![]() ![]() Teach Engineering: Light Scavengers (Grades 3-5) In this lesson, students learn the five words that describe how light interacts with objects: “transparent,” “translucent,” “opaque,” “reflection” and “refraction.” Teach Engineering: Investigating Light (Grades 3-5) For more information about asking effective questions, please refer to “ Questioning Techniques: Research-Based Strategies for Teachers.” Conversations and questioning techniques can also be used to guide and shape student understanding. We’ve highlighted a few lessons below, and more can be found in “ Hands-on Science and Literacy Activities About Solar Energy.” Content area reading, such as our Feature Story and titles from our Virtual Bookshelf, can extend and supplement the hands-on inquiry.Ĭontinual formative assessment and dialogue about these topics will help you understand what your students are learning and how to best plan future instruction. Lessons and activities that provide hands-on experiences or simulations of these concepts can help students develop a correct understanding. For example, when you teach reflection of light, do you include shiny and dull objects in investigations? If students always talk about reflection in the context of mirrors, they are much more likely to believe that only shiny objects reflect light. Evaluating lesson plans, textbooks, and children’s literature for correct use of terminology and concepts is an important step in promoting scientific understanding.Īn awareness of the role instruction can play in the formation of misconceptions is also important. However, there are steps that elementary teachers can take to ensure that students begin to develop correct scientific concepts. While they may be introduced in the elementary grades, teachers should remember that students will develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding over the years and that complete mastery of these concepts is not to be expected at this point. Concepts such as reflection and absorption are difficult and cannot be easily visualized. It is also important to remember that some of the misconceptions regarding light may be appropriate for students’ current developmental level. In some situations, researchers found that students developed two parallel explanations for scientific events: one for science class and one for the “real world!” Instead of becoming discouraged, teachers should be aware of the ideas that students bring with them to science and how these might influence instruction and learning. However, it is important to understand that children may be quite resistant to change even when these suggestions are carefully followed. Researchers recommend using a hands-on approach and providing adequate time and repeated activities to create the conditions necessary for conceptual change. While identifying student misconceptions is fairly straightforward, creating conceptual change is not.
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