ERIC Number: EJ1161559
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Nov
Pages: 6
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0036-8148
EISSN: N/A
The Case of Polar Bears
Rowlands, Olivia; Hokayem, Hayat; Biediger, Debbie
Science and Children, v55 n3 p60-65 Nov 2017
"A Framework for K-12 Science Education" emphasizes the need to teach students the core ideas of science through capitalizing on students' curiosity to discover the world around them (NRC 2012). Children's experiences vary, and for educators to engage them in the process of science, they need to think of diverse ways to nourish their inborn curiosity. Research has advocated the "pedagogy of multi-literacies" that can serve two purposes: embracing diversity and attending to the different learning styles (Cope and Kalantzis 2000, p. 61). Millard (2003) calls for a "literacy of fusion" where various discourses (such as technology/mass media and academic) serve to teach children the required concepts. The authors have therefore used the 5E model (Bybee 2015) to design a lesson that fuses several modalities to teach students about the structure and function of organisms. The lesson presented in this article on polar bears and their adaptations was taught in a fourth-grade classroom of 21 students over two days for an hour-and-a-half period each day.
Descriptors: Science Education, Multiple Literacies, Teaching Methods, Learning Modalities, Grade 4, Investigations, Elementary School Science, Animals, Science Instruction
National Science Teachers Association. 1840 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201-3000. Tel: 800-722-6782; Fax: 703-243-3924; e-mail: membership@nsta.org; Web site: http://www.nsta.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive; Guides - Classroom - Teacher
Education Level: Grade 4
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A