08/12/24 - 147 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/288ebs9j
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Spotlight - Penn State Extension: Exploring Water Through Inquiry-Based Science Teaching
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Teaching youth about water is nothing new. Water is part of national academic standards for U.S. school students and a frequent topic of discussion at nature centers, summer camps and other out of school learning opportunities. The amount of time we spend teaching about water, however, has not led to the kinds of outcomes that many educators may hope to achieve; like changes in conservation behavior, increased participation in future science-based careers, or obtaining critical thinking and problem solving skills that lead youth to become engaged citizens.
There is a lack of scientific literacy in the general population of the United States (and worldwide) and this translates to a lack of understanding and concern for water resources worldwide as well. If the goal is to reach youth in more effective ways while teaching them about water, consider the following important movement while planning your youth water education programs.
The National 4-H Program is committed to improving their efforts to reach more potential young scientists in America. 4-H is already a successful model for educating youth in specific topics while also providing them with the essential elements needed to become contributing members of society.
Putting emphasis on 4-H Science programming has led to an exploration of how science is taught in 4-H and how those programs can be improved to increase the number of youth truly mastering scientific skills and abilities as they grow into their future roles in their communities (Kathleen Jamison and Jill Walahoski, 2009).
Part of this effort includes adapting our approach to 4-H Science education so that lessons fit a more Inquiry-Based model. This means allowing youth to use their own “rational powers and scientific thinking processes to explore and learn knowledge and skills” (Smith, 2010).
Inquiry-based approaches to education allow for lots of open-ended questions and time for youth to tinker with experiments, coming up with their own questions and possible solutions. In youth water education, consider starting a program by presenting a big idea (like all water goes somewhere, water is all around us, water is a limited natural resource, etc.) but not the facts that go with it. Instead of starting the program off with a lecture about the topic at hand, start with the experiment.
Give youth the tools to investigate, ask questions, try out different variables, share their discoveries and then bring it all back together with a discussion-based lesson that teaches youth about the science behind what they just discovered on their own.
Consider these adaptations to the common “create your own watershed” style activity (think aluminum foil or trash bag style lessons). Don’t teach students about how watershed boundaries are defined. Give youth the materials to create a landscape and allow them to manipulate the landscape and create their own variables.
Pose a few open-ended questions about how the water is moving over the landscape. Challenge them to design a landscape that would result in the formation of a river, then one that makes a lake. Have them try to make a landscape with two separate rivers or lakes.
Have the participants share the process they used to create separate bodies of water and also have them share things they tried that didn’t work. Now introduce the concept of watersheds and watershed boundaries and provide youth with the vocabulary and language to describe what they just experienced.
Allow the youth to create their own experiments in the future that would demonstrate the effects of changing landscapes, land-use issues, erosion, etc… that will help them to start making connections to the interconnectedness of humans and water.
Resources: 4-H Science 101: Development, Delivery and Assessment of 4-H Science Programs, Kathleen Jamison, Ph.D., Jill Walahoski. 2009. National 4-H Council.
4-H Science Curriculum Development Toolkit: What is Inquiry? (DRAFT). Martin Smith. 2010. 4-H Science Leadership Academy.
(Written By: Jennifer Fetter, Watershed Youth Development Educator, Penn State Extension, Dauphin County. Reprinted from Penn State Extension Watershed Winds Newsletter.)
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6/27/2011 |
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