Activitymania

The first science class lesson as a student in the elementary education program came straight out of a plastic tub in a 6th grade classroom at Kirkwood Elementary. At first, I thought to myself, "Oh wow, what a nice thing for the teacher to have access to! They have all of the equipment first hand, direction sheets printed out and result lists ready to go." This was during my Orientation course so I only got to see the students once a week but made a point to ask them what they learned since the last time I saw them. (obviously hinting at what in science did they learn, so I could get an idea about the topic I had most interest in) Unfortunately, so many of the responses were inconclusive and taught me that esstentially they learned 1 or 2 things, not so much concepts/big ideas, but details they remember from the activities they did in class. I found this to be alarming since they had so many resources to explore scientific phenomena and discover the relationships of the natual world around them. After reading "Activitymania," I have been able to synthesize my uneasy observation. They were not given enough opportunity for inquiry.


As the article states large on its first page(s), "Students learn the difference between "doing science" and doing science activities." As I related to an experience above, students need the concept of inquiry such as formulating a question, creating an investigation, formulating explanations, evaluating or reflecting on explanations and communicating their proposed explanations. Another difference between activitymania and inquiry is that assessment should be an on-going and authentic process (formative assessment) versus the immediate and specific answer assessment of activitymania.


It is easy for me to say now as an idealist that I really want to utilize these techniques of inquiry in my future classroom. They show that the students are really getting engaged, being in control of their learning and actually formulating knowledge from their investigations. Something from the article that made me realize that I will have to work on perfecting is my defining of conceptual goals and relationships of students' lives PRIOR to chosing which activity is appropriate. I find nothing wrong with small group, hands on activities; as long as they require the students to do the thinking and creating. Of course, if it is a more complex subject matter, I will propse the scientific explanations necessary, but once the inquiry work has been completed.
I plan to utilize the table illustrating the differences between activitymania and inquiry in my future when creating lessons so that I know what I should strive to be and what I need to avoid being.
A way to end like the wise:
"This movement will better ensure the development of scientifically literate citizens who will use science when making decisions to solve tomorrow's problems," (p. 18).