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Scientific Inquiry in the Elementary Classroom (mini-course) | ETAP 623 Fall 2023

About Me

My name is Naomi Bradley and I am a K-5 Science teacher. I work at a STEM-based school, so science is a special area class. I teach using the Next Generation Science Standards and am passionate about hands-on, scientific inquiry learning. I pursued my undergraduate studies at SUNY Brockport and received a Bachelor's in Inclusive Multidisciplinary Childhood Education. Currently, I am working towards my Master's degree in Curriculum Design and Instructional Technology and the University at Albany.

My Topic and Purpose

My mini-course is about teaching with scientific inquiry in K-5 education. This course will describe methods that can be used to teach scientific inquiry across multiple learning environments. I chose this topic because scientific inquiry is one of the best ways for students to learn. It allows students to engage in their own learning and create meaning by having hands-on experiences. Learning is done best by doing, therefore in science education it is imperative to provide students with these opportunities. Today science education requires teachers to move away from cookbook-style labs and allow students to dive deep into scientific inquiry learning.

Scope of Learning Outcomes and Content

Through this mini-course, the learner will learn what scientific inquiry is and how to apply it in the classroom, lab-style environments, and online in grades K-5. They will then work to design their own inquiry-based lesson plan in the setting that best matches their learning needs. Learners will gain an understanding of how to utilize the knowledge they gain in this course into their own individual classrooms and feel confident in implementing scientific inquiry in the classroom.

Content:

Learners will work through defining scientific inquiry and explaining the benefits of incorporating it into the curriculum.
Learners will work through multiple scenarios of different classroom environments and how scientific inquiry lessons can be incorporated.
Learners will summarize their learning through performance projects and a final assessment of their learning and confidence in implementing scientific inquiry lessons in their own setting.

Needs Assessment

Educational problem or opportunity
- Science education, especially in K-5 education, utilizes resources such as textbook readings and cookbook labs to teach students. This type of learning tells the student exactly what they are supposed to learn and removes any sense of creativity, innovation, or individuality in learning. Students are not encouraged to make their own meaning of a scientific concept and discover for themselves the connections between things in the scientific world, but instead told to follow a set of instructions to reach a desired goal. The opportunity here is to educate teachers on ways to get more students involved and engaged in their science learning, provide them with a way to make their own discoveries and connections, and to ensure that the learning has meaning to the student.
Learners/participants
- The learners involved will be new, experienced K-5 teachers, and/or elementary curriculum designer.
Analysis of gaps
- Currently, science education in the elementary setting is accomplished in a variety of ways. Typically, there is an hour block for teachers to teach their students using cookbook-style labs or textbook readings and responses. In other cases, teachers push science learning to the backburner in order to have more time for ELA or math. This mini-course is designed to provide the learner with the resources and confidence necessary to change their views and teaching style when teaching science, and shift it to a hands-on scientific inquiry science education.
Existing efforts
- The Next Generation Science Standards as well as curriculums such as Picture Perfect STEM speak to the existing efforts to have students engage in more inquiry-based activities. The standards include hands-on skills that the student should be able to do and the Picture Perfect STEM provides a way for educators to effectively teach their students utilizing the 5E model, Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. The conversation around science instruction for newer teachers has also made a shift to having students be more engaged in their learning.
Intent statement:
- This mini-course will help participants to reach the goal of having the resources and confidence to teach inquiry-based science lessons by working to explain what scientific inquiry is and why it is important, how to implement it across multiple settings: traditional classroom, lab setting, and online learning environments, and allow the participant to practice the skills they have learned.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

The learners of this mini-course are K-5 teachers, special area teachers and curriculum designers who are looking to improve their knowledge and skills within teaching scientific inquiry. This can include teachers that teach in-person, hybrid, or fully online. It can be utilized by new teachers or teachers with years of experience, just as long as they are seeking to improve on the way they teach science to their students and want to have students engage in deeper exploration activities. This mini-course is designed so that it can be completed anywhere that the learner has access to a computer and internet connection. The entire course will take about 7.5-8 hours in total, but it can be broken up by unit to about 45-90 minutes each. The learner will need access to the Internet, a computer/laptop, potentially a pencil and piece of paper, and a willingness to engage in learning how to implement scientific inquiry into their classroom setting.

Performance Objectives

After completing this mini-course, learners will be able to confidently implement scientific inquiry lessons into their classroom setting (traditional, special area/lab, online)
After completing this mini-course, learners will be able to define scientific inquiry
After completing this mini-course, learners will be able to explain why scientific inquiry is important
After completing this mini-course, learners will be able to create their own elementary scientific inquiry based lesson plan

Task Analysis

Before taking this mini-course, the learner should:

be familiar with using technology such as Google Sheets, Google Docs, and other similar technologies (pre-requisite)
be a current or future elementary educator (pre-requisite)
be looking to improve upon their current/future science instruction (pre-requisite)

Unit 1

What is Scientific Inquiry and Why is it Important

After completing this unit the learner will be able to:

define what scientific inquiry is
explain why scientific inquiry should be implemented into elementary classrooms
discuss the importance of scientific inquiry
complete a K-W-L chart about their progress in understanding scientific inquiry

Unit 2

How to Create my Own Scientific Inquiry Lessons