Many students struggle with science content literacy no matter the age or type of science presented. The word "science" has gone from an academic word to a word that invokes fear in many students. There are many reasons for this fear, some justified, others absurd, regardless of the reason for the fear, the point is taht for many students this fear is unjustified.A lot of students are scared of science literacy because they aren't exposed to it and shown that like other subjects there is a language that is represented in these articles and if you can decipher the language, then the rest is easily understood. A lot of published scientists like to use large words to show why they earned a PhD and that can be intimidating to students (this doesn't just happen in science content either). In my opinion as soon as the students see large words, fear sets in and that undeveloped frontal lobe backs it up and they give up without really having started.
My own experiences with science content literacy are limited to either my early years (i.e. picture books) with a large gap until I got to college and declared a science major. I didn't get much exposure to science based articles in high school and only slightly more than that in middle school. Most of my science exposure when I was in those grades came from my own interests and I was the one to pursue the magazines (never journals, I wasn't that brave/nerdy) and occasional book. My science teachers were more concerned with our grades rather than making us read. Once I got to college, they took it mostly for granted that most of the students hadn't read science content literacy and seemed to take it in stride and fill that gap in our education.
My initial observations of effective reading in science would be that many students lack the instruction how to properly dissect the readings to get what they need out of them. They see large science words and immediately blame their lack of knowledge in the fact that they are "bad at science." The other response I see is that many science literature is geared towards small children (to explain natural wonders) or college students (professional scholarly journal articles) with not much between to allow for students to grow. I think that it's important for students to be exposed to science content literacy even though most are not and that even having "baby" books (children books) in the classroom might provide the student who was never exposed to the concepts in the books with answers and clear one more pre-conception that isn't correct. While science articles can be hard to read it is still important to expose children to them and work with them to understand.
Yeah, I agree with how the words some people use can really be intimidating. For some reason people in the science field feel it's necessary to use the science vocabulary to the full extent in high school. Students need to be eased into the process of understanding what they read. It's frustrating when you have to stop constantly and define words so you have some idea about what is going on. I think if you can start out with some simpler articles it won't intimidate the students as much.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Paul. When kids are bombarded with science terms, it becomes a foreign language. I like the idea you mention of easing them into it. So, what might that look like in a high school course? When I was in fifth grade, I liked to give students experiences in science and when they reported back their observations, then invent the science terms. So they could observe the water droplets on the outside of a glass of cold water and we could talk about water molecules in the air and condensation. I imagine it is hard when students come with limited direct experiences with science, though.
ReplyDeleteLove your blog by the way!
I find science very intimidating. I've never really been sure why, but I think it's because the younger you are, the scarier it is to think that there is this "big world" out there that you can't fully comprehend. Science attempts to help students understand the world better, but it seems overwhelming. And throwing in terms and formulas and theories just makes it even more intimidating. I imagine it is hard as science teachers to find ways to engage students who feel the way I do about science. I know it's important, and would NEVER argue against science classes in schools, but it sometimes seems like such an unapproachable subject.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement about not much inbetween picture books and scientic journals. So I guess I would look hard for what is out there that might be characterized as inbetween reading for science, then I might start with a picture book to introduce a new topic and show them how a journal is not such a big leap. Hopefully you will have found something inbetween, but if not, this might be a good way to go. You can talk about the big words with the students and ways to figure out what they mean. I guess vocabulary is the word of the day!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you jessica, and i liked what paul said too. If you don't enjoy science you're not going to take the time to learn the vocabulary, it would just take too long. There needs to be more books for teenagers to help them understand science because you are right it does seem like there are only books for the two extremes and nothing for the kids in the middle who might want to understand science better. I also agree with paul that the vocabulary needs to be something that the students are eased into so that by the time they graduate high school they have a better understanding of the concepts and the vocabulary and wont be as uneasy about science when they enter into college.
ReplyDelete