Participant Takeaway The point of using phenomena to drive instruction is to help students engage in practices to develop the knowledge necessary to explain or predict phenomena. Therefore, the focus is not just on the phenomena itself. It is the phenomena plus the student-generated questions about the phenomena that guides the teaching and learning. The practice of asking questions or identifying problems becomes a critical piece in trying to figure something out. This paragraph is an excerpt from the NGSS resource , which is also Handout 2. Talking Points After observing the three optical illusions, how would you answer the question: Can you trust your eyes? How do you know? Can you provide an explanation for optical illusions? Take a minute and generate questions stemming from observing these three optical illusions. Generate questions that are specific enough such that if you figured each of them out, you would be closer to answering the big question: Can we trust our eyes and thus explain optical illusions? Place each question on a separate post-it note. I am asking that everyone create at least 1 question from your observations. After you construct your question, come up to the driving question boards and place your question on the board that you think it could best connect with. After careful consideration, if you feel your question does not fit nested under any of these 3 questions (pointing to area with the 4 boards), then place your question on the outlier board. After placing your question on one of the 4 boards, please return to your seat. [Note to facilitator: Give participants 3–4 minutes to construct at least 1 question and place it on the Driving Question Board.] Slide 11 Facilitator Notes Slides 11–23 are the slides that guide lesson 1 of the optical illusions unit. Training participants should be reminded to put on their “student hat” and engage in this lesson as a learner. Talking Points Not all phenomena need to be used for the same amount of instructional time. The optical illusions are our anchoring phenomena that drive the whole unit. Just as the students did in class, you generated science questions, which will drive our learning in each lesson and which are now posted on our driving question boards. We will now participate in the first lesson of this unit. The lesson level question is: “What do you need in order to see an object?” You will notice that this was one of the questions at the top of one of the driving question boards. We will begin to answer your questions posted on this board with this lesson. Slide 12
Participant Takeaway The point of using phenomena to drive instruction is to help students engage in practices to develop the knowledge necessary to explain or predict phenomena. Therefore, the focus is not just on the phenomena itself. It is the phenomena plus the student-generated questions about the phenomena that guides the teaching and learning. The practice of asking questions or identifying problems becomes a critical piece in trying to figure something out. This paragraph is an excerpt from the NGSS resource , which is also Handout 2. Talking Points After observing the three optical illusions, how would you answer the question: Can you trust your eyes? How do you know? Can you provide an explanation for optical illusions? Take a minute and generate questions stemming from observing these three optical illusions. Generate questions that are specific enough such that if you figured each of them out, you would be closer to answering the big question: Can we trust our eyes and thus explain optical illusions? Place each question on a separate post-it note. I am asking that everyone create at least 1 question from your observations. After you construct your question, come up to the driving question boards and place your question on the board that you think it could best connect with. After careful consideration, if you feel your question does not fit nested under any of these 3 questions (pointing to area with the 4 boards), then place your question on the outlier board. After placing your question on one of the 4 boards, please return to your seat. [Note to facilitator: Give participants 3–4 minutes to construct at least 1 question and place it on the Driving Question Board.] Slide 11 Facilitator Notes Slides 11–23 are the slides that guide lesson 1 of the optical illusions unit. Training participants should be reminded to put on their “student hat” and engage in this lesson as a learner. Talking Points Not all phenomena need to be used for the same amount of instructional time. The optical illusions are our anchoring phenomena that drive the whole unit. Just as the students did in class, you generated science questions, which will drive our learning in each lesson and which are now posted on our driving question boards. We will now participate in the first lesson of this unit. The lesson level question is: “What do you need in order to see an object?” You will notice that this was one of the questions at the top of one of the driving question boards. We will begin to answer your questions posted on this board with this lesson. Slide 12