The integrated physical science course is a series of four semester long courses covering topics from physics, chemistry, geology, biology, earth climate and astronomy. Topics from the various natural sciences are intermixed throughout the semester to help illustrate the connections between different areas of science. As an example heat, conduction and convection, density and buoyancy are all part of a geology unit building towards discussing plate tectonics.
As a course for elementary education majors the course follows an inquiry based approach attempting to teach the topics the same way the future teachers will one day teach these topics to middle schoolers. The class meets three times a week, twice for two hours and once on Fridays for one hour. These five hours of class time earn students three credit hours. The class is structured to blur the line between lab activities and other more lecture or discussion oriented parts of the class. Everything takes place in the same room (RLM 7.114, seating 15 tables of four) with each class mixing together aspects of readings, discussions and labs.
A Typical 2 hr. Class
(15 - 20 mins)
- Open with a very short reading introducing the topic and main question of the class period
- Students answer a few short questions drawing on previous knowledge from the course and their intuition coming into the topic
- As a class groups discuss their answers to the questions (likely not all groups have same answers) no “right” answer is established this is just getting ideas out there
(1 hour)
- Groups work through a series of guided lab activities to bring them progressively closer to being able to answer the opening question. As they move through the activities students answer questions in the activity, some meant to check basic understanding and others to intended to produce “aha” moments
- At the end of the lab activities are a series of summarizing questions to help students put it all together. Assign 3 groups to answer question 1 on their whiteboard, 3 groups to answer question 2 etc.
(30 - 40 mins)
- As a class groups discuss their answers to the summarizing questions. Again groups may disagree on the answers in which case the class debates what the correct answer should be.
- Ideally every student leaves understanding the answers to the summarizing questions. This discussion is when the “right answer” should be worked out and students who were confused get their understanding and connections through discussion rather than lecture.
Answers from the Q&A
- Each class is led by three instructors (instructor, assistant instructor and an aide)
- Student groups are shuffled after every chapter and groups are paired by SAT or quiz scores to assure a mix of abilities in each group
- No conclusion yet as to whether pairing groups this way works well
- Student grades are based on homework, quizzes and the final exam. Attendance is mandatory but the in-class activities are never turned in or graded in any way
- Students sometimes grade each other’s homework during class. This is done without solutions being handed out so it can be a time consuming, learning experience
- Students like that the class is tuned to their needs. This is possible because everyone is an elementary education major rather than the class being a mix of majors
- This is a content course so the focus is on the science with no discussion of why the topics are taught a particular way
- Students do not know this course is still being tweaked, it simply hasn’t come up in class
- Students sometimes use computers for data collection or to look at Java applets. Laptops are kept in the classroom but are not out on the desks unless they are being used that day
- Abstract concepts are introduced by putting the student in a situation where the new concept is the solution to her dilemma
- Introduce elastic potential energy by having students slide cars into rubber bands. Students already know about kinetic energy and know the car has KE when it moves towards the rubber band and when it rebounds from the rubber band and that the car has no KE when it is momentarily at rest. Ask the student where the KE went and she will say, “I don’t know, in the rubber band?” At this point the student is happy to accept the idea that a stretch or compressed rubber band has elastic potential energy
Misc
- There is discussion of building another classroom for integrated physical science on the 6th floor. This classroom could be twice as large to accommodate 100 students/class.
- The success of the teaching method in Integrate Physical Science will be investigated by comparing student understanding after the first semester of Integrated Physical Science to student understanding after a semester of Physics 309K
- Class meets Monday and Wednesday 9-11am, 11-1pm and 3-5pm and Friday 9-10am, 11-noon and 3-4pm if you would like watch the class in action
