Jessica Bianculli, M.Ed. Director of Professional Development

INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING

Agenda

How STEM connects to the instructional shifts embedded in the Common Core State Standards.

Effective ways to apply STEM competencies to impact lesson planning and assessment with a focus on increasing application of content knowledge.

Strategies for implementing inquiry-based instruction with an emphasis on critical thinking skills.

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STEM – Common Core Connections

Science – Technology – Engineering – Math

View the standards through a lens of inquiry-based instruction

Focus on cross-curricular connections, problem solving, & disciplinary literacy

Real-world application and analysis of content knowledge

Student-centered learning environment

STEM – Common Core Connections

The instructional shifts in Common Core ELA and Math are calling for increased rigor.

“Rigor is more than what you teach, it’s how you teach, and how students show you they understand content.”

Barbara Blackburn, Ph.D http://www.barbarablackburnonline.com/rigor/

“Rigorous mathematics refers to a deep, authentic command of mathematical concepts.”

Making the Shifts - Sandra Alberti http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-

leadership/dec12/vol70/num04/Making-the-Shifts.aspx

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Next Generation Science Standards: Performance Expectations

1. Asking Questions and Defining Problems

2. Developing and Using Models

3. Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

4. Analyzing and Interpreting Data

5. Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

6. Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

7. Engaging in Argument from Evidence

8. Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

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CCSS Standards for Mathematical Practice

Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

Model with mathematics.

Use appropriate tools strategically.

Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

Look for and make use of structure.

Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Attend to precision.

Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

NGSS: Science Performance Expectations

1. Asking Questions and Defining Problems

2. Developing and Using Models

3. Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

1. Analyzing and Interpreting Data

2. Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

3. Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

4. Engaging in Argument from Evidence

5. Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

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STEM in the “Real” World

“The meaning of ‘knowing’ has shifted from being able to remember and repeat to being able to find and use it.”

-National Research Council, 2007

What does this mean for a typical “teacher-centered” classroom?

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STEM Education

A transformation from the typical teacher-centered classroom to:

Student-centered learning

Driven by:

problem-solving

discovery

exploratory learning

active engagement

CER Model

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http://www.edutopia.org/blog/science-inquiry-claim-evidence-reasoning-eric-brunsell

Designing Science Inquiry: Claim + Evidence + Reasoning = Explanation

Eric Brunsell

5 Step Process

What are you curious about? What do you want to know? This is your driving question.

What will you need to answer your question? Start researching and experimenting!

This is your evidence.

Analyze and reflect on your data. Are you on the right track?

This is your reasoning.

Did you find the answer to your question?

If so, this is your claim.

How will you communicate your findings?

This is your explanation.

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Dan Meyer’s Water Tank

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What Can You Do With This: Water Tank?

http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=5990

Use the 5 Step Process

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1. What do you want to know?

2. What will you need to answer your question?

3. Analyze and reflect on your data. Are you on the right track?

4. Did you find the answer to your question?

5. How will you communicate your findings?

Reflect

What critical thinking skills are we helping students develop?

How can this process provide more rigor in our instruction?

How can this process connect to other content areas?

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CER Model

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http://www.edutopia.org/blog/science-inquiry-claim-evidence-reasoning-eric-brunsell

Designing Science Inquiry: Claim + Evidence + Reasoning = Explanation

Eric Brunsell

What do you observe in this photograph?

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What does this graffiti image mean?

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What information do you need to answer this question?

Evidence and Reasoning to Support your Claim

Evidence

“Banksy” is a United Kingdom-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.

This graffiti was drawn on Israel's West Bank barrier

The barrier is a wall/fence under construction by the State of Israel

Reasoning

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Based on evidence & reasoning, what is your claim?

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What does this image mean?

Questions to Spur Inquiry

1. What do you think?

2. Why do you think that?

3. How do you know?

4. Can you tell me more?

5. What questions do you still have?

5 Powerful Questions Teaches Can Ask Students

October 31, 2013 - Rebecca Alber http://www.edutopia.org/blog/five-powerful-questions-teachers-ask-students-rebecca-alber

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Reflect

How could this model change…

The way we plan our lessons?

Organize our classroom?

The teacher’s role in the classroom?

The students’ role in the classroom?

Our view of “testing” for mastery of content/concepts?

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Creating Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing

Evaluating Justifying a decision or course of action Checking, hypothesizing, critiquing, experimenting, judging

Analyzing Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships Comparing, organizing, deconstructing, interrogating, finding

Applying Using information in another familiar situation Implementing, carrying out, using, executing

Understanding Explaining ideas or concepts

Interpreting, summarizing, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining Remembering Recalling information Recognizing, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding

Bloom’s Taxonomy: Revised

Tinkering

“Tinkering is the way that real science happens, in all its messy glory,” says Sylvia Martinez, co-author of the new book, Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering the Classroom

Martinez is one of the leaders of the “makers’ movement,” a nationwide effort to help kids discover the value of getting their hands dirty and their minds engaged. The next generation of scientists—and artists, and inventors, and entrepreneurs—may depend on it.

How Do We Inspire Young Inventors?

Annie Murphy Paul | November 25, 2013

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/11/how-do-we-inspire-young-inventors

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Tinkering and the 5 E’s Inquiry Cycle

Each Open MAKE event constitutes the culmination of a whole month dedicated to exploring a different theme, centering activities, exhibits, and artists around a new material.

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Engage

Explore

Explain Elaborate

Evaluate http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/blog

Audri's Monster Trap

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Hypothesis:

10-20 Failures

1-2 Successes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMboI4cOAuQ

He is 7 years old and wants to be a

theoretical physicist when he grows up

and has big plans to study robotics at

MIT.

STEM Competencies

Skills:

Critical Thinking: ability to use

logic and reasoning

Active Learning: Understanding the implications of new information for problem-solving and decision-making.

Complex Problem Solving: develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.

http://cew.georgetown.edu/stem/

Abilities: Problem Sensitivity: The ability

to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong.

Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems.

Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions

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Thank You!

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