Contents

Teaching & Design
Summary
Teaching Positions
Philosophy
Intro. Astronomy
Elementary Methods
Computer Methods
Elementary Teaching
Ivy Tech
High School
Oregon Adventure
STREAMS

Teaching: Elementary Science Methods

URL: http://inkido.indiana.edu/e328/syllabus.html

Context	This course was for students who were working toward a dual certification in elementary education and special needs. The goal of this course is to provide students with pedagogical approaches and strategies regarding how to teach science in K-5 classrooms. This course is taken by every student who is obtaining an elementary (K-5) certification. This course made extensive use of Indiana University's Inquiry Learning Forum (ILF). Through the use of the ILF's inquiry circles, the students were able to communicate with their cooperating teacher and students from other universities.
Conditions	I began teaching E328 in the fall of 2001. I re-wrote the syllabus in order to shift emphasis toward supporting the students in teaching through inquiry-based approaches as defined by the national education standards. This class had 26 students of which 25 were women. The primary challenge for this course was providing students with enough structure to help them understand how to teach science yet support the students in developing a sophisticated understanding of scientific inquiry and the nature of science. The course is on-going and will conclude on December 8, 2001. The syllabus I developed is included in Appendix D.
Scope	I taught this course during the fall semester of 2001. This course consisted of 26 students, but I was also working with 28 students from Boston College, 20 students from IU Kokomo, and 12 in-service teachers.
Role	This design of E328 is largely my own although I was influenced by several other sources. During course development, I talked with Debi Hanuscin and Bill Harwood each of whom had taught the course previously. In this course I used the Inquiry Learning Forum as a tool to support interactions between my students, in-service teachers, and students from two other universities. Throughout the course I emphasized teaching through inquiry and used the ILF as a tool to support discussion and conversation concerning how inquiry looks in K-5 classrooms. This course was one of the first courses in the United States to have methods students from multiple universities working toward the common goal of understanding what inquiry is and how to teach through inquiry.