I was facilitating a workshop once, and I overhead these statements from two science teachers: My students are so busy, they don’t have time to think and We have so much fun, the students don’t know that they’re learning.
I hope that the teachers were oversimplifying their classroom environment. I can certainly understand the teachers’ desire to engage students actively and to make science enjoyable, but I think what might be missing in their classes is a chance for students to connect new learning to what they already know, to ask questions, to predict, to apply what they are studying to new situations, or just to quietly reflect on what they are doing. There is a difference between doing busywork and being cognitively engaged in a task. (When I do the laundry, I’m busy, but I’m not very engaged!) I’m also curious as to why students have the impression that learning is a chore or a dull experience rather than an enjoyable, positive one? If students don’t know what and how and when they are learning, how can we ever expect them to become independent, lifelong learners?
Fortunately, this month’s Science Teacher has many suggestions for engaging students in meaningful tasks and making learning a positive experience.
The article Energizing Students describes how to apply concepts from neuroscience to “maximize student engagement and attention.” For our colleagues at the primary level, moving around, stretching, and varying the activities are standard procedures. High school teachers may be skeptical at first, but I’ve seen for myself how even a simple stretch break can help students to re-focus, and I would certainly explain to them why we’re stretching–to get more oxygen to the brain. The relationship between learning and the brain is a fascinating one, and two interesting neuroscience resources are Neuroscience for Kids and The Brain from the Franklin Institute.
Another interesting concept is using the arts to get students actively engaged, whether it’s creating a video (Movie Mitosis) or a cartoon ( The Art of Physics) to illustrate what the students are learning in science. Both of these include rubrics to help students focus their learning and their creativity. (See the August 2008 blog for more on rubrics.) And when the students have completed their projects, the projects can be shared with other classes, especially younger students.
The article “Life” in Movies has great suggestions for getting students to think about the science (or lack of scientific accuracy) in popular films. If you ‘re an elementary or middle school teacher in a school where films are shown at the end of a marking period or before a break, check out the potential discussion topics for films such as Finding Nemo and A Bug’s Life. Even if students have seen the films, you can engage them from a different perspective. There are also suggestions for how to select films to show in a school setting. The author of the popular Bad Astronomy site discusses movies that are (or are not) scientifically accurate. It’s a fun (and engaging) site.