Course Descriptions

SCIE 6650 Try Science (3 sem. cr.)
This introductory science course helps participants see the science in common everyday events. It focuses on the topic of water. The goals of the course are to extend understanding of key science concepts through inquiry, to learn effective strategies for planning and teaching science, and to plan and carry out inquiry-based science investigations with children. Overarching content themes include science inquiry, properties and behaviors of water, and transfer of energy.

SCIE 6651 Investigating Physics: Motion and Forces (3 sem. cr.)
Participants investigate motion and forces through direct observation and analysis of video and by creating and interpreting graphic representations. The work of Aristotle, Galileo, and Newton is highlighted, and the historic and cultural contexts from which key physics concepts emerged are examined. Participants apply their new understanding to everyday occurrences in the physical world.

EDUC 6652 Listening to Children’s Ideas (3 sem. cr.)
Participants explore children’s ideas of force and motion by planning and carrying out clinical interviews with children. Through the interviewing experience, participants increase their ability to set aside their own ideas and expectations and attend to children’s ideas. They elicit information from the children about what they think and then analyze interview findings to expand their understanding of how children perceive the world around them.

SCIE 6653 Biology Explorations: Explorations in Variation, Diversity, and Adaptation (3 sem. cr.)
Participants investigate various aspects of biological adaptation and apply these new understandings to the real world, both locally and globally. The course focuses on the biology of grasses, with investigations of germination and growth, adaptation, co-evolution between grasses and grazers, biogeography, the domestication of grasses, and variation and natural selection.

EDUC 6654 Classroom Facilitation (3 sem. cr.)
Participants consider how to help students develop scientific ideas and skills through inquiry. They study video clips of teachers facilitating classroom science to learn strategies for extending students’ experience and scaffolding scientific ideas. In classrooms, they try various facilitation and questioning strategies. Each participant creates a collection of teaching strategies that promote inquiry (accompanied by classroom examples).

SCIE 6655 Earth Science From a New Perspective (3 sem. cr.)
A central purpose of this course is to begin seeing the world around us in new ways. The course focuses on the topic of one river and begins by inviting participants to “uncover” the connections between that river and the rest of the Earth systems. The course aims to assist participants in gaining new perspectives in Earth science by using resources such as satellite images and modeling tools.

EDUC 6656 Curriculum Designed for Understanding (3 sem. cr.)
The aim of this course is to provide a framework for thinking critically about how to craft inquiry-based experiences that result in deeper understanding of important science concepts. The framework, Teaching for Understanding, developed at Harvard University, is central to the course. Participants keep the following questions in mind as they think about curriculum: What topics are worth understanding? What must students understand about these topics? How can understanding be fostered? How can we tell what students understand?

SCIE 6657 Ecology: Organisms, Nutrients, and the Environment (3 sem. cr.)
Participants extend their understanding of ecology through a focus on one central question: How are matter and energy cycled in ecosystems? By continually returning to the central question, participants investigate various aspects of nutrient flow with hands-on investigations of decomposition. New understandings are applied to the real world.