SCIED 411 Peer 2 Assignment

Peer Teaching 2

The purpose of this exercise is to develop your skills at diagnosing student conceptions. As you saw in the Private Universe video, students come to class (and graduate from college!) with more or less well-formed conceptions about their world. Our approach to teaching science requires sensitivity and understanding about those conceptions and a willingness to use prior knowledge as an instructional resource.

Choose a scientific concept from your field and develop an interview protocol to elicit another student's understanding about that concept. We will have you conduct and tape record your interviews with another SCIED 411 student. Your assignment is to develop the protocol for the interview.

Here are some suggestions for concepts that may be "fruitful" to explore:

Some Physics Concepts

Heat and temperature
Absolute zero
Electric charge (static electricity) and electric current
Alternating current and direct current
Projectile motion
Forces on moving objects

Some Chemistry Concepts

Physical and chemical change
Mass, weight, and density
Diffusion
The particulate nature of matter
Temperature and solubility of solids, liquids, and gases
The gas laws
Melting points and boiling points

Some Earth Science Concepts

The earth as a cosmic body
Seasons
Mass, weight, and density
Plate tectonics
Magnetism and the earth's poles
Light and shadows

Some Biology Concepts

Natural selection
Taxonomic grouping and evolutionary paths
Osmosis
Adaptation
Genes
Photosynthesis and respiration

Suggestions

Choose an interview partner whose teaching area is different than your own.
Before you develop your protocol, discuss ideas for interview topics with your partner. For the interview you develop, don't choose a concept about which your partner has "expert knowledge."
Plan to use some props in your interview: minimally a picture or two; better yet, actual physical objects or models. This will make the conversation more "concrete."
Don't rely on a single line of questioning. Try to anticipate misconceptions and prepare questions or props to explore the nuances. You may even want to provide additional information before moving on. For example, you might say, "Suppose we came back in two weeks and found that the situation was now X...?
For each question or probe, script yourself some alternative wordings or elaborations in case your interviewee doesn't understand your point.
Plan a 10-20 minute interview.
Try to conduct the interview as a conversation, rather than an inquisition. Emphasize your interest in understanding your interviewee's perspective. Use humor. Try not to read your script in a monotone. If you're asking a complicated question, consider printing it on a piece of paper and placing it in front of your interviewee (that way your interviewee doesn't have to try to hold it in his or head).
You will conduct the interviews in class on the scheduled date. Please plan to have everything you need props, etc. Please also bring a standard audio cassette tape. We will have tape recorders on hand, but if you have a good one of your own, you might prefer to bring it.

Peer Teaching 2

Some Physics Concepts

Some Chemistry Concepts

Some Earth Science Concepts

Some Biology Concepts

Physics Concepts

Chemistry Concepts

Earth & Space Science Concepts

Biology Concepts