. Students involved as stewards of our natural
resources grow up to value the gifts of nature that abound them. This presentation will explain the
development and implementation of the Sustainable LIFE Curriculum at
Interactive
Workshop
Washington
Academy’s Sustainable LIFE Curriculum:
Ecological Education in Action
Learn how:
To develop a Sustainable LIFE Curriculum
appropriate for your community/bioregion
To conduct a Community Needs Assessment, Greenworks Program, PLT
To prepare and analyze biodiesel in the
classroom laboratory
Michelle
Stephan and Diana Underwood-Gregg
Overview
Presentation
Inquiry
Teaching as a Dynamic System
Teaching mathematical inquiry in classrooms
involves an intricate system comprised of students, a teacher and curriculum.
In order for an inquiry environment to be most successful, a delicate balance
among all three components of the system must be maintained. Such a
relationship is more easily said than done. In our presentation and workshop,
we will discuss the role that each of these components plays in creating and
sustaining a genuine inquiry environment. We will do so using examples from
middle school classrooms in which the teachers are attempting to teach using an
inquiry approach., some for their first time.
Interactive
Workshop
Providing
Learning Opportunities for Middle School Students to Reason
Algebraically: An example of the “delicate balance”
This session will engage teachers in an
exploration of two instructional sequences that were developed by
Underwood-Gregg using instructional design principles of Realistic Mathematics
Education. Both sequences were designed to promote algebraic reasoning and a
deep understanding of conventional algebraic notation. The first sequence
was designed to provide opportunities for students to make sense of equations
of the form Ax+B=C where A is a fraction. The second sequence was
designed to promote students' understanding of a coordinate system while
simultaneously facilitating their understanding of linear relationships. Underwood-Gregg
will engage the teachers in these sequences, discuss RME principles, and
discuss her specific instructional intent.