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Science as story telling:

Good points:

Allows all learners to become more active with less fear of being “wrong”.

Allows students to utilize and share background knowledge.  Creating open dialog and shared experiences therefore creating teaching and learning experiences.

“Getting less wrong” works well within the classroom setting when utilized with the question, “Why are your results different than…?”  Opens the mind to considering what could be done differently next time.

Bad points:

Opens subjectivity to new learners which becomes difficult for students still within the concrete thinking stage.

Often students want an answer cut and dry – this often becomes frustrating for the student.

My three chosen science words were hard, boring, and fascinating. These became the first words that came to mind based on the opinions that I hear from students and parents on a regular basis. I spend a great deal of time teaching students to get rid of the preconceived notions that science is hard or boring. I utilize the premise that a student has plenty of background knowledge to incorporate into the new learning processes and labs are subjective therefore they will only be asked, “Why is your lab different from the expected results?” By eliminating the stress of being view as “wrong” the student usually finds some fascination.