Grade 2 Science - teaching design as an important part of the scientific process

As I write this I am watching lovely white flakes of snow wafting past the window.  I am currently in Stockholm where there is still a covering of snow on the ground and kids are still skating on parts of the frozen Baltic.  Here is the scene yesterday outside of the Natural History Museum.

This is not how I expected to spend my second week of spring break - I was expecting at least some early spring flowers!   But, perhaps this is a karmic payback of sorts.

I have been so busy that I haven't had time to put up the science lessons and some videos that I made in February and March.

So, in an effort to move things forward on many fronts and to do my small part to end the winter weather in Northern Europe

I am going to finally finish writing up our recent science projects and I will post a few different videos this next week.  Bring on the daffodils!






I am going to share some of the lessons from the Designing Mixtures (Seeds of Science) unit which we just finished in the Grade 2 classes.

This winter I was able to use a flip camera to get some video of some of the lessons to give you a peek into some of these lessons in action.   This is a physical science unit that introduces seven and eight year old students to important concepts such as the properties of substances, mixtures, and dissolving.  But, for now I would like to focus on another important part of the unit in which students learn about the design process - which is an important part of both science and engineering practices.  As the teacher's guide for Designing Mixtures says  "Scientific inquiry aims to study nature, while technological design proposes solutions to human needs.  Both involve open-ended discovery and use ideas creatively to explore the physical world.  Both engineers and scientists engage in the design process.  The process of inquiry and the process of design share many characteristics and interact with each other in rich and revealing ways."

This  aspect of science education is on my mind this week because we are all expecting the release of the
final draft of the Next Generation Science Standards for the US.

 These new science standards were developed initially by the National Research Council and are now going through the final modifications  after a couple of rounds of extensive public comment.  When they are released they will represent the new framework for national science standards in the United States. While there are several new aspects to these new standards one of the key features is the more prominent role of engineering and technological design practices.

"What is different in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is a commitment to fully integrate engineering design, technology, and mathematics into the structure of science education by raising engineering design to the same level as scientific inquiry when teaching science disciplines at all levels, from kindergarten to grade 12. This new integrated approach to science education is sometimes referred to by the acronym STEM."

Next Generation Science Standards-January 2013 NGSS Public Release II

 "It is important to add at the outset, however, that including core concepts related to engineering design and technology does not imply that schools are expected to develop separate courses in these subjects. It is essential that these concepts are closely integrated with study in science disciplines at all grade levels.....

From an inspirational standpoint the Framework emphasizes the importance of technology and engineering in solving meaningful problems. From a practical standpoint the Framework notes that engineering and technology provide opportunities for students to deepen their understanding of science by applying their developing scientific knowledge in real-world contexts. Both arguments converge on the powerful idea that by integrating technology and engineering design into science curriculum, teachers can enable their students to use what they learn in their everyday lives."

"Core Idea 1. Engineering Design

The term “engineering design” has replaced the older term “technological design,” consistent with the definition of engineering as a systematic practice for solving problems, and technology as the result of that practice. According to the Framework: “ From a teaching and learning point of view, it is the iterative cycle of design that offers the greatest potential for applying science knowledge in the classroom and engaging in engineering practices,” (NRC 2011, p. 8-1). This idea contrasts with a common practice challenging children to build a tower out of newspaper with no guidance for how to go about solving the problem. Instead, the Framework recommends that students learn about three phases of solving problems:

A. Defining and delimiting engineering problems involves stating the problem to be solved as clearly as possible in terms of criteria for success and constraints, or limits.
B. Designing solutions to engineering problems begins with generating a number of different possible solutions, evaluating potential solutions to see which ones best meet the criteria and constraints of the problem, then testing and revising the best designs.
C. Optimizing the design solution involves a process in which the final design is improved by trading off less important features for those that are more important. This may require a number of tests and improvements before arriving at the best possible design.
The Framework is explicit about what students at different grade levels are expected to do in engineering design. This progression of capabilities is summarized in the Framework as follows:

In some ways, children are natural engineers. They spontaneously build sand castles, dollhouses, and hamster enclosures, and they use a variety of tools and materials for their own playful purposes. Thus a common elementary school activity is to challenge children to use tools and materials provided in class to solve a specific challenge, such as constructing a bridge from paper and tape and testing it until failure occurs. Children’s capabilities to design structures can then be enhanced by having them pay attention to points of failure and asking them to create and test redesigns of the bridge so that it is stronger. Furthermore, design activities should not be limited just to structural engineering but should also include projects that reflect other areas of engineering, such as the need to design a traffic pattern for the school parking lot or a layout for planting a school garden box (NRC 2012, p 70-71)."

