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Communicating Ocean Sciences

Session 9: Designing a Lesson

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Session 8 objectives Learn that misconceptions/preconceptions in

science are common and can be hard to change

Gain an understanding of effective strategies for uncovering and addressing students’ misconceptions in science

Apply what you have learned in the course thus far to designing a lesson addressing a specific common misconception

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Quick Write

Discuss your classroom experiences so far--what have you discovered about your students? the school? the teacher? yourself?

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The Learning Cycle

Invitation

Application Exploration

Concept Introduction

Lessons from Thin AirAnnenberg Foundation

video series,

Minds of Their Own

Identify strategies (cite examples) of when the interviewers:

Uncover misconceptions Address the misconceptions

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Strategies Used to Uncover Misconceptions

Asked questions to find out what the student already knew before instruction

Asked questions to find out what the student remembered after instruction, one month later

Asked questions to find out what the student was thinking

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Strategies Used to Address Misconceptions

Identified a more basic idea that the student did not understand

“Adapted the curriculum” and presented new activities with new materials to address the specific needs of the student

Asked questions to prod the student into thinking more deeply about the subject matter

Brought in information and evidence that conflicted with the student’s ideas, through the use of more focused questions, forcing the student to rethink ideas

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Common Misconceptions in Science

Density: Some students think that big things sink and little things float.

Some students think the majority of what makes up the mass of plants comes from soil, water, and nutrients.

Some students have trouble defining what is living—some, for example, think fire is alive.

Some students don’t think humans are animals. Some students think every structure on an organism has

adaptive value. Some students think individual organisms adapt. Some students think the seasons are caused by the Earth

moving closer or farther away from the Sun. Some students believe that the concentration is greater at

the bottom of the container in a solution.

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Constructing a LessonGoal: What is the goal of the lesson?1) Invitation: What would you ask to get students interested?2) Discussion of initial ideas: What would you ask to draw

out ideas?3) Exploration: How would you use materials to get students

to think further?4) Discussion of concepts: How would you guide students to

new ideas?5) Application: What challenge or application would you use

to give another opportunity to learn the new ideas?6) Assessment: How will you find out if students have

adopted new ideas as their own?

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Selected Ocean Science ConceptsGrade 1— Some materials tend to float, other materials tend to sink.— Whether or not something sinks or floats depends on the material, not on the

size of the object.— Water drops seem to have a “stretchy skin”.— Water drops are attracted to one another.— Rocks, shells and other beach drift become sand as they are broken into

smaller pieces by the crashing waves.— There are different kinds of seashore––some are sand, some are gravel and

some are rocky.— Different types of animals and plants are adapted to live at different types of

seashores.— The name for the very special home where animals find the shelter, food, and

water that they need is called a habitat.— The creatures of the rocky seashore habitat have special adaptations to

survive the crashing waves and changing tides.— Crayfish have special adaptations to survive in their aquatic habitat.— Crayfish have many parts and behaviors in common with other crustaceans,

but they are also very different.

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Selected Ocean Science ConceptsGrade 2—Objects found on a sandy beach can be grouped into: evidence of

plant and seaweed life, evidence of (non-human) animal life, evidence of humans, and non-living material.

—Sand is made up of tiny bits of everything that is found on a sandy beach.

—Sand grains can be made of animals, plants, seaweed, rocks, or minerals.

—Sand grains come in many different shapes, sizes and colors.—Differences between sand grains can be clues about where the

sand came from and how it got to the beach.—Oil spilled at sea can travel with currents, tides, and waves to the

sandy beach where it can harm the plants, seaweed and animals that live there.

—Oil spills are almost impossible to clean up. People can help to prevent them by reducing their use of oil.

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Selected Ocean Science ConceptsGrade 3—Estuaries are special wetlands where salt and fresh water mix.—Estuaries include open water, mud flats and salt marshes.—Many different kinds of organisms live in an estuary. Each organism

lives in a particular part of the estuary.—Estuaries provide habitat for many different types of living things.—Human impact may harm estuary communities.—Scientists need to make careful observations and communicate them

clearly in order to learn about the natural world.—Each animal has special body parts and ways of behaving, which are

adaptations to survive and be successful in their habitat.—Scientists use dissection as a way of learning more about an animal’s

body parts and how the parts work together. These body parts are called structures.

—Crayfish have many adaptations to survive and thrive in a wetland habitat.

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Selected Ocean Science ConceptsGrade 3—Scientists learn about the world through an inquiry process.—Inquiry science consists of making observations about the world, asking

questions about the observations, doing investigations to discover answers to questions and making new observations leading to new explanations and questions.

—Scientists communicate about their own and their peers’ investigations and explanations.

—Salinity is a measure of the amount of salt dissolved in a liquid.—Fresh water will float on top of saltier water.—Fresh water is less dense than salt water.—Salinity currents can form when fresh water from the land and salt water from

the ocean meet in an estuary.—Different types of shorebirds can feed together in one area because each type is

adapted to feed on different types of prey. (This is called resource partitioning.)—Adaptations are features or behaviors that improve an organism’s chance for

survival.— Scientists often use math when they gather data about animals. Graphing the

data helps us to discover patterns and explain observations.

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Selected Ocean Science ConceptsGrade 4—Different kinds of fishes have many similarities since all are adapted to be

survivors in a water habitat.—Fish come in a great variety of forms, colors, and shapes and these

adaptations can be used to predict their habitat and lifestyle.—The white light that comes from the sun is actually a mixture of the seven

different colors seen in a rainbow.—Each color of light has a different wavelength, and carries a different

amount of energy.—The ocean acts as a filter and allows only certain colors to pass through to

the deep, while it absorbs other colors in the top few meters.—Some fish hide from predators at depth by using camouflage color.—Different kinds of seaweed (red, brown or green) grow at different depths in

the ocean because they use specific colors of light for photosynthesis.

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Selected Ocean Science ConceptsGrade 5—Most of our planet is covered in ocean, but only a small fraction of the ocean supports large

concentrations of life. —There is only one ocean! Our Earth is covered by one interconnected world ocean that circulates around

all the continents.—Things dumped into the ocean may be distributed by currents throughout the ocean.—Wind and the temperature differences between masses of water are two factors that cause currents.—Winds blowing across the surface of the ocean--combined with other factors--cause major circulating

currents, or gyres.—Salinity and temperature differences create masses of water with different densities.—Gravity causes more dense water to sink below less dense water. As a result, the less dense water

rises.—Plankton have adaptations that help them avoid sinking below sunlit photic zones.—Pelagic creatures are organism living in the open ocean.—Looking closely at an animal like the squid can tell us a lot about the adaptations needed to survive and

thrive as a pelagic creature.—Many people depend on squids for food or for their livelihood. More discussion among these people will

help create solutions to the problem of diminishing squid populations.—Evolution is change in an organism over time.—Over the last 50 million years, whales have evolved from land mammals into ocean mammals.—The open ocean is home to many different organisms that interact with one another as predators, prey or

competitors.

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Addressing a Specific Misconception

What was difficult about this assignment? What caused you to think the hardest? What did you need more information about? How did this experience help you to prepare you

science activity and teaching strategy?

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Peer Review of Lesson Ideas Share your lesson plan with a

partner Use the Constructing a Lesson

handout as a guide for advising each other