CSI: Science Professional Development

1. CSI: Science Professional Development Terri R. Hebert, Instructor 903-565-5637 thebert@mail.uttyl.edu

2. Day One Agenda • The Purpose of Discrepant Events • A Watery World • Investigation 4: The Incredible Journey • The Notion of Idea Pools • Question and Answer Time

3. The Purpose of Discrepant Events • “Believing is seeing, but seeing is not believing” (Tsai, 2000). • “Conservation of equilibration” (Rowell, 1989) theorizes that humans tend to resist change and some contradictory evidence does not necessarily convince them that they existing conceptions are not satisfactory (Dreyfus, 1990; Duit, 1991; Rowell & Dawson, 1983).

4. The Purpose of Discrepant Events • Discrepant events are designed to provide novel evidence to challenge human alternative conceptions (Tsai, 2000). • The problem lies in the fact that not all humans accommodate their alternative conceptions to scientific ones through experiencing the discrepant events (Tsai, 2000). • Accommodation occurs when new perceptions cannot fit into one’s existing conceptions (Bodner, 1986).

5. The Stages of Discrepant Events • First, students are asked to predict what they expect to happen before the demonstration is conducted and offer an explanation as to why they think it should happen that way. • Second, the students observe what happens and are asked to modify their previous explanation. • This assists students in analyzing their thought processes, but can sometimes be difficult to assess.

6. Assessing Discrepant Events • Concept mapping/conflict mapping • Schematic diagrams that use words to show the relation of one concept to another • Show the mind component as well as the environment component; then allow the students to justify the shift in thinking through scientific reasoning

7. The Thought for the Day