Download ppt - A K-12 LEARNING PROGRESSION TO SUPPORT ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Environmental Literacy Research Group

A K-12 LEARNING PROGRESSION TO SUPPORT ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Environmental Literacy Research Group

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY RESEARCH GROUP

Michigan State UniversityWorking Groups: Carbon, Water, Biodiversity

PartnersLong Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network

Alan Berkowitz, Baltimore Ecosystem Study Ali Whitmer, Santa Barbara Coastal John Moore, Shortgrass Steppe

University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of MichiganNorthwestern UniversityAAAS Project 2061


PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

Environmental Science Literacy in K-12 Ed What is and why is it important?

Learning Progressions Upper Anchor Framework (scientific reasoning Hypotheses about Lower Anchor (informal

reasoning) Lower Anchor and Transitions Research What’s Next? Comments & Questions


THE NEED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY

Humans are fundamentally altering natural systems that sustain life on Earth

Citizens need to understand science to make informed decisions that maintain Earth’s life supporting systems

Citizens act in multiple roles that affect environmental systems: as learners, consumers, voters, workers, volunteers, and advocates


BRINGING SCHOOL SCIENCE IN LINE WITH CURRENT SCIENCE PERSPECTIVES

Study of natural sciences has undergone shifts…

From individual disciplines (e.g., geology) to interdisciplinary fields (e.g., earth systems science)

From focus on natural systems to coupled human and natural systems

From retrospective (reconstructing past) to prospective (projecting future)


RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP and ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY

Environmental science literacy is the capacity to understand and participate in evidence-based decision-making about the effects of human actions in coupled human and natural environmental systems [LTER: socioecological systems]. (Anderson, et al., 2006)


PRACTICES OF ENVIRONMENTALSCIENCE LITERACY

• Engage in scientific inquiry to develop and evaluate scientific arguments from evidence

• Use scientific accounts of the material world as tools to predict and explain

• Use scientific reasoning in citizenship practices of environmental decision-making


LEARNING PROGRESSIONS

Learning progressions describe knowledge and practices about topics that are responsive to children’s ways of reasoning, and reflect gradually more sophisticated ways of thinking.

(Smith & Anderson, 2006)


Upper Anchor What high school students should know

and be able to do

Lower AnchorHow children think and make sense of the world

LEARNING PROGRESSIONSEnvironmental Literacy

Research Group

Transitions

Upper Anchor Inquiry: Finding and Explaining Patterns in Data

UPPER ANCHOR INQUIRYFINDING AND EXPLAINING PATTERNSIN DATA

1. Acquiring data

1. Standards: Accuracy and reproducibility rather than experientially real (“seeing is believing”)

2. Methods for acquiring accurate and reproducible data

2. Finding patterns in data

1. Experimental design

2. Uses of representations: tables, graphs, etc.

3. Explaining patterns in data

4. Critiques of investigations conducted by others.


LOWER ANCHOR INQUIRYLEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

1. Active engagement with the material world leading embodied experience: Tacit understanding of how the world works

1. Rolling balls

2. Towel drying

3. Growing up on a farm

2. Practical knowledge

1. Knowing how to rather than knowing how or why

2. Organized around practices rather than models


Upper Anchor: Producing and Using Accounts

UPPER ANCHOR ACCOUNTS FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Structure of Systems Atomic/molecular scale Macroscopic scale Large scale

Constraints on Processes Tracing matter Tracing energy Tracing information

Change over time Multiple causes and feedback loops Evolution by natural selection


UPPER ANCHOR ACCOUNTS STRANDS, SYSTEMS, AND PROCESSES

Carbon: Environmental systems create, transform, move, and destroy organic carbon Living systems at multiple scales Engineered systems at multiple scales

Water: Environmental systems create and move fresh water Atmospheric water, surface water, ground water, water in

living systems, engineered water systems Biodiversity: Environmental systems maintain

complex structure and function at multiple scales Homeostasis: maintaining structure and function Response to environment Change through natural and human selection


LOWER ANCHOR ACCOUNTS INFORMAL REASONING

Stories connected by metaphors What stories do people tell about environmental

systems and how do they connect them? Alike and different

How do people name or identify systems, processes, materials, forms of energy, etc.

Which ones do they see as alike and different? Egocentrism

How important are human uses and relationships to humans in accounts and ways of describing systems, processes, etc.?


LOWER ANCHOR ACCOUNTS STORIES CONNECTED BY METAPHORS

Process 1 Process 2 Process 3


Model-based connections:

Narrow focus across many stories

Stories: Accounts that encompass many aspects of a social and material process

Metaphorical or analogical connections among stories

UPPER AND LOWER ANCHORSCITIZENSHIP PRACTICES

Understanding science (or socioecological systems): See Inquiry and Accounts

Who do you trust? Deciding which knowledge claims to believe. Source credibility theory: Identity and group membership Epistemological stances: Perry; Belenky et al. Evaluating quality of arguments from evidence (upper)

What should I do? Deciding on positions or actions Decision research (Slovic): Experiential (identify, affiliation, personal

stories) and analytical (cost-benefit or risk-benefit analysis) systems Sources and nature of agency with respect to environmental issues

(including understanding of socioeconomic, cultural, and political systems and how they work?)


LOWER ANCHOR AND TRANSITIONSRESEARCH METHODS

Data Sources Paper and pencil assessments Teaching experiments, mostly aimed at seeing

and understanding student reasoning Interviews

Data Analysis Developing progress variables that we can

connect with both upper and lower anchors


General Trends from Elementary to High School

From stories to model-based accounts– Shift from why to how--purposes to mechanisms – BUT lack knowledge of critical parts of systems

From macroscopic to hierarchy of systems– Increased awareness of atomic-molecular and large-scale systems– BUT little success in connecting accounts at different levels

Increasing awareness of constraints on processes– Increasing awareness of conservation laws– BUT rarely successful in constraint-based reasoning

Increasing awareness of “invisible” parts of systems– Increasing detail and complexity – BUT gases, decomposers, connections between human and

natural systems remain “invisible”

WHAT’S NEXT?

Increase emphasis on inquiry and citizenship in addition to accounts

Refine assessments

Conduct teaching experiments to refine understanding of how students engage with and learn about environmental science

Use research to… Inform development of curriculum materials Inform development of new standards for formal K-

12 science education


QUESTIONS & COMMENTSMORE INFORMATION

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? QUERIES?

MORE INFORMATIONPaper, tests and other materials are available on our website at…http://edr1.educ.msu.edu/EnvironmentalLit/index.htm


http://www.nsf.gov/