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Linguistic and Scientific Activities for Learning to Teach*

Freire1,Martin2,Baptista1, Cruz1, Perez2, Sierra2 & Vilela1

(afreire@fc.ul.pt) (mcvilela@hotmail.com)

1-Universidade de LisboaCentro de Investigação em Educação, Faculdade de CiênciasCampo Grande 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal.

2-Universidad Alcalá, Departamento de OrientaciónPlaza Cervantes, 10, Alcalá de Henares, España

* Profesorado Europeo de Ciencias: Conocimiento Científico, Destrezas Linguisticas y Medios Digitales (PEC)

COMENIUS 2.1 Action Financed by Projecto Socrates 226641-CP-1-2005-1-ES-Comenius-C21

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Purpose

To present the project PEC and their aims

To describe activities designed to emphasise reading and writing in science classes through Internet

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Project Aims

To promote initial (pre-service) Science Teacher Education

To elaborate/implement activities and learning material to facilitate learning in science

To develop reading comprehension and written expression skills concerning scientific texts through linguistic activities

To use internet as an information source in secondary school pupils’ activities (scientific web pages as authentic material to develop didactic activities)

To demonstrate how common/scientific language can contribute to scientific literacy in Science Education

To promote mobility actions of science student teachers Evaluate/disseminate obtained project outputs

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Project Partners

Spain (University of Alcalà – coordinator)United Kingdom (University of Leicester)Portugal (University of Lisbon)Sweden (University of Gavle)Finland (University of Helsinki)Slovakia (University of Komenskeho)Turkey (Technical University of Karadeniz)

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Project Products

Report – Comparative study of the science curricula in participating countries

Web pages analysed and selected

Mobility actions Course addressed to in-service science

teachers Report - Conclusions

CDs addressed to teachers and pupils

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Criteria to design CDs activities

Activities are design to improve scientific knowledge and promote comprehension of reading and writing skills

Web pages’ research is valued in two different ways, some times the pupils can begin with the web page’ exploration another times, during the activity, they can consult the web page to get more information concerning the topic under study

Pupils are involved in a wide variety of actions

Activities are flexible enough to allow teachers to introduce modifications to match the pupils’ needs at different levels

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Linguistic and scientific activities (PEC, 2006)

Scientific activities

Being aware of scientific concepts Being aware of scientific procedures Establishing, relationship among different

concepts Comparing different scientific procedures Data interpretation Graphic interpretation Solving problems Drawing evidence-based conclusions

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Linguistic and scientific activities (PEC, 2006)

Reading comprehension skills

Extracting main and secondary ideas Scanning text Inferring information Predicting information

Activities for developing reading comprehension skills

Direct questions True/false questions Multiple choice questions Underlining/highlighting words or

phrases Labelling segments of text Represent passage in a diagram or

flow chart Segment passage into a series of

numbered steps Sort randomised segments of text

into order Choose three most important

sentences in a passage and explain why you have chosen them.

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Vocabulary

Knowledge of scientific words and their meanings Distinguish between common use and scientific meaning Precise use of scientific words

Activities for acquiring and reinforcing vocabulary

Matching words with definitions

Defining words Seeking synonyms and

antonyms Finding the 'odd man out' Guessing unknown words Word formation: prefixes,

suffixes, compound words Word games (Dominoes,

Twenty questions, Bingo, Splat, Crosswords

Listing unfamiliar words

Linguistic and scientific activities (PEC, 2006)

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Writing skills

Summarising Paraphrasing Drawing conclusions Describing devices

Activities for improving writing skills

Re-writing a text Transposing symbolic

language (graphs, tables etc.) into textual language

Change audience for passage

Cloze exercises Use writing frames Writing stories

Linguistic and scientific activities (PEC, 2006)

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Activities for Middle School

Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage (Portuguese activity)

States of Matter(Spanish activity)

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Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage

Goals To learn about life at sea during the era of sea travel. To formulate questions about 16th century sea travels based on text

readings. To record and to select information from the Internet relevant to the

questions raised. To record and to summarise the information selected. To compose written texts about the subjects of study. To communicate the final work using tools like PowerPoint. To select and perform practical activities available in web pages about food

preservation. To learn about both past and present methods for preserving food.

Background Promotion STSE approach Constructivist focus, values the scientific inquiry approach Preparation for public understanding of science and scientific literacy Evaluation for learning

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Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage

Read carefully the following text:

In 1519 Magellan and his fleet set sail from Seville, Spain, to find a sea route to the Spice Islands in Indonesia, where the most sought-after commodities — cloves, pepper, and nutmeg — flourished. Most important, they were looking for a passageway, a strait, through the great landmass of the Americas that would lead them to these fabled islands. (…) With a fleet of five ships and more than two hundred men, they set out in search of the Spice Islands. Three years later they returned with an abundance of spices from their intended destination, but with just one ship carrying eighteen emaciated men. They suffered starvation, disease, and torture, and many died, including Magellan, who was violently killed in a fierce battle.

(From Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen, 2004: Harper Collins)

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Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage

Write down some questions about themes in the text. Share your questions with your colleague. Choose one of them and use the Internet to find out

information that will help you to write an essay. Consult the following web pages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellanhttp://www.mariner.org/educationalad/ageofex/magellan.php#http://www.vidaslusofonas.pt/fernaomagalhaes.htmhttp://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descobrimentos_portugueses

Based on the information you have assembled, write a summary of the main ideas related to the question you choose.

Use the PowerPoint software to present your findings to your classmates.

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Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage(Extension Activity 1)

Food preservation was one of the biggest problems in sailors’ long trips. Imagine that you are part of a scientific team that is studying food preservation at the time of Portuguese discoveries. To go deep into this subject you have the opportunity to do a trip in the time of discoveries and become a vessel captain assessor. Your mission is to guarantee the food preservation during this trip.

