Science and PBL

I am not a science instructor, and, in fact, I long feared just the thought of taking a science course, based on awful experiences trying to make sense of exams in science classes early on or even in college. I now deeply appreciate the gifts that science provides to one of my favorite instructional approaches: Project Based Learning (PBL).

In training instructors to use PBS among adult learners, I have found wonderful science projects that engage students in simple ways as they acquire valuable academic skills in the process. I am sharing this post with the Reading and Writing CoP, hoping that we can start a discussion about wonderful ways in which members here have used science projects to engage students in the process of improving reading and writing, and, yes, math and more as they complete projects.

In completing projects, students usually have to read and develop instructions, acquire new vocabulary, report and evaluate findings, develop theories and hypotheses, critique products, change dimensions, measure, define, present information, use technology, on and on.

Please share examples of how you have used science projects to engage students in further academic improvement. Thanks in advance! Leecy

Comments

Recently, I shared a LINCS resource on Climate Literacy. From this resource, you could introduce climate change, terminology, and the science behind it. For a project, students could track weather trends and forecasts from the news, compare history of weather temperatures, ect. As a matter of fact, today is the first day of fall - and in Illinios, it's 90 degrees and our air conditioner is still running. What was the temperature last year, the last 5 years, or even the last 50 years? Students can chart temperatures, make predictions, and do research - all the wonderful elements of PBL. 

Kathy, your example perfectly illustrates how one can effectively teach academic skills within the context of real-life science projects!

As learners progress through the activities you mentioned, they will be using rich vocabulary with wonderful parts of speech in context: modifiers of different types, comparative and highly descriptive terms, and so much more. They'll be able to write conditional clauses, make predictions, compare and contrast, and more. And the math, well, the list goes on: graphs, negative numbers, algebra, measurements, conversions, on and on. What fun. We could even talk about the weather in Mars! And if you bring in Google Earth, think of those possibilities.

I hope we have another science project to discuss in the same way. Anyone have an idea? Thanks! Leecy

I had the privledge of attending a conference presentation on Science Lessons from SIUPD's Colleen Potter. Together, we worked through the Chocolate Chip Cookie Mining Activity. The activity was fun, but more importantly - provided the session attendees with a first hand exprience with science instruction that could be integrated into any classroom, at any level, and then be used across the curriculum. I encourage you to check it out and then explore the wide range of lessons found on their page. 

Kathy, I'm madly catching up and find that the link for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Mining Activity leads back to this forum. The activity sounds wonderul. Please repost the link so that we can access the resource. The name reminds me of one of my favorite rubric activities, the Chocolate Chip Rubric, which give a very simple intro to writing rubrics. :) Thanks. Leecy

Here is the link to the Chocolate Chip Mining Activity .http://www.siue.edu/SIPDC/Library/lesson%20plan/Lesson%20Plan.htm. Rather than linking to the specific lesson, I linked to a page of lessons and more Science Activities. Let me know if you need help finding it. :-) 

Thanks for fixiing the link, Kathy, and introducing us to a very valuable set of activities and plans. From the site..

Educational AND Parental Success – Combining Adult Education Lessons with Ideas for Home Instruction with Children

Although our students may express they come to adult education classes to be able to pass a high school equivalency or to speak better English, we want to help them also learn and grow as a person, a citizen, and a parent (if applicable).

By combining learning in our classrooms with activities to share with children at home, we can maximize our efficiency AND increase our results!

If you explore this resource, please drop by and share your experience with us. How have you or will you use it? Thanks. Leecy