Authentic Scientific Practices Research Articles

An Activity‐Based Instructional Framework for Transforming Authentic Modeling Practices into Meaningful Contexts for Learning in Science Education

ABSTRACTOne of the challenges of science education is to integrate activities, content, and tools in a meaningful manner. One way to address this challenging goal is the transformation of authentic scientific practices into contexts for learning, in line with sociocultural activity theory. In this respect, authentic scientific practices are interpreted as the totality of human work situated in society. Within such authentic scientific practices, the activities, content, and tools are connected logically and the relevance is clear among its participants. This study presents an activity‐based instructional framework that assists educational designers in transforming authentic scientific practices for the population of students in science education. The activity‐based instructional framework has been dialectically constructed with the design and classroom enactment of a curriculum unit based on an authentic chemical modeling practice. The curriculum unit was developed through a participatory design process that took teachers’ expertise into account. The pedagogical decisions were abstracted in design guidelines. The curriculum unit was implemented multiple times in classroom to evaluate the design guidelines. Research data were collected by means of audio‐taped discussions, completed worksheets, and written questionnaires. The findings supported the potential of transforming authentic scientific practices to achieve meaningful science education.

Mistakes as a pathway to learning

Education In STEM education, memorizing facts is out and thinking like a scientist is in. Practicing scientists often reflect upon their mistakes, a technique that traditionally does not happen in classrooms. To promote this type of reflective thinking, Brown et al. gave students in a quantum physics course identical problems on the midterm and final exam. All students were provided solutions after the midterm exam while only half of the students were given incentives to correct their mistakes. Students who had incentives to reflect and learn from their mistakes performed significantly better on the final exam than students without incentives, suggesting that encouraging and training students to use their mistakes as a learning opportunity is an intervention that encourages authentic scientific practices. Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.12.010121 (2016).

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE EXPERIENCES: PRE-COLLEGIATE SCIENCE EDUCATORS’ SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES DURING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Twenty-three pre-collegiate educators of elementary students (ages 5-10 years) and secondary students (ages 11-18 years) attended a two-week science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) astronomy focused professional development in the summer of 2015 with activities focused on authentic science experiences, inquiry, and partnership building. ‘Authentic’ in this research refers to scientific skills and are defined. The study explores the authentic science education experience of the pre-collegiate educators, detailing the components of authentic science as seen through a social constructionism lens. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, the researchers analyzed the successes and challenges of pre-collegiate science and mathematics educators when immersed in STEM and astronomy authentic science practices, the educators’ perceptions before and after the authentic science practices, and the educators’ performance on pre to post content tests during the authentic science practices. Findings show that the educators were initially engaged, then disengaged, and then finally re-engaged with the authentic experience. Qualitative responses are shared, as are the significant results of the quantitative pre to post content learning scores of the educators. Conclusions include the necessity for PD team delivery of detailed explanations to the participants - before, during, and after – for the entire authentic science experience and partnership building processes. Furthermore, expert structure and support is vital for participant research question generation, data collection, and data analysis (successes, failures, and reattempts). Overall, in order to include authentic science in pre-collegiate classrooms, elementary and secondary educators need experience, instruction, scaffolding, and continued support with the STEM processes. Key words: authentic science, astronomy outreach, inquiry activities, partnership building, professional development, STEM education.

Do You See What I See? Using Ethograms to Observe Animal Behavior

The process of exploration and the methods that scientists use to conduct research are fundamental to science education. In this activity, authentic scientific practices are used to develop hypotheses to explain the natural world. Students observe grass shrimp in aquaria and construct an ethogram, which is a compilation of the observable behaviors an animal exhibits. They then conduct an experiment, just as real scientists would, to determine how changes in the environment alter shrimp behavior. This activity is designed for a fourth-grade science class and allows students to experience the excitement of observing a live organism while learning about scientific inquiry, and also reinforces quantification and graphing skills. “Do You See What I See” covers Next Generation Science Standards and addresses the science and engineering practices of engaging in argument from evidence.

