Developing Conceptual Understanding of Weather in Young Children Grades 2-4

1. The Changing Weather: Developing a Conceptual Understanding of Weather Phenomena in Young Children Grades 2-4 Steve Coxon Center for Gifted Education stevecoxon.com coxonsteve@hotmail.com

2. Project Clarion overview • With a federal Javits grant, eight units for primary science were created, field tested, revised, researched in classrooms, disseminated, revised, and published. • Researched in 38 classrooms in 6 Title I schools including urban, exurban, and rural in comparison to 36 classrooms using standard curriculum (e.g., Harcourt Brace)

3. Project Clarion overview • Gains were found for all students, including gifted students • Across two years, the performance-based assessment results showed significant and educationally important gains for Clarion students in: • Macro-concepts • Scientific investigation • Content mastery • Across two years, the Test of Critical Thinking showed significant and educationally important effects for the third grade students in the treatment group.

4. Today Participants will be engaged in the change macroconcept and employ it in several ways while receiving an overview of the unit and of the wider applicability of macroconcepts.

5. Change is woven into Weather Reporter • An early lesson engages students in thinking about change in general • Inquiry • Weather-related experiments and hands-on activities involve students as meteorologists in observations and data collection • Studying changes in weather and in the instruments used to measure weather • Pre- and post-assessment opportunities for students to demonstrate growth in their understandings of the change macroconcept

6. Levels and Definition of Concept Teaching Macro-concepts that both define the discipline and provide connections to other disciplines (e.g., systems, change) ↑ Subject matter concepts are the central ideas of a discipline (e.g., Water cycle, force and motion, adaptations) ↑ Bracken Basic Concepts (Building blocks for understanding relationships in the world) Javits Project Clarion, Center for Gifted Education, College of William and Mary

7. BRACKEN BASIC CONCEPTS Colors Comparisons Shapes Direction/Position Social/Self-Awareness Size Texture/Material Quantity Time/Sequence Letter Identification Numbers/Counting

8. What is a macroconcept? A concept that has deep meaning in understanding one discipline but also provides pathways to others. Science macroconcepts help illuminate both science content and the scientific process itself. Based on the Taba Model of Concept Development Also called “overarching” and “unifying” concepts Center for Gifted Education College of William and Mary

9. Common Scientific Macro-Concepts Systems Change Models Constancy Evolution Scale Rutherford, J., & Ahlgren, A. (1989). Science for all Americans. New York, Oxford University Press Center for Gifted Education College of William and Mary

10. MACRO-CONCEPTS

11. Research on concept learning Conceptual knowledge is constructed (Resnick, 1987). Conceptual knowledge is learned in domains (Hirschfeld & Gelman, 1994). Use of conceptual schemas enhances retention (NRC, 2002) Use of concept mapping promotes connected learning (Novak, 1998). Teaching higher level concepts promotes science learning (Rutherford and Ahlgren, 1989). Center for Gifted Education College of William and Mary

12. CHANGE

13. Change Provide examples: Provide non-examples: On the back, categorize your list. Include every item. What generalizations can you make about change? Center for Gifted Education, The College of William and Mary, 2009

14. Change Generalizations and Outcomes Center for Gifted Education College of William and Mary

15. Standards Alignment with Concept Development Model Models of Concept Development • Mathematics • Pattern recognition and pattern making • Number systems • Use of the concepts of models and scale to construct mathematical forms • Communication and connections • Social Studies • Economic, legal, government, political systems • Structure, function, and pattern of societal systems • Maps as systems • History as the study of change over time • Language Arts • Change in literary characters (e.g. character, plot, setting) • Writing process • Language study • Grammar as a system • Science • Living and earth/ space systems • Cycles and patterns • Interactions within and across systems • Change processes in biology, physics, chemistry, and geology Center for Gifted Education College of William and Mary

16. Macro-concept conclusions: The macro-concepts of systems and change are fundamental to the Project Clarion units. Conceptual understanding provides students with pathways to learning new material (NRC, 2007). Macro-concepts are highly interdisciplinary (NRC, 2007). Systems and change can easily be woven into your other units of study, enhancing student learning. Center for Gifted Education College of William and Mary

17. Example macro-concept follow-up questions from Weather Reporter: How did the temperature of the dirt and sand change? Why is it important to observe the weather over a 14-day period? How are weather changes related to time? How were your ideas about clouds changed? How does the Sun affect the temperature of black dirt and sand? Center for Gifted Education College of William and Mary

18. Weather-related experiments and hands-on activities • Involve students as meteorologists in observations and data collection (weather instruments on the next slide) • Investigate how light affects soil and sand differently • Create of a weather map • Make a cloud in a jar (pg. 90) • Present a weather report • Create a tornados in bottles

19. The instruments used to measure weather • Use of thermometers • Use of a rain gauge • Make and use barometers • Make and use an anemometer

20. Pre- and post-assessment • Rubric-based • The change concept • Content (using concept mapping) • Scientific process (using the Diet Cola Test)