To prepare yourself for the trip, you are going to do some research about this theme. Consult the following web site and describe the food used on these trips and the food preservation methods at the time of discoveries.

http://epoca.globo.com/especiais/500anos/990705.htm Explore the following website to learn more about food

preservation. Write the main ideas that will help you in the role of Captain assessor.

http://www.understandingfoodadditives.org/

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Magellan and Circumnavigation Voyage(Extension Activity1 (cont.))

If you want to be more prepared for your trip you can do one of the activities available for pupils under the title – for teachers – classroom activities.

Choose an activity and present the reasons for your choice.

Carry out the activity and prepare a summary about your work.

Share your work with your teacher and class colleagues and write the main ideas that come from all the class.

Prepare some written guidelines to help with your trip. These must be focused on alternative ways to improve food preservation during the 16th century.

Complete your study about food preservation, searching and assembling information about the traditional food preservation process in your country. You can include this information in the text you had prepared previously.

Share your work with your class colleagues and write down the main ideas reported by the whole class.

Look at the new words you have learnt while you have done this work. Make a list of these words and their meaning.

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States of Matter Goals

Reading Comprehension Extracting the main idea Skimming Scanning Extracting secondary ideas Locating information

Background The main aim of this activity is developing reading comprehension

and developing the abilities of skimming and scanning. The activity is based on true-false questions. The activity also tries to develop writing as the pupil has to justify his-her answer using his-her own words. The main aim of this activity is developing reading comprehension and developing the abilities of skimming and scanning. The activity is based on true-false questions. The activity also tries to develop writing as the pupil has to justify his-her answer using his-her own words.

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States of Matter(Activity 1)

Visit the web-page ' Matter: States of Matter' and read the three paragraphs about ‘solids', ‘liquids' and ‘gases' . Then, classify the following statements in true (T) or false (F), justify your decision finding the correct answer in the text.

The molecules of solids move from time to time. When the temperature of a solid is increased, the amount

of vibration increases though the solid keeps its volume and shape.

Molecules can move in liquids but they stay close to each other.

Liquids always keep volume and shape. Molecules move rapidly and freely in any direction in gases.

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States of Matter

Goals Understanding procedures within an experiment. Being aware of scientific concepts and

procedures included in the experiment. Transposing symbolic language into textual

language

Background This experiment can be worked in groups of two.

Making pupils aware of the importance of materials used in the experiment, and of their own responsibility in working in laboratory.

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States of Matter(Activity 2)

We are going to study the behaviour of solids, liquids and gases when a force is applied to them. In the web page three experiments ( EXPERIMENTA) with a solid, a liquid and a gas are found. Visit and carry out the three experiments. To perform the experiment you should increase force in macroscopic vision pressing + continuously. Press the thinker to activate microscopic vision, and then you will be able to see how molecules behave as force is increased. Fill in the following table, indicating if the physical magnitude increases, it does not vary or it diminishes

Volume Molecule Speed Number of molecules in the volume seen through the magnifying glass

Solid

Liquid

Gas

Write a text that represents the meaning of the information written on the table.

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These activities explicitly address:

reading comprehension skills as extracting main and secondary ideas, scanning text, inferring information, predicting information

acquiring and reinforcing vocabulary as knowledge of scientific words and their meanings and precise use of scientific words

Using writing skills as summarizing, paraphrasing, drawing conclusions and describing devices

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Conclusions Activities focusing on reading and writing,

facilitating learning and discouraging the use of mechanical copy-paste techniques

Activities described show how a science teacher can guide their pupils to read and write and use Internet

Activities were designed to allow learning the new concepts in context and deepen the meanings these concepts acquire.

Activities require a new role for teachers, rethinking assessment and transforming schools as learning communities

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Changes in Teacher Role

Teacher as guide and facilitator of pupils’ learning while supporting inquiry activities

Using open questions that promote the critical thinking, relating explanations and evidences, and promoting the use of different cognitive strategies

Promoting collaborative learning Evolving pupils in inquiry process Promoting the development of projects Encouraging the learners to use their current knowledge to predict

outcomes or solve problems Creating the classroom culture where pupils feel they can reveal

current understanding and be helped to firmer understandings From presenters of content to leaders of an exploration and

development of ideas in which all pupils are involved ICT is transforming knowledge and learning to an extent that

demands a radical review of present curriculum and methods of teaching and learning

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Assessment for learning

To serve the purpose of promoting pupils’ learning

Assessment activities can help learning if it provides information to be used as feedback, by teachers, and by their pupils, in assessing themselves and each other, to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged

Formative assessment when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching work to meet learning needs

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Classroom as Learning Communities

Teacher as researcher Integrating research and action Teachers' role is more focused on learning

rather than management, and is more professionally rewarding

Pupils develop more competences which are transferable to non-school contexts

Provide a good preparation and a good model for many aspects of a better future life for all

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Moving beyond

The course intends that the participants are able to:

Analyse and evaluate some experiences already done with the Materials (CDs) elaborated by PEC Project members

Use Internet to introduce authentic science materials and real situations in Secondary School lessons.

Analyse and discuss the criteria used for selecting web pages

Analyse and discuss the criteria used for elaborating the didactic activities

Analyse, study and discuss didactic aspects of the CDs

Try to select a web page

Try to design some didactic activities both linguistic and scientific Transfer this methodology to other educational levels and contexts

(including self-learning) and dissemination of this methodology Promoting distance learning in Science Education

Secondary school science teachers course

University of Lisbon 3rd – 9th July 2008

The course will be available in Comenius database