Acquiring Skills Beyond the Bench Through the Great Diseases ‐ a Teacher‐Scientist Partnership

Young scientists know that being competitive in the job market requires skills and experience beyond the bench. Given the overproduction of biomedical scientists with PhDs relative to the number of openings for secure academic positions, it is critical that young scientists acquire broad skill sets. Participating in curriculum design partnerships with teachers offers scientists a novel career opportunity. Our collaborative curriculum development team of biomedical scientists has partnered with teachers to build inquiry‐based biomedical curricula focused on “Great Diseases” that impact global health (Infectious Disease, Neurological Disorders, Metabolic Disease and Cancer), and now the scientists are also leading dissemination of the curricula in classrooms nationwide. Teachers often feel unprepared to lead students in formulating questions, designing experiments and interpreting data, a major obstacle to implementation of curricula with novel scientific content or authentic science practice. Interacting directly with scientists helps solve this problem. Scientists work with teachers via one‐on‐one virtual meetings, during which the biomedical scientist offers the teacher structured real‐time mentoring in content and helps devise strategies to implement the material in the classroom, at the same time augmenting their knowledge of effective teaching methods. We have found that when teachers participate in structured mentoring their ability to teach about cutting‐edge biomedical science improves, which is passed on to the high school students, the ultimate beneficiaries.Funded through: NIH Grant: R25OD010953‐04, gift from Boston Scientific and Cubist Pharmaceuticals Grant

Science classroom inquiry (SCI) simulations: a novel method to scaffold science learning.

Science education is progressively more focused on employing inquiry-based learning methods in the classroom and increasing scientific literacy among students. However, due to time and resource constraints, many classroom science activities and laboratory experiments focus on simple inquiry, with a step-by-step approach to reach predetermined outcomes. The science classroom inquiry (SCI) simulations were designed to give students real life, authentic science experiences within the confines of a typical classroom. The SCI simulations allow students to engage with a science problem in a meaningful, inquiry-based manner. Three discrete SCI simulations were created as website applications for use with middle school and high school students. For each simulation, students were tasked with solving a scientific problem through investigation and hypothesis testing. After completion of the simulation, 67% of students reported a change in how they perceived authentic science practices, specifically related to the complex and dynamic nature of scientific research and how scientists approach problems. Moreover, 80% of the students who did not report a change in how they viewed the practice of science indicated that the simulation confirmed or strengthened their prior understanding. Additionally, we found a statistically significant positive correlation between students’ self-reported changes in understanding of authentic science practices and the degree to which each simulation benefitted learning. Since SCI simulations were effective in promoting both student learning and student understanding of authentic science practices with both middle and high school students, we propose that SCI simulations are a valuable and versatile technology that can be used to educate and inspire a wide range of science students on the real-world complexities inherent in scientific study.

The effects of augmented virtual science laboratories on middle school students' understanding of gas properties

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) emphasize authentic scientific practices such as developing models and constructing explanations of phenomena. However, research documents how students struggle to explain observable phenomena with molecular-level behaviors with current classroom experiences. For example, physical laboratory experiences in science enable students to interact with observable scientific phenomena, but students often fail to make connections to underlying molecular-level behaviors. Virtual laboratory experiences and computer-based visualizations enable students to interact with unobservable scientific concepts, but students can have difficulties connecting to actual instantiations of the observed phenomenon. This paper investigates how combining physical and virtual experiences into augmented virtual science laboratories can help students build upon intuitive ideas and develop molecular-level explanations of macroscopic phenomena. Specifically, this study uses the Frame, a sensor-augmented virtual lab that uses sensors as physical inputs to control scientific simulations. Eighth-grade students (N = 45) engaged in a Frame lab focused on the properties of gas. Results demonstrate that students using the Frame lab made progress developing molecular-level explanations of gas behavior and refining alternative and partial ideas into normative ideas about gases. This study offers insights for how augmented virtual labs can be designed to enhance science learning and encourage scientific practices as called for in the NGSS.

Exploring How Research Experiences For Teachers Changes Their Understandings Of The Nature Of Science And Scientific Inquiry

<p>The nature of science is a prevalent theme across United States national science education standards and frameworks as well as other documents that guide formal and informal science education reform. To support teachers in engaging their students in authentic scientific practices and reformed teaching strategies, research experiences for teachers offered in national laboratories, university research centers, and national field-sites promise opportunities to help teachers update their current understanding of STEM fields and experience firsthand how scientific research is conducted with the end goal of supporting more inquiry-based teaching approaches in their classrooms. This qualitative interpretive study used an adapted Views of Nature of Science and Views on Scientific Inquiry surveys and protocols to investigate changes in 43 practicing teachers understandings about the nature of science and scientific inquiry as a result of participation in one of three summer science research programs. Each program provided participants with research experiences alongside professional researchers as well as activities intended to increase participants abilities to provide inquiry-based science learning activities for their students. Data were collected using open-ended surveys pre-program, post-program and long-term follow-up surveys, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, along with researchers observations and field-notes. Participation in these programs led to small, measurable enhancements in teachers understandings of scientific inquiry and the nature of science. Teachers prior experience with research was found to have the strongest relationship to their knowledge of the nature of science and scientific inquiry. The data in this study provides evidence that research experiences can provide valuable experiences to support teachers improved knowledge of how science is conducted.</p>

