Minor content
Course Objectives
1. Develop Scientific Literacy
A scientifically literate person is willing to engage in reasoned discourse about STEAM education, which requires competencies to:
-Explain phenomena scientifically – recognize, offer and evaluate explanations for a range of natural and technological phenomena.
-Evaluate and design scientific inquiry – describe and appraise scientific investigations and propose ways of addressing questions scientifically.
-Interpret data and evidence scientifically – analyze and evaluate data, claims and arguments in a variety of representations and draw appropriate scientific conclusions.
2. Foster STEAM Skills and Attitudes
Willingness to recognize and use evidence in making decisions as informed citizens. Students will immersive themselves in makerspace education and design thinking.
3. Making Links with the world around us
A conscious goal especially at the primary level, by giving attention to linking together ideas from a range of experiences of real phenomena, problems and events both within the classroom and outside it.
4. Cultivate Inquiry Driven Practitioners
Future citizens need to be able to adapt to change as a constant feature of their lives. The consequences for education are that schools must prepare pupils to organize and regulate their own learning, to learn independently and in groups, and to overcome difficulties in the learning process.
This minor is offered by International Teacher Education for Primary Schools (ITEps).
Minor Stucture
• Module 1: What is Science? Lightning Talk presentation / Science Education Community Engagement
Learning Objective 1 - Students will create and deliver a lightening talk using virtual reality as a tool about a scientist from the past. The student will outline their contribution to the nature of science and will be assessed based on the communