Writing in STEM

1. Writing in STEM A Collaboration between Oak Hill Middle School, Georgia College Early College, and the Georgia College STEM Initiative Presented by Markeeta Clayton, Victoria Deneroff, Nikki Grimes, Sharon Hood, & Tynisha Harris

2. Our Collaboration Georgia College Middle Grades Program Ms. Tynisha Harris, teacher candidate Georgia College STEM Initiative Mini-Grant Program Drs, Victoria Deneroff & Rosalie Richards, faculty Georgia College Early College Mrs. Sharon Hood & Mrs. Nikki Grimes Oak Hill Middle School, Baldwin County Mrs. Markeeta Clayton

3. SESSION GOALS • By the end of this session, you will be able to • describe the STEM Writing Heuristic (SWH) • introduce students to the engineering design cycle • connect classroom content goals with active learning strategies • scaffold students‘ STEM writing and learning • develop students’ self‐motivation as inquirers

4. The STEM Writing Heuristic • In a lab notebook, record steps 2-9. These are in the form of notes. They must be comprehensible to someone else reading them, but need not be formal. • Beginning ideas – What are my questions? Brainstorm several questions you have that can be answered by testing. These should not be yes or no questions. Choose one question out to try to answer. • Tests and Experiments – What did I do? What do you have to find out in order to conduct these tests in a meaningful way? What sort of equipment might be available that will help you answer the question you have chosen? • Observations – What did I see, hear, smell, feel? How did I measure what I observed? • Claims – What can I claim as a result of my observations? • Evidence – How do I know your claims are true? Why am I making these claims? • Conferences, Science or Math Talks, Reading and Instruction – How do my ideas compare with other ideas? • Reflection – How have my beginning ideas changed? • Redesign or Extension – How can I use my new ideas to improve my design (engineering) or investigate something new?

5. The Stem writing Heuristic (Cont.) • Report: Prepare a report of your investigation which includes the following formal steps which are the way scientists communicate: • Description of the problem • Question you investigated • What materials you used to investigate your question? • A step-by-step description of your procedure. The purpose of this description is so that another investigator could use it to do the experiment the same way you did, and thus verify your results • A description and display of your data • What claim you make as a result of your investigation, and why your evidence supports this claim. This is commonly called a conclusion.--Hand, Prain & Wallace (2003:21)

6. Students’ questions • L6-8WHST7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration. • L9-10WHST7: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

8. L9-10WHST2: Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.

9. L9-10WHST2: Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.

10. Making Claims (argumentation) • L6-8WHST1: Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content. • Introduce claim(s) about a topic or issue, acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. • b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant, accurate data and evidence that demonstrate an understanding of the topic or text, using credible sources. • L9-10WHST1: Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content. • a. Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. • b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying data and evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both claim(s) and counterclaims in a discipline-appropriate form and in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level and concerns.

11. Student’s argument

12. Making claims rather than “conclusion” • Claim: • -The higher the mass of the medicine bottle, the less it traveled forward, but the more the Newton car traveled backwards. • -The lower the mass, the further the medicine bottle traveled forward and the less the Newton car traveled backwards. • -Adding a second rubber band, the outcome remained the same however the distances were increased. • -We also noted that the Newton car is affected in how far it is able to move back when there is not exactly 25 straws. It creates a buffer and the car is unable to move any further. • Evidence: • -We know our claim is true because we tested our hypothesis several times and we measured and recorded our data throughout the experiment.

13. Explanation

14. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS • Again, our thanks to the Georgia College STEM Initiative, the GC Middle Grades Program, Georgia College Early College, and Oak Hill Middle School for their support. • The students of Oak Hill Middle School and Early College for their inquiring minds, eager participation, and willingness to share their thoughts and writing with you.

15. links http://www.victoriadeneroff.com/category/lesson-plans/