Scientific knowledge has always been seen as something that some people possess (and hence they are smart) and others don’t quite get. In many ways it comes across as an individualistic field of endeavour that requires very little social interaction. However, as Radinsky, Olivia & Alamar (2010) point out that scientific knowledge is produced by “communities of scientists generate new knowledge through a collective, contested, negotiated process, based on communication and mutual accommodation of ideas”. This view of how scientific knowledge is generated builds on social constructivism theory of Vygotsky. Applying a social constructivist approach in the classroom helps students to have better conceptual understanding because of they are able to discuss and argue their ideas with their peers.<\/p>\n
Learning for Use (LfU) model, which is also based on a constructivist approach to learning, is based on three core principles, motivating to acquire knowledge, constructing knowledge and refining knowledge (Edelson, 2001). I believe that the LfU model can be beneficial in help students acquire scientific knowledge in a manner that helps them to construct their knowledge in a meaningful way. The interactions that this model provides, as exemplified by the Create-a-World Project (Edelson, 2001), gives students an opportunity to use their inquiry skills to have a better understanding of the world and the way scientific knowledge is acquired.<\/p>\n
I teach a course about environmental chemistry and one of the aims of the course is to get students to have an appreciation for how the choices we make, especially with regards to pollution and living in a sustainable manner, have an impact on the world we are leaving for the future. In using the LfU model to teach one aspect of this course, these are the activities I would plan.<\/p>\n
Motivation:
\nActivities create a demand for knowledge when they demand require that learners apply that knowledge to complete them successfully.
\nStudents would be asked to work in groups to create their dream city, identifying the natural and man-made resources and what they believe the ideal population density would be based on the size of their city. Groups would have to give reasons for the choices they have made.<\/p>\n
Construction of Knowledge:
\nActivities that provide learners with direct experience of novel phenomena can enable them to observe relationships that they encode in new knowledge structures.
\nEach group will be use ArcGIS maps to view a selected city. The maps will show two views of the city, one which was from almost 30 years ago and the other which is the present-day view of the city. Groups will analyse the images for changes in the features of the city. Groups will do further research to determine the factors that have lead to changes in the features of the cities.<\/p>\n
Refining Knowledge:
\nActivities that provide opportunities for learners to retrospectively reflect upon their knowledge and
\nexperiences retrospectively, provide the opportunity to reorganize and reindex their knowledge.
\nGroups will then go back to consider their dream city and discuss the likelihood of some of the changes they observed on the ArcGIS maps happening to their city. Groups will also discuss what plans they would implement to prevent these changes from occurring.<\/p>\n
Edelson, D. C. (2001). Learning\u2010for\u2010use: A framework for the design of technology\u2010supported inquiry
\nactivities. Journal of Research in Science teaching, 38(3), 355-385.<\/p>\n
Radinsky, J., Oliva, S., & Alamar, K. (2010). Camila, the earth, and the sun: Constructing an idea as
\nshared intellectual property. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47(6), 619-642.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scientific knowledge has always been seen as something that some people possess (and hence they are smart) and others don’t quite get. In many ways it comes across as an individualistic field of endeavour that requires very little social interaction. However, as Radinsky, Olivia & Alamar (2010) point out that scientific knowledge is produced by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46837,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1669391],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-lfu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46837"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5233,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5232\/revisions\/5233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}