Syllabus

**Science in the Early Years (ECED 3109) - A Science Methods Course** Spring 2013: Wednesday's Class 5:00 to 7:30 (Location TBA) **Instructor**: Dr. George Mehler, Supervisor of Science (K-12): Central Bucks School District Adjunct Professor: College of Education, Temple University
 * Contact Information:**
 * Office: 16 Welden Drive, Doylestown, PA 18901**
 * Email**: gmehler@temple.edu or gmehler@cbsd.orgPhone: 267 893 2044
 * Office Hours**: One hour before & after our scheduled class time, in our regular room.
 * Course Wiki can be found at**: http://science-methods.wikispaces.com/


 * Course Philosophy and Goals**

“ In a world filled with the products of scientific inquiry, scientific literacy has become a necessity for everyone. Everyone needs to use scientific information to make choices that arise every day. Everyone needs to be able to engage intelligently in public discourse and debate about important issues that involve science and technology. And everyone deserves to share in the excitement and personal fulfillment that can come from understanding and learning about the natural world.”

The words you have just read come from the first pages of the National Science Education Standards (NAS, 1996). The goal of this course is to make the student more knowledgeable and aware of the concepts, processes, and tools that can help engage and enlighten our students as they learn science. In recent years, science and technology have developed tools that can help teachers express concepts and processes of science in new ways. Another goal of this course is to make our students more comfortable with these tools in the elementary classroom.

**Areas of Study for the Course**
 * National and State Science Education Standards; primary focus on science inquiry, physical science, earth and space science, and life science.
 * Inquiry-based active learning science lessons
 * Demonstrations that illuminate the core content standards
 * Current readings in science education
 * The newer and emerging tools of science education: 1) real time data collection 2) simulations/Interactives 3) imaging and 4) web-based resources

**Textbooks and Online References**
 * //__A Head Start on Science - Encouraging a Sense of Wonder __// - NS TA Press **(REQUIRED**)
 * //[|ScienceSaurus]// by Great Source (**REQUIRED**)

Note: The above books can be purchased at the Temple University Bookstore or online with the provided links.
 * //__National Science Education Standards__// (at Amazon, or online) **(REQUIRED**, **FREE** online version available) []
 * Course Wiki Site: As we go through the course we will be contributing to a course wiki site at http://science-methods.wikispaces.com/.


 * Class Expectations** 1. Students should attend **__all__** classes. In case of emergency absence please email the instructor. 2. Active participation in class, as well as timely completion of assigned readings. 3. Completion of oral and written assignments and projects by the assigned due dates. 4. Cell phones should be turned off during class.


 * Attendance Policy**: Enrollment in a course presupposes intention to attend regularly. The student who is absent for any reason is responsible for work missed. The student should understand that excessive absences may, at the option of the instructor, jeopardize the grade and/or continuance in the course. Although attendance is basically a matter between the student and the instructor, either may request the counsel of the advisor or the Office of the Dean in special cases.

Students should consult the policies and regulations of their own school or college for any further specifications of attendance policy.

The grading in this course will follow the scale below:
 * Evaluations**
 * **Class Participation** 10%
 * **Midterm Exam** (date to be announced in class) 30%
 * **Inquiry Picture Lesson** (to be presented and turned in on final exam class) 30%
 * **Science Education Portfolio** (to be turned in on final exam class) 30%
 * Sections of the science education portfolio will be developed throughout the semester and the completed portfolio will be turned in on the day of the final. Graded by rubric.

Each student will be evaluated according to the depth and competency of their work. Factors considered in the evaluation process include:
 * Demonstration and command of relevant information.
 * Thoroughness with which the demonstrations and portfolio are addressed.
 * Quality and organization of assignments.
 * All written work must be done on a word processor, single or double-spaced and using a 12 size font.

Grades and Grading

Semester Grades:

The work of all undergraduate students is graded and reported at the end of each semester. Students may access their semester grades on OWLnet within 48 hours of the end of the examination period for that semester and may request a mailed grade report through OWLnet.


