"Initial thoughts" still wanted for posting at collaboration web site (http://serendipstudio.org/local/scisoc/lansdownefriends/31may06.html - email them to me (pgrobste@brynmawr.edu) Continuing on-line conversation at http://serendipstudio.org/forum/viewforum.php?forum_id=410

Issues of technology use in relation to hands on, inquiry based approaches and Quaker values

• see Hazen, Dixon, edtech04
• to be subject of future session

• additional expertise from PTO science committee
  • Pennsylvania, national standards: "openings and barriers"
• and from writing through out the curriculum
  • Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard
  • Model for science, "throughout the curriculum", by all teachers?

• commitment to hands on, inquiry based, open-ended, transactional (ie collective "getting it less wrong")
• commitment to engaging with others making observations/interpretations, ie scientific literature
  • Science Times (New York Times, Tuesday)
  • Scientific American
  • Serendip
  • other on line, off-line materials
    • Science Online, from AAAS
    • Project 2061, science literacy resources from AAAS
    • other mechanisms (journal clubs, library, parent involvement)?

• What currently doing and why?
  • Exploring wide variety of things that are
    • loved by kids
    • age appropriate
    • available
    • usable in classrooms
    • fit into available time
    • generate new questions (some "models" don't)
    • take advantage of targets of opportunity (floods)
    • with some naming of "science", "scientists"
    • relevant to, motivated by social studies subjects/concerns (recycling, health, culture, etc)
  • Cross grade coordination primarily to avoid redundancy/duplication
  • Relatively little building on expectations, either in content or in skill
  • Contrast to language arts, math skill development
• Some ideas to build with?
  • think of science as "inquiry", organize curriculum around development of "inquiry skills"?
  • think about content in relation to inquiry skill development sequence?
    • PreK, K ... enjoyment of seeing new things (making observations, imagining)
    • some time in grades 1-2, discover use of models/abstractions to motivate new observations?
    • some time in grades 3-4, putting thoughts into words, using those to motivate new questions/observations?
    • to continue (awareness of effect of interpretations on observations?, ability to use that?)
  • Are PreK kids wanting to know "answers", inclined to black/white?
    • by innate sequence or by prior acculturation?
    • "two year olds speak better than four year olds" ... ("I went to store" vs "I goed to store")
    • to continue
• What want kids to come out with at end of PreK-6?
  • Be comfortable with/skilled at living not in black and white but "in grey"?
  • to be continued

Inquiry skill	Questions explored	Background knowledge	Communication Ability/Awarenesses
curiosity (inclination to make new observations imagination (story telling ability) ability to distinguish observations from interpretations ability to use interpretations to generate new observations ability to recognize/use multiple interpretations from a given set of observations ability to recognize/use dependence of observations on interpretations ability to make productive use of other peoples' observations/intepretations	Who am I? What is outside of me? What is life? What is the relation of living and non-living things? What is culture? What/why is change?	scales in space and time biology psychology earth science astronomy chemistry physics mathematics/statistics logic/computer science	personal knowledge and conveying it use collective knowledge contribute to collective knowledge assess collective knowledge

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