Essential Science for Teachers: Life Science: Session 1. What Is Life?
What distinguishes living things from dead and nonliving things? No single characteristic is enough to define what is meant by life. In this session, five characteristics are introduced as unifying themes in the living world.,This segment shows an analogy of a car and a cell and how the analogy breaks down.
Essential Science for Teachers: Life Science: Session 4. Plant Life Cycles
What is a plant? One distinguishing feature of members of the Plant Kingdom is their life cycle. In this session, flowering plants serve as examples for studying the plant life cycle by considering the roles of seeds, flowers, and fruits. A comparison to animal life cycles reveals some surprising similarities and intriguing differences.,This segment looks at the similarities between plants and animals. Children give their ideas about seeds. Most children believe that plants do not reproduce se
Essential Science for Teachers: Life Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,Student interview on natural selection and evolution. A look at how students explain the development of different species.
Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,In this segment the interviewer is trying to find out if the student understands that even though you may mix two things together, the individual components still retain their properties.
Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,This segment shows an example of the interviewer having the student use before and after drawings to show how the mountain was different millions of years ago. The student mentions the mountain is higher and when asked why, she mentions "pushing". The segment shows how the interviewer probes further to find out what she means by "pushing" and what causes the oush. The student continues to use her idea of water cu
Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,In this segment the interviewer is trying to find out if the student understands that even though you may mix two things together, the individual components still retain their properties.
Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,In this segment the interviewer is using the phenomenon of salt dissolving in water to build upon the student's previous ideas about mixing substances together. This time the student sees one of the substances as "disappearing." Even though he says the mixture will still taste salty, which is evidence that there is salt in the water, he shows that he holds on to a belief that the salt has disappeared and is gone.
Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,The segment shows how the interviewer uses a series of probing questions to find out Emily's ideas about how rain and wind can break rock. He presents Emily with a rock and water and asks her to demonstrate and explain her ideas. As he probes he elicits ideas about cracks in the rock and asks Emily to explain how that happens. His probing begins to reveal that Emily also has ideas about the force of water and str
Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,The interviewer probes for the student's ideas about what would happen to the weight when a substance is dissolved. He asks the student to make a prediction and they test it using a balance scale. The student accepts the idea that the weight remains the same with the substance they tested but when asked what would happen with other substances, such as sugar, the student reverts back to the tenacious idea he holds
Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,This segment shows an example of the interviewer probing to find out if the student thinks dissolving is the same as melting, a commonly held idea.
Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,This segment shows an example of the interviewer probing to find out if the student thinks dissolving is the same as melting, a commonly held idea.
Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,The segment shows the interviewer using an example of sand mixed with water to find out if the student thinks the sand and water has changed when it is mixed together. The interviewer asks questions about the amount of water and sand and the colors of the sand and water- would they be the same after they are separated back into their individual components.The part of the benchmark addressed: Some features of thin
Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,In this segment the interviewer is trying to find out if the student understands the idea that even though you may change some things, such as mixing two things together, the individual components still retain their properties.
Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,Throughout the video the student holds on to an idea that continents drifted apart because they were pushed by ocean currents. This video provides an example of how the interviewer conforonted the student with her drawing to have her think whether her personal theory made sense. He asked her how ocean currents could cause drift if there was no ocean, as seen on her diagram of the large land mass. When she tries t
Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,This segment shows the interviewer having the student put her drawings together and describe the story of what happened from beginning to present as well as predict into the future what may happen to the land mass of India. He uses a variety of techniques besides the drawing- having the student represent what is happening with hand movements and using a globe to make her prediction about the location of India in
Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,When Emily makes a statement about salt being in water, the interviewer probes further to find out her ideas about rain and the water cycle. She has some correct ideas about the water evaporating from oceans and coming down again as rain but has the incorrect notion that the salt evaporates with the water. He tries to challenge her thinking by having her think about familiar phenomena like tasting the salt in oce
Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,The interviewer uses photos of two mountains to probe for the student's ideas about how rock on the mountains breaks down. As he probes, the student uses the idea of decomposers to explain the process rather than wind or rain.
Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,The interviewer uses photos of two mountains to probe for the student's ideas about how rock on the mountains breaks down. As he probes, the student uses the idea of decomposers to explain the process rather than wind or rain.
Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,The interviewer is trying to find out the student's ideas about how rain can break down rock before leading into the more sophisticated idea of how water (rain) can wear down mountains. He asks the student to explain his ideas about how something as hard as a rock can be broken down by rain and whether the force of the rain makes a difference.
Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science
In-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand.,The interviewer is trying to find out the student's ideas about how rain can break down rock before leading into the more sophisticated idea of how water (rain) can wear down mountains. He asks the student to explain his ideas about how something as hard as a rock can be broken down by rain and whether the force of the rain makes a difference.
