INVESTIGATING THE EXPERIENCE OF WATER: A CASE STUDY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SCIENCE

TARGET GROUP: TEACHERS

OBJECTIVES

·        To examine the efficacy of an experiential education framework for teaching and learning science and engineering practices in a water education unit for an elementary science classroom, to assess the process of an elementary science teacher working directly with a practising scientist.

SUMMARY

Research in water science education suggests that many students have misconceptions about the composition of the hydrosphere and how water flows, transforms and interacts in the natural world. Many students hold an incomplete representation of how water cycles on Earth – one where water only moves between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere, and subsurface reservoirs are not taken into consideration. Students’ experiences with water at school and home do not allow them to understand the basic natural processes in which water is involved. Student understanding of the natural processes of hydrological systems are generally on a global scale and lack awareness of and connection to their own local water systems. The experiential learning framework provides a basis to connect students to their local water resources through authentic field experiences. To support students in constructing scientific knowledge and practices, it is essential that elementary teachers develop a broad grasp of scientific content. Historically, elementary science standards have emphasized process skills, such as making observations and measurements of phenomena, creating hypotheses, and designing and carrying out experiments (National Research Council [NRC], 1996a). The educational shift of the NGSS (2013) presents a challenge to science teachers to integrate these three dimensions of learning through rigorous content to enrich science experiences through investigations and model simulations. These challenges include concerns about the application of NGSS due to their lack of content knowledge in engineering and ability to distinguish between scientific inquiry and engineering design. This shortcoming indicates a clear need to complement experiences of science practices with those of engineering practices.

REFERENCE

https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8PZ6S9Q/download