Exploring Ecosystems from the Inside: How Immersive Multi-user Virtual Environments Can Support Development of Epistemologically Grounded Modeling Practices in Ecosystem Science Instruction

Recent reform efforts and the next generation science standards emphasize the importance of incorporating authentic scientific practices into science instruction. Modeling can be a particularly challenging practice to address because modeling occurs within a socially structured system of representation that is specific to a domain. Further, in the process of modeling, experts interact deeply with domain-specific content knowledge and integrate modeling with other scientific practices in service of a larger investigation. It can be difficult to create learning experiences enabling students to engage in modeling practices that both honor the position of the novice along a spectrum toward more expert understanding and align well with the practices and reasoning used by experts in the domain. In this paper, we outline the challenges in teaching modeling practices specific to the domain of ecosystem science, and we present a description of a curriculum built around an immersive virtual environment that offers unique affordances for supporting student engagement in modeling practices. Illustrative examples derived from pilot studies suggest that the tools and context provided within the immersive virtual environment helped support student engagement in modeling practices that are epistemologically grounded in the field of ecosystem science.

ANALYZING SCIENCE ACTIVITIES IN FORCE AND MOTION CONCEPTS: A DESIGN OF AN IMMERSION UNIT

In this paper, we analyze the science activities offered at 7th grade in the Turkish science and technology curriculum along with addressing the curriculum’s original intent. We refer to several science education researchers’ ideas, including Chinn & Malhotra’s (Science Education, 86:175–218, 2002) theoretical framework and Edelson’s (1998) conceptualization of authentic science practices in our analyses. Our primary goal is to critique the science and technology curriculum and then offer alternative insights into learning science and doing science about force and motion concepts at 7th grade from epistemological and sociological perspectives. We introduce an Immersion Unit for teaching and learning the concepts of force and motion and discuss the elements of this immersion approach. Finally, we provide recommendations for designing and implementing similar immersion units for the science activities that are in practice.

What Students Say Versus What They Do Regarding Scientific Inquiry

ABSTRACTWe teach a course for elementary education undergraduates that gives students an opportunity to conduct open‐ended scientific inquiry and pursue their own scientific questions in much the same way that practicing research scientists do. In this study, we compared what our students say declaratively about the nature of science (NOS) in surveys and interviews with what they do procedurally when engaged in authentic scientific practice. Initially, we were surprised when our students showed very little change on two different validated NOS questionnaires, adhering to seemingly memorized definitions of key NOS vocabulary such as “science” and “experiment.” In contrast, on procedural measures of NOS understanding, students developed a decidedly sophisticated approach to answering scientific questions. Our data suggest that students’ declarative understandings about the NOS are not a reliable measure of students’ ability to engage productively in scientific practices and vice versa. We discuss why this might be and consider the implications of this disconnect on identifying the best approach to NOS instruction and on future science education research.

Common Magnets, Unexpected Polarities

In this paper, I discuss a “misconception” in magnetism so simple and pervasive as to be typically unnoticed. That magnets have poles might be considered one of the more straightforward notions in introductory physics. However, the magnets common to students' experiences are likely different from those presented in educational contexts. This leads students, in my experience, to frequently and erroneously attribute magnetic poles based on geometric associations rather than actual observed behavior. This polarity discrepancy can provide teachers the opportunity to engage students in authentic inquiry about objects in their daily experiences. I've found that investigation of the magnetic polarities of common magnets provides a productive context for students in which to develop valuable and authentic scientific inquiry practices.

Participants' reflections two and three years after an introductory chemistry course-embedded research experience

The Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education (CASPiE) is a course-embedded undergraduate research curriculum that aims to introduce authentic research experiences for students in their early college years. A cohort of students who were randomly assigned to the CASPiE laboratory sections was tracked during and two and three years after course enrollment. Students from the traditional laboratory sections were also tracked for control purposes. This paper presents students' perceptions of the laboratory course at the time of enrollment, based on their answers to an online survey, and a comparison to students' later responses to semi-structured oral interviews about their course involvement. We found that students' views of the curricula persisted over the years. CASPiE students thought the curriculum allowed them to learn how to do research and in turn gained confidence to do such work. In contrast, students from the traditional sections thought they did not learn the practice of research in their course. These and related comparisons are presented with evidence from survey results and interview vignettes. The implications of the CASPiE curriculum implementation and its effects over the long term are discussed.

