Development and Use of Teaching Case Materials

• In Event: Developing Middle School Teachers’ Understandings About Scientific Inquiry and Investigations: A Case of Formal-Informal Partnerships

Abstract

This presentation focuses on the development and refinement of a teaching case using authentic secondary scientific data sets; the case is intended to help build teachers’ understanding of the NOS and how to conduct investigations using secondary data. Recent publications (NRC, 2005; 2007) indicate that if learners are to develop deep understandings about science, they must do science. The teaching case supports teachers’ understanding of SI and investigations. It focuses on field research of the zebra mussel invasion in the Hudson River ecosystem and consists of text passages, video segments, and an interactive web site that provides access to scientific data sets using online graphing and data analysis tools. A written case study is used with the videos to provide background information about the history of the zebra mussel invasion and how scientists gather data to investigate this phenomenon. The videos feature scientists and include interviews, field and laboratory footage, and animations to illustrate concepts such as food webs and ecosystem change. The website provides learners access to a 24 year data set that includes biotic and abiotic variables. Learners access secondary data sets related to the zebra mussel invasion of the Hudson River ecosystem via a web-based interactive data visualization tool. Feedback from reviewers resulted in several changes to the materials, including placing more emphasis on how data are collected to monitor the impact of the zebra mussels on the river ecosystem, better capturing scientists’ daily work and the critical role of skepticism and debate in developing new field methods and interpreting results. In addition, we created and revised an online graphing tool that allows users to select from a variety of biotic and abiotic variables to investigate patterns and correlations in data.
This case was developed and used within the larger context of UA, which is committed to increasing access to science for educators, students, and families, as well as increasing the scientific knowledge of those varied stakeholders. UA is itself a partnership between eight informal science education institutions in New York City (NYC) which provide PD for middle school science teachers across the NYC public schools, as well as providing access to informal institutions for students and their families. PD providers across the partner institutions coordinate their PD efforts on long-term science investigations and have developed, as part of that work, a set of teaching tools intended to support teacher and student learning (discussed in Presentations 3 and 4).
Project staff used the case materials in PD with new and continuing UA teachers. New teachers participated in activities to build their understanding of aquatic ecosystems through museum exhibition activities, primary data collection in the field, and an in-depth experience with the teaching case materials. In addition, teachers learned about and used several graphic organizers to help scaffold their own and their students’ use of the materials. Finally, teachers completed secondary research investigations using the zebra mussel data set and experienced a variety of strategies to build both their understanding of ecology concepts, SI and investigations.

Author

• Suzanne Elgendy, American Museum of Natural History