Mark Schober

This week we talk with Mark Schober about using Modeling Instruction in the science classroom.  As president of the American Modeling Teacher’s Association, Mark shares with us a history of modeling, how it can be used in the classroom and that it is for more than just physics courses.

Links

• Schober’s Physics: ModelingPhysics.org
• Contact Mark Schober
• Modeling Instruction in High School Physics
• Weblinks for Modelers (from ASU)
• American Modeling Teachers Association
• ASU Modeling Instruction Program
• Modeling Physical Science (UW-Oshkosh)
• Modeling Instruction from Frank Noschese
• Modeling Instruction in Physics channel on Vimeo

To listen to this episode, download the mp3 directly, find us on iTunes, or use the player below.

Dr. Jonathan Osborne

Join us to kick off our 2011-2012 season by talking science standards with Jonathan Osborne from Stanford University.  As a committee member who helped draft the Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards released this summer, Osborne talks to us about science practices, crosscutting concepts and core ideas found within the framework.

Preview from the Show:

The intention of this document was that it would spell out the kind of broad framework of what it was that a science education K-12 should attempt to achieve.  And the framework… basically has conceptualized this really in terms of it being a framework for the practices, which are: what kinds of things do scientists do, what are the cross-cutting concepts that appear in all of the sciences, and then what are the core ideas?  And the core ideas are conceptualized in terms of life science, physical sciences, earth sciences, and what we may call ideas that are central to engineering. …This document will be used to write a set of standards, which will be the set of common core standards in science.

…there are these practices that scientists engage in: asking questions, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations using modeling.  And therefore, you can’t really say that you’ve got a rounded science education or complete science education if you don’t spell out to students that this process of analyzing and interpreting data is something that is fundamental and key to science.

Education is about making people think.  It’s about interesting people in a topic.  It’s about engaging them so that they will pursue it for the rest of their lives.  Now I’m speaking to this kind of mythical parent here, but if you just want them to know the stuff – yeah, sure, they’ll know it for the test tomorrow.  But you’ll not be leaving them with the legacy, or enduring interest and love of a subject.  And do you want your kid to be someone who’s stimulated, engaged and interested in school?  Or do you want them to be someone who regards [school] as a boring place where all they have to do is get a lot of information shoved down their throat, regurgitate and forget it the next day?  At the moment, we do too much of the latter in science education.  And I don’t blame the teachers for that; a lot of it’s about the assessment and the ways in which that assessment has become high-stakes.  And there’s not enough space for making things and exploring ideas.  That’s what education should really be about – exploring ideas.

Links:

• Jonathan Osborne, Stanford
• Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards  The book can be read or downloaded at no charge from the National Academies Press.
• Committee on Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards
• Next Generation Science Standards
• Happy 5th Anniversary

Featured Image used with Permission from the National Academy of Sciences

To listen to this episode, download the mp3 directly, find us on iTunes, or use the player below.

Our guest this week is Jim Brey, Director of the Education Program at the American Meteorological Society.  Jim talks to us about the AMS Education Program, which promotes the teaching of atmospheric, oceanographic, and hydrologic sciences through pre-college teacher training and instructional resource material development.

Links:

• AMS Education Program
• DataStreme Atmosphere – Links to weather maps and other items of interest
• DataStreme Ocean - Links to ocean data and maps and other items of interest
• Ocean in the Earth System Book (Read Chapter 1)
• Weather Studies Book (Read Chapter 1)
• AMS Contacts
• AMS News Releases
• Jim Brey, 2003 Wisconsin Professor of the Year
• Video of Simulated Tornado

Direct download: LOL31.mp3

Get a preview of what’s in store for you at the 2008 National Conference on Science Education, as we chat with conference chair Joyce Croce.

New to an NSTA Conference?

Direct download: nstalol10.mp3

Gerry Wheeler

Meet the hosts of NSTA’s Lab Out Loud podcast – Dale Basler and Brian Bartel. Later, we chat with NSTA Executive Director Gerry Wheeler, as he reflects on Sputnik and its impact on science education, the importance of science literacy and 21st century skills, and how NSTA is helping science teachers both young and old.

WSST

• The Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers
• WSST’s Periodicity

Gerry Wheeler Reflects on Sputnik:

• When Science Suddenly Mattered, in Space and in Class (NY Times)
• Sputnik Left Legacy for U.S. Science Education (NPR)
• Sputnik heralded space race, focus on learning (USA Today)
• Science: Sputnik Redux (Edutopia)

Visit NSTA’s new website at www.nsta.org NSTA’s New Science Teacher Academy
With support from The Amgen Foundation, the program will support new middle and secondary school science educators by providing opportunities for professional development such as online mentoring and financial support to attend NSTA’s national conference.

• New Science Teacher Academy
• The Amgen Foundation
• The Science and Mathematics Teacher Shortage: Fact and Myth

Toyota Tapestry

• Home
• 2008 Online Proposal

Direct download: nsta_lol1.mp3