Teaching With and About Nature of Science, and Science Teacher Knowledge Domains

The ubiquitous goals of helping precollege students develop informed conceptions of nature of science (NOS) and experience inquiry learning environments that progressively approximate authentic scientific practice have been long-standing and central aims of science education reforms around the globe. However, the realization of these goals continues to elude the science education community partly because of a persistent, albeit not empirically supported, coupling of the two goals in the form of ‘teaching about NOS with inquiry’. In this context, the present paper aims, first, to introduce the notions of, and articulate the distinction between, teaching with and about NOS, which will allow for the meaningful coupling of the two desired goals. Second, the paper aims to explicate science teachers’ knowledge domains requisite for effective teaching with and about NOS. The paper argues that research and development efforts dedicated to helping science teachers develop deep, robust, and integrated NOS understandings would have the dual benefits of not only enabling teachers to convey to students images of science and scientific practice that are commensurate with historical, philosophical, sociological, and psychological scholarship (teaching about NOS), but also to structure robust inquiry learning environments that approximate authentic scientific practice, and implement effective pedagogical approaches that share a lot of the characteristics of best science teaching practices (teaching with NOS).

Bilingual language supports in online science inquiry environments

Research over the past fifteen years has investigated and developed online science inquiry environments to support students engaging in authentic scientific inquiry practices. This research has focused on developing activity structures and tools to scaffold students in engaging in different aspects of these practices, but relatively little of this research has explored linguistic supports for language minority students studying science in their non-native language. These students are simultaneously learning science and the surrounding academic language in their second language. This study investigates the potential value of providing 8th grade Spanish-speaking English language learners access to content and supports in both English and Spanish as opposed to an English-only format in an online science inquiry environment. Learning outcomes are compared between the two conditions on an immediate post-test in English, a delayed post-test in English, a delayed post-test in Spanish, and a written essay in English in the form of a letter to the governor. The outcomes suggest significant benefits for providing ELL students with access to content and supports in both English and Spanish as opposed to the English-only format. The findings of this study carry important policy implications in light of the growing English-only political movements in the United States and similar political movements in other countries.

Supporting learning of high-school genetics using authentic research practices: the teacher’s role

In this study we describe the support provided by a biology teacher during learning using a web-based research simulation that makes use of authentic research practices in genetics, including the use of a heuristic strategy to compare mutated and normal versions of a character at all the organisational levels. Authentic scientific practices include the use of conditional knowledge – namely coordination between declarative and strategic knowledge – which is not typically found in regular school tasks. Thus, it is unlikely that students will be able to carry out such coordination without guidance from their teacher. Our research question was: what kind of support does a teacher provide during enactment of the research simulation and how does it facilitate students’ ability to coordinate between declarative and strategic knowledge? We observed one teacher and her students during the enactment of the research simulation in class. Our analysis revealed the support given by a teacher to promote students’ use of conditional knowledge in a high-school biology classroom, was similar to the use of such knowledge by scientists in the course of performing authentic research.

A comparative study of traditional, inquiry-based, and research-based laboratory curricula: impacts on understanding of the nature of science

We explored the impact of laboratory curriculum on students' understanding of the nature of science at five US universities. The specific curricula studied were traditional (verification), inquiry-based, and research-based. The inquiry curriculum was Inquiries into Chemistry, and the research-based curriculum was developed by the Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education (CASPiE). Our findings suggest that laboratory curriculum is a strong factor in the development of students' discussions of theories and their conceptions of creativity in science. Students in the research-based laboratory curriculum demonstrated the most gains as a result of their laboratory when compared to their counterparts in the traditional and inquiry-based laboratories.