 * 1. **Letter grades and points** ||
 * A || 4.00 Excellent ||
 * A– || 3.67 ||
 * B+ || 3.33 ||
 * B || 3.00 Good ||
 * B– || 2.67 ||
 * C+ || 2.33 ||
 * C || 2.00 Fair ||
 * C– || 1.67 ||
 * D+ || 1.33 ||
 * D || 1.00 ||
 * D– || .67 Passing ||
 * F || .00 Failed ||


 * Course Outline**: The following is a class by class outline of the topics and some of the activities we will be covering in the course.


 * Class # 1: Welcome and Introduction**, The Nature of Science, The Standards Movement in Science Education, Trends in Science Education, Search for Solutions video, Student Info, Syllabus, Demonstration of Real Time Data Collection (GoTemp!), Data Tables and Graphing, [|Create a Graph].

**Class #2: The Importance of Measurement in Science**, The Metric Systems and Bill Nye on Measurement, The Parachute Inquiry Lesson.

**Class #3**: **(Physical Science #1)** - **Properties of Matter**, Density Inquiry Based Activity

**Class #4**:**(Physical Science #2)** - **Forces and Motion**, Motion Inquiry Based Activity with Motion Detector

**Class #5**: **(Physical Science #3)** - **Electricity and Energy**, Physical Science Computer Simulations

**Class #6**: **(Physical Science #4)** - **Student Demonstrations** of Physical Science, Creating Student Starter Pages

**Class # 7**: **(Earth and Space Science #1)** - **Our Solar System**, Making and Using an **Astrolabe**

**Class # 8**: (**Earth and Space Science #2)** - **Earth's Changing Surface** [plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes], **Crater Inquiry** Activity

**Class # 9**: (**Earth and Space Science #3)** - MIDTERM, Earth and Space Science Computer Simulations and Student Starter Pages.

**Class #10**: **(Earth and Space Science #4)** - **Student Demonstrations** of Earth and Space Science Topics, Earth's History.

**Class #11**: **(Life Science #1)** - **Characteristics of Life and Organisms**, Pinto Bean (seed) Inquiry Activity, Microscopes

**Class #12**: **(Life Science #2)** - **Life Cycles of Organisms**, Start Brine Shrimp Inquiry Activity, Flower Dissection

**Class#13**: **(Life Science #3)** - **Habitat and Organisms**, Adaptations Inquiry Activity, and Bill Nye Ecosystems, Check the brine shrimp, Teaching Ecology with hope

**Class #14**: **(Life Science #4)** - **Student Demonstrations** of Life Science Concepts, Life Science Computer Simulations.

**Class #15**: Final Exam Class:1)**Science Education Portfolio** turned in, and **Inquiry Picture Lab** presented and turned in, **and** 2) a discussion about the questions you will get in an interview.

//Please Note//: Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss the specific situation as soon as possible. Contact Disability Resources and Services at 215- 204-1280 in 100 Ritter Annex to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. //Also Note//: Freedom to teach and freedom to learn are inseparable facets of academic freedom. The University has a policy on Student and Faculty and Academic Rights and Responsibilities (Policy #03.70.02) which can be accessed through the following link: []. Temple University has guidelines for plagiarism. Please go to the university website:www.temple.edu/bulletin/Responsibilities_rights/responsibilities/responsibilities.shtm that discusses plagiarism. The following is an example of providing appropriate American Psychological Association (APA) citation when copying or borrowing significant amounts of someone else’s work.

Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of another person's labor, another person's ideas, another person's words, another person's assistance. Normally, all work done for courses -- papers, examinations, homework exercises, laboratory reports, oral presentations -- is expected to be the individual effort of the student presenting the work. Any assistance must be reported to the instructor. If the work has entailed consulting other resources -- journals, books, or other media --, these resources must be cited in a manner appropriate to the course. It is the instructor's responsibility to indicate the appropriate manner of citation. Everything used from other sources -- suggestions for organization of ideas, ideas themselves, or actual language -- must be cited. Failure to cite borrowed material constitutes plagiarism. Undocumented use of materials from the World Wide Web is plagiarism. (Temple website, 2005).

To avoid any possible problems with plagiarism, all mini-assignments and the paper will be submitted to the electronic “SafeAssign”. This program generates a report indicating how much, if any, of the paper was take verbatim from other sources. PLEASE DO NOT PLAGIARIZE.