a k-12 learning progression to support environmental literacy michigan state university...
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A K-12 LEARNING PROGRESSION TO SUPPORT ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Environmental Literacy Research Group
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY RESEARCH GROUP
Michigan State UniversityWorking Groups: Carbon, Water, Biodiversity
PartnersLong Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network
Alan Berkowitz, Baltimore Ecosystem Study Ali Whitmer, Santa Barbara Coastal John Moore, Shortgrass Steppe
University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of MichiganNorthwestern UniversityAAAS Project 2061
Environmental Literacy Research Group
PRESENTATION OVERVIEW
Environmental Science Literacy in K-12 Ed What is and why is it important?
Learning Progressions Upper Anchor Framework (scientific reasoning Hypotheses about Lower Anchor (informal
reasoning) Lower Anchor and Transitions Research What’s Next? Comments & Questions
Environmental Literacy Research Group
THE NEED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY
Humans are fundamentally altering natural systems that sustain life on Earth
Citizens need to understand science to make informed decisions that maintain Earth’s life supporting systems
Citizens act in multiple roles that affect environmental systems: as learners, consumers, voters, workers, volunteers, and advocates
Environmental Literacy Research Group
BRINGING SCHOOL SCIENCE IN LINE WITH CURRENT SCIENCE PERSPECTIVES
Study of natural sciences has undergone shifts…
From individual disciplines (e.g., geology) to interdisciplinary fields (e.g., earth systems science)
From focus on natural systems to coupled human and natural systems
From retrospective (reconstructing past) to prospective (projecting future)
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RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP and ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY
Environmental science literacy is the capacity to understand and participate in evidence-based decision-making about the effects of human actions in coupled human and natural environmental systems [LTER: socioecological systems]. (Anderson, et al., 2006)
Environmental Literacy Research Group
PRACTICES OF ENVIRONMENTALSCIENCE LITERACY
• Engage in scientific inquiry to develop and evaluate scientific arguments from evidence
• Use scientific accounts of the material world as tools to predict and explain
• Use scientific reasoning in citizenship practices of environmental decision-making
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LEARNING PROGRESSIONS
Learning progressions describe knowledge and practices about topics that are responsive to children’s ways of reasoning, and reflect gradually more sophisticated ways of thinking.
(Smith & Anderson, 2006)
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Upper Anchor What high school students should know
and be able to do
Lower AnchorHow children think and make sense of the world
LEARNING PROGRESSIONSEnvironmental Literacy
Research Group
Transitions
Upper Anchor Inquiry: Finding and Explaining Patterns in Data
UPPER ANCHOR INQUIRYFINDING AND EXPLAINING PATTERNSIN DATA
1. Acquiring data
1. Standards: Accuracy and reproducibility rather than experientially real (“seeing is believing”)
2. Methods for acquiring accurate and reproducible data
2. Finding patterns in data
1. Experimental design
2. Uses of representations: tables, graphs, etc.
3. Explaining patterns in data
4. Critiques of investigations conducted by others.
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LOWER ANCHOR INQUIRYLEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE
1. Active engagement with the material world leading embodied experience: Tacit understanding of how the world works
1. Rolling balls
2. Towel drying
3. Growing up on a farm
2. Practical knowledge
1. Knowing how to rather than knowing how or why
2. Organized around practices rather than models
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Upper Anchor: Producing and Using Accounts
UPPER ANCHOR ACCOUNTS FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
Structure of Systems Atomic/molecular scale Macroscopic scale Large scale
Constraints on Processes Tracing matter Tracing energy Tracing information
Change over time Multiple causes and feedback loops Evolution by natural selection
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UPPER ANCHOR ACCOUNTS STRANDS, SYSTEMS, AND PROCESSES
Carbon: Environmental systems create, transform, move, and destroy organic carbon Living systems at multiple scales Engineered systems at multiple scales
Water: Environmental systems create and move fresh water Atmospheric water, surface water, ground water, water in
living systems, engineered water systems Biodiversity: Environmental systems maintain
complex structure and function at multiple scales Homeostasis: maintaining structure and function Response to environment Change through natural and human selection
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LOWER ANCHOR ACCOUNTS INFORMAL REASONING
Stories connected by metaphors What stories do people tell about environmental
systems and how do they connect them? Alike and different
How do people name or identify systems, processes, materials, forms of energy, etc.
Which ones do they see as alike and different? Egocentrism
How important are human uses and relationships to humans in accounts and ways of describing systems, processes, etc.?
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LOWER ANCHOR ACCOUNTS STORIES CONNECTED BY METAPHORS
Process 1 Process 2 Process 3
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Model-based connections:
Narrow focus across many stories
Stories: Accounts that encompass many aspects of a social and material process
Metaphorical or analogical connections among stories
UPPER AND LOWER ANCHORSCITIZENSHIP PRACTICES
Understanding science (or socioecological systems): See Inquiry and Accounts
Who do you trust? Deciding which knowledge claims to believe. Source credibility theory: Identity and group membership Epistemological stances: Perry; Belenky et al. Evaluating quality of arguments from evidence (upper)
What should I do? Deciding on positions or actions Decision research (Slovic): Experiential (identify, affiliation, personal
stories) and analytical (cost-benefit or risk-benefit analysis) systems Sources and nature of agency with respect to environmental issues
(including understanding of socioeconomic, cultural, and political systems and how they work?)
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LOWER ANCHOR AND TRANSITIONSRESEARCH METHODS
Data Sources Paper and pencil assessments Teaching experiments, mostly aimed at seeing
and understanding student reasoning Interviews
Data Analysis Developing progress variables that we can
connect with both upper and lower anchors
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General Trends from Elementary to High School
From stories to model-based accounts– Shift from why to how--purposes to mechanisms – BUT lack knowledge of critical parts of systems
From macroscopic to hierarchy of systems– Increased awareness of atomic-molecular and large-scale systems– BUT little success in connecting accounts at different levels
Increasing awareness of constraints on processes– Increasing awareness of conservation laws– BUT rarely successful in constraint-based reasoning
Increasing awareness of “invisible” parts of systems– Increasing detail and complexity – BUT gases, decomposers, connections between human and
natural systems remain “invisible”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Increase emphasis on inquiry and citizenship in addition to accounts
Refine assessments
Conduct teaching experiments to refine understanding of how students engage with and learn about environmental science
Use research to… Inform development of curriculum materials Inform development of new standards for formal K-
12 science education
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QUESTIONS & COMMENTSMORE INFORMATION
QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? QUERIES?
MORE INFORMATIONPaper, tests and other materials are available on our website at…http://edr1.educ.msu.edu/EnvironmentalLit/index.htm
Environmental Literacy Research Group