ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
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I can't offer you any examples of these sorts of programs, but I will
offer the best example I have ever seen of authentic science for
elelemntary students, which is the Elementary Science Integration
Project (http://www.esiponline.org/) in Maryland.  It's been written up
in a number of books, including Science Workshop, Moving Beyond the
Science Kit, and Nurturing Inquiry.  

As a professional scientist turned university professor turned teacher
educator, I was astonished by the degree to which these folks really get
what it means to do real science with kids.  The ley is that the
investigation needs to be authentic to the kids.  You can't generally do
cutting edge science with kids - it requires too much reading skill and
too much advanced cognition and it often takes far too long, but kids
can ask and answer science questions that are authentic to them (and to
which the answer cannot simply be found in a book.)  

Having recently worked with teams of scientists on the exhibit design
process, I can also offer that most scientists will need significant
educational training before they will be ready to provide anything
beyond the sort of cookbook experiences you could easily have found
without their help.  Most scientists that I have worked with are too
focused on getting kids to the right answer to be efffective
facilitators of the inquiry process.  

I think middle schoolers might be able to work with well-trained
scientists.  I used to go in and do my own mineral diffraction patterns
in my dad's lab at about that age (with lots of help, of course) and
recall that as a really authentic experience, since he didn't know what
the mineral was either and was just as interested as I was in the outome
of the data collection.  On the other hand, if I had been trying to help
him do his organometallic dye structures, it would not have been nearly
as interesting because I wouldn't have owned the question.  So maybe the
key is not to have kids "help" with the scientists' research, but to
have the kids work on their own authentic questions alongside of (and
with lots of assistance from) researchers.  

Dave Smith
Director of Professional Development
Da Vinci Discovery Center http://www.davinci-center.org



-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Amy Johnston
Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2005 9:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Students working with scientists


ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
************************************************************************
*****

Hi,

I'm doing some scoping research of students' science programs.

I'm interested in programs that:

*	Have students working with real scientists and real science
research
*	Last over a series of weeks (i.e. more long term)
*	Focus more on students who aren't already planning to do a
science degree
*	Involve students of elementary or middle school age, and/or
*	Involve older students who can count the program towards school
assessment.

 

I'd like to know what the programs are, what is involved in running
them, stories of success and potential pitfalls.

 

Thanks for your time, 

Amy

 

Amy Johnston- Concept Developer

Questacon-The National Science and Technology Centre

location code 940

PO Box 5322 

Kingston ACT 2604 Australia

t +61 2 6126 2209

f +61 2 6126 2266

www.questacon.edu.au <http://www.questacon.edu.au
<http://www.questacon.edu.au/> >

 


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