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ERIC Number: EJ1190347
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Sep
Pages: 9
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0036-8148
EISSN: N/A
Debate, Dialogue, and Democracy through Science!
Kahn, Sami; Hartman, Sara L.
Science and Children, v56 n2 p36-44 Sep 2018
As every elementary science teacher knows, children sometimes ask questions that can not easily be answered by science. The "messiness" of these questions may stem from the fact that scientific understanding is often incomplete and ever changing, a situation that can lead students (and the public) to be confused about the information they receive. It has been found that the Socioscientific Issues (SSI) framework (Zeidler and Kahn 2014) is highly effective as it uses "messy" societal issues related to science as the context for science learning as well as preparation for informed citizenship. Incorporating SSI into an existing curriculum may be accomplished by framing the lesson or unit with a question, embedding an issue within a unit, or using SSI as a summative assessment. To illustrate how SSI can be implemented in an elementary classroom, we have provided an overview of a 5E lesson on wetland ecology that we implemented in grade 3-4 classrooms over four 40-minute class periods. This lesson built upon their prior studies of aquatic environments and food chains/webs in earlier grades. As the focus for this article is on the SSI component of the lesson, which encompasses the "Elaborate" and "Evaluate" portions of this lesson, the authors have intentionally included greater detail on those sections. However, the full lesson plan is available online (see NSTA Connection). In the concluding section of this article, the authors provide some classroom tips and resources to get teachers started with SSI in their own classroom.
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: Elementary Education
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A