"What distinguishes engineering design in the NGSS from earlier attempts to engage students with fun, hands-on activities like packaging eggs so they can be dropped without breaking, or building bridges or catapults, is that students learn to solve problems systematically. For example, it is common for both children and adults to jump at the first solution that comes to mind when solving a motivating problem. Students who approach problems using the practices of engineering design take the time to clearly define the problem that they are expected to solve, and specify the criteria for success so they will be able to judge the quality of their solutions. They also generate a number of different solutions before deciding what to test, and compare each of their initial ideas with the requirements of the problem. And once they find a workable solution they are not done. They also recognize that further tests and modifications are necessary to develop optimal solution."

Next Generation Science Standards-January 2013 NGSS Public Release II

Roger W. Bybee begins his essay on Scientific and Engineering Practices in K-12 Classrooms,  which is included in the booklet titled The NSTA Reader's Guide to A Framework for K-12 Science Education by describing some of the recent Sesame Street episodes which include the characters acting like engineers and scientists as a sign of the growing importance of STEM education practices through out US education.  Here is a link to the Sesame Street website that explains more of the reasoning behing their new initiative.  Sesame Street - STEM education 

As Dr. Bybee says in his article " The relationship between science and engineering practices is one of complementarity.  Given the inclusion of engineering in the science standards and an understanding of the difference in aims, the practices complement one another and should be mutually reinforcing in curricula and instruction.  The shift in practice emerges from research on how students learn and advances our understanding of how science progresses."

Here is the link for the NSTA Reader's Guide to A Framework for K-12 Science Education - it is available at no cost.

So, it appears that we have arrived at a new perspective on engineering practices in K-12 science education standards for the US.  Everyone from the experts in science education to the writers for Sesame Street seem to agree that it is important to include more engineering practices into K-12 science instruction.  (Not all countries in the world agree with that idea - but more about that in a later post).

The next obvious question is HOW are we going to teach these engineering practices?

• What is this new kind of instruction that incorporates engineering practices into elementary science?   

• What does the lesson in an elementary classroom using these practices look like?

• What do we ask our students to do? 

• How do we make sure that students are successful right from the beginning and not frustrated and turned off by the design challenges presented?

Not surprisingly, I think that one possible example of just such a unit is the Designing Mixtures unit from Seeds of Science. While there are core concepts in physical science embedded in the unit involving properties of substances, mixtures and dissolving the practices of design are just as integral to the unit and not something that has been tacked on at the edges.  It is just as much a part of the unit as the important discoveries that students make about the physical properties of the various substances they investigation.  The students move through al the key steps outlined for the design process and as would be expected at the end of the unit they are done - in fact they have only just started to really understand how to generate workable solutions and how to evaluate and modify their designs.  

Here how the Seeds of Science website describes what students learn during the unit:

"Design process: Students learn about ways in which scientists and engineers design new mixtures for specific purposes, using what they know about the properties of ingredients. They consider design goals- properties they want their mixture to have, test ingredients, decide on a mixture to test, make the mixture and record procedures, test the resulting mixture to see how well it matches the design goals, revise their recipes and continue testing. As students engage in the design process, they also learn important ideas about cause and effect." http://www.scienceandliteracy.org/units/dm#2

So, let me give you just one example from these lessons - this is a reading lesson using one of the five books that the students read as they move through their investigations during the unit.   It is called Jelly

Bean Scientist - and I wish there were many more books like this written for children - not some dry text about a long dead scientist but books about current people doing cool science - and in a way that is written and illustrated for kids - at their reading level.  Hopefully, someday soon there will be more. 

So below you will find a short video that gives a shortened version of what a typical reading lesson looks like in our Grade 2 classrooms.  I would suggest that there are two questions you might keep in mind when you watch the lesson 

1. Is it engaging to students?   

2. Is it authentic to science and engineering practices?

 "Being a scientist is cool.  Being a JELLY BEAN scientist is super cool!  Ambrose Lee can attest to this.  Ambrose is a food scientist who brainstorms flavor recipes for gourmet jelly beans at Jelly Belly Candy Co.  His job is so cool it has been featured in Popular Science magazine. Check out the Jelly Belly web site to learn more about the variety of flavors including crazy ones like:

• Pencil Shavings
• Toothpaste
• Moldy Cheese
• Skunk Spray"

Link to Seeds of Science website posting on the book Jelly Bean scientist:

When I grow up, I want to be a Jelly Belly scientist!

More on Designing Mixtures lessons to follow!