What High School Students Learn during Internships in Biology Laboratories

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Scientific talent is desperately needed to address challenges we will face globally in years and decades to come. Yet there is evidence from around world that high achieving science undergraduates are becoming increasingly rare (Bohannon, 2007; Clery, 2007; Wood, 2008), though situation for biology may, be less dire than for other sciences. Little is currently known about what might attract students into university biology programs and, from there, into specific careers. How do we increase application rates of high school students in college and university biology (life-science) programs? In particular, how can we increase numbers of women and aboriginals who choose scientific careers in our discipline? These are but two of focal questions for a large interdisciplinary team that brings together natural scientists, scientists, educational and (career) counseling psychologists, and (science, mathematics, technology, literacy) educators as part of one of five centers funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada. One way in which Pacific Center for Scientific Literacy approaches answering focal question is by providing high school students with opportunities to experience firsthand science practice, a form of realizing that the future of school science lies outdoors (Slingsby, 2006). Authentic practice goes beyond simple visits, as in British Salter's Nuffield Advanced Biology visits (e.g., Dunkerton, 2007), because students spend an extended period of time with scientists participating in ongoing research. Although authentic science projects in schools take biology students considerably beyond what they normally do and learn (e.g., Roth & Bowen, 1995), participating in real everyday activity such as scientific research or environmental activism changes psychology of learning all together (van Eijck & Roth, 2007). * Authentic Science & Laboratory Internship As its cognates cognitive apprenticeship and community of practice, authentic science practice has been advocated as a means of assisting students in developing (a) usable and transferable scientific skills and knowledge (b) understanding of sciences as epistemic (knowledge-generating) disciplines (Roth, 1995), and easing fear of entering into science programs. Some universities adopt this approach for introducing their first- and second-year students to teach them fundamental skills of science and process of scientific discovery (e.g., The Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education [http://www.purdue.edu/dp/caspie/]). Our Center has been designed, in part, to provide and study high school student learning (cognitive, psycho-social, emotional, career-related) when students are provided with opportunities for internship experiences in university-based biology laboratories. The notion of authentic practice was created after research had shown that much of what people do in their everyday lives and on job is unaffected by mathematics and science they learned in school (Lave, 1988; Scribner, 1984; Traweek, 1988). A recent study suggests that number of high school courses students take in a subject correlates with their university grade point average in same field, but not with their grade point average in other sciences (Sadler & Tai, 2007). In wake of scientific and anthropological findings, science and mathematics educators began to understand knowledge and skills in terms of practices--the patterned actions scientists and mathematicians deploy in their working lives--rather than as procedural and declarative information stored in their heads (van Eijck & Roth, 2007). Thus, it was proposed that students of mathematics and science engage in activities that bear considerable family resemblance with activities in which scientists, mathematicians, or historians normally are engaged. …

Students’ Perspectives of a Science Enrichment Programme: Out‐of‐school inquiry as access

Science enrichment programmes housed outside traditional school settings can offer students from traditionally under‐resourced schools valuable opportunities to access authentic scientific tools and practices. The present study contributes to our understanding of this potential and how it can best be realised through an analysis of the students’ own perspectives on a specific out‐of‐school programme—a one‐year partnership with a university‐based science outreach programme, which culminated in a half‐day laboratory experience for a total of 292 secondary students (ages 11–18 years). Extensive data were collected on this experience, including detailed field notes and video recordings of the classes’ visits to the university as well as the planning meetings with teachers at the beginning and end of the school year, surveys of the participating students, and surveys and interviews of the teachers, and were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively using a grounded theory approach. Building on the valuable perspectives of the participating students, and comparing them with those of their eight teachers, this study confirms that carefully designed collaborative out‐of‐school inquiry programmes have the potential to broaden students’ (especially those from under‐resourced schools) experiences of science as well as bridge them to school science.

“Here the Scientists Explain What I Said.” Coordination Practices Elicited During the Enactment of the Results and Discussion Sections of Adapted Primary Literature

Adapted primary literature (APL) is a novel text genre that retains the authentic characteristics of primary literature. Learning through APL represents an educational intervention with an authentic scientific context. In this case study, we analyzed the 80-min discourse developed during the enactment of an article from an APL-based curriculum in biotechnology in one class, and examined epistemic practices used by students during their meaning-making of the Results and Discussion sections of the article. Specifically, we examined coordination practices, by which students connected elements belonging to different epistemic status or context (theory, data, experimental stages, biotechnological applications and text). The application of coordination practices was identified more than 70 times during the lesson. In the context of the Results section, the students displayed research-oriented coordination practices, which were frequently associated with claims of comprehension difficulty. In the context of the Discussion section, students displayed text-oriented coordination practices, associated with analysis of the text characteristics. We are suggesting that the research-oriented coordination practices and some of the text-oriented ones enabled the emergence of authentic scientific practices and learning by inquiry. Another type of text-oriented coordination practice enabled reflection on scientists’ experimental processes, enabling learning science as inquiry. The enactment model of APL used here allowed for both the emergence of the two dimensions of inquiry learning and the promotion of scientific literacy in the fundamental and derived senses.