This week we will be talking about the text and revisiting our defnitions of science literacy. Be sure to upload your reflections to the dropbox for the readings and for the documentaries and catch up with the outreach reflection, if you have not done so, already (2 groups have not uploaded their lesson plans for the outreach, yet) . We will have a little time on Thursday to work on the Science Philosopher round table presentations for next week. Be sure to come to class and not let your group down. See below for round table format
How to Lead an Effective Roundtable Discussion
DescriptionRoundtable sessions are designed to allow extensive discussion and feedback for the presenter in a more informal context than panel presentations.
Roundtables are generally moderated and involve discussion among the presenters and participants around the topic of the roundtable.
Presenters are encouraged to bring handouts that highlight key points for discussion.
Roundtables at a Glance
Informal – discussion-like
Allows for equal participation by all
Outline prepared for participants
All are encouraged to play an active role
Effective (and not so effective) Roundtables
Qualities of effective roundtables:
Time managed carefully – plenty of time for discussion
Each speaker communicates clear message & solicits specific feedback
Moderator facilitates discussion that touches on all speakers’ work
Qualities of ineffective roundtables:
Not enough time for discussion
Speakers aren’t clear about what feedback they want from audience
Discussion focuses on 1 speaker, leaves others out
Meet with fellow presenters in advance to discuss the common threads that run through each person’s perspective
Consult w/ fellow participants, about structure & flow of conversation
Think about how to arrange the room to support conversation
Provide facilitator (discussant) w/ all of your materials in advance
Structure the talk around key points
Everyone in group should have a part
Emphasize what you found/key points
Develop a one-page handout
Involve audience
1. Introduction
2. Preview sentence (Tell them what you’re going to tell them)
3. Focus on main ideas and sub-ideas
4. Conclusion – pose questions, ask for specific feedback
Enjoy!
We are all interested in what you have to say…let us in on it and ask us questions!
Have a great week,
Dr. E
This week during class we watched a documentary on the Cosmos. For me, the most interesting part of the documentary was the creation of the universe on a yearly calendar. The fact that everything I've studied has happened within the last day of the year (December 31st) is an incredible way to view the universe time-line. This is still a relatively hard concept for me to grasp, but look forward to learning more about it.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday we reviewed a survey regarding science that we took at the beginning of the semester. This was interesting to me because much of the material was subject to interpretation, much in the way scientific research is subject to interpretation. We also worked on our philosophers presentation. I look forward to hearing what other groups have researched.
On Tuesday we saw a documentary that talked about the Cosmos and space. It was really interesting and tied in with the last few chapters we read from Science Matters. The documentary took the whole class period and we were asked to write a reflection paper.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday we read an article about the lack of science literacy in the country and it didn't suprise me one bit. We also tried to answer true and false questions from a worksheet about the presumptions of science. There were a few questions that the class didn't agree with, but I could go either way with most of them. Our group got together and divided by information about our philosopher. We are meeting Sunday night to finalize the handout, and we will be good to go on Tuesday when we present.
I can see the end of the semester and it feels wonderful to get through it.
On Tuesday, we watched an older film on the Cosmos. I found it humerous at times due to it being a rather dated film, but yet very interesting at the same time. There were alot of ideas brought up that I never thought of before. I liked the talk about how a Alexandria philosopher discovered that the earth was round by measering shadows of towers in two cities.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, we read an article about the lack of science literacy in the U.S. I was unable to make it to the class for this day. However, I emailed my group members and we divided the research on our philosopher.
We began the week by watching a video about the Cosmos. This documentary discussed the Big Bang Theory, as well as the galaxies, planets, and so on. A lot of the information went along with what Chapter 11 of Science Matters discussed. I thought the documentary was interesting overall. It was slightly dated, but had an impact none the less.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, we began the class period by reading an article about the lack of science literacy in the United States. The article discussed some statistics of what Americans know, and adversely, do not know. Then, we proceeded to take a quiz that we had taken at the beginning of the semester. To finish the class period, we researched our philosophers in preparation for our roundtable discussion on Tuesday. I am excited to see/learn what other people have to say about their chosen philosophers.
On Tuesday, we watched a video on the Cosmos. I found it to be very interesting even though it seemed a bit dated. My favorite part was towards the end when the narrator was at the library discussing the scrolls. Overall, I felt this documentary had a lot of interesting information in it.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, we started the class by reading an article that discusses the lack of science literacy facing our society. After reading it, I would have to agree with it. As well, we also completed a survey that we took at the beginning of semester. Finally, we had the rest of the period to work in our groups to develop on information for the round-tables next week. I am interested to hear about everyone's philosopher.
Tuesday's class was really informative with the documentary. It was somewhat dated, but still had many interesting moments. My favorite parts were the ones in which the narrator was talking about ancient cultures and how they advanced scientifically. It's fascinating to think that people that lived so long ago were so intelligent to create theories and ideas that they did with what limited information was available.
ReplyDeleteThursday's class was also interesting in revisiting the science literacy survey, though my group ended up getting most of the answers "wrong"; it seemed like a lot of the answers were up to debate. The article was also surprising in how little people seemed to know about science literacy, such as believing that people and dinosaurs lived together.
On Tuesday of this week we watched an episode of "The Cosmos" narrated by Carl Sagan. I found this video to be very stimulating as it provided a great overview of intergalactic phenomena. What I found most compelling was Sagan's many references to the likelihood of life existing elsewhere in the universe. I have often had this thought before especially when considering the vastness of the universe (million trillion stars!).
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday we discussed contemporary scientific literacy in America. One member of my group suggested that we perform a similar survey to the one we examined in class to see how USD students fared. I think that such an endeavor would be interesting and hope college educated individuals would score higher than the average US citizen. We concluded the class period by determining which philosopher of science we will discuss this next week. We decided Thomas Kuhn and his work on "paradigms" would be interesting to present.
The movie we watched on Tuesday was very interesting and entertaining. The movie was a little dated but I liked what they had to say about the big bang theory.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday we read an article about scientific literacy and it showed how a large portion of people don't know some basic scientific facts. We also tried to answer some true false questions about scientific presumptions. I got a little over half of the answers right so I guess I'm not the most scientifically literate.
This week we watched an episode of the "Cosmos". The part I enjoyed the most was of the Library of Alexandria. It's a shame that of that knowledge was lost and science was pushed back hundreds of years.
ReplyDeleteThe true or false question sheet was good althrough I didn't agree with some of them especially the one about the scientist skewing their data to make certain results. Yeah it does happen but it shouldn't so the answer should not be true. Also, for the majority of scientist this is not the case.
Tuesday I missed but I watched the movie after class and wrote the 2 page response.
ReplyDeleteThursday we took the true false survey and had to dispute some of the supposed answer sheet... because some of the wording in the questions could have been seen from different "reference frames". And also we scooted off to the link lab to get the speech all organized and didn't really have a plan before dispersing and i think we will get it all taken care of before class so we have an effective discussion on Galileo.
Tuesday we watched a movie on the cosmos that I found very interesting. I am currently taking Astronomy as well, so it fit right in with what i have learned so far. I have always wondered what else could be out there since our knowledge of life in the universe is limited.
ReplyDeleteThursday we took a true or false quiz similar to the one given at the beginning of the semester. It was interesting to see how different wording of the question can turn a question into something completely different.
Tuesday I found the movie about the cosmos interesting. Like Rose, I am also taking astronomy this semester and find the idea of so much more possibly being out there very interesting.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday I was surprised to see how much I really did learn this semester after taking the quiz. In the beginning of the semester, some of the things that the quiz talked about was sort of familiar from previous classes, but for the most part pretty foreign. However, I now have a much better understanding.
This week during class we watched a documentary on the Cosmos. For me, the most interesting part of the documentary was the part where they showed the two pegs attached to the map to simulate the shadows created by the curve of the Earth's surface. This was a very interesting concept and I can definitely see myself using it to teach in my future classroom.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, we took a survey that we took at the beginning of the semester. It was pretty interesting to see how our thoughts changed over the course of the semester. I only vaguely remember taking the first survey, but I remember the thought processes I went through when interpreting those statements on there though. We also finished up working on our philosopher presentations. I am looking forward to presenting our information, as well as listening to what the others have to say.
Tuesday we watched the Cosmos video. I thought that it was very interesting and I learned some things that I wasn't aware of. I thought that it was amazing when he said that the light takes 100,000 years to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other. The size of the universe is unfathomable.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday we took the same quiz that we did at the beginning of the semester. I was much more confident taking the quiz this time, and our group got most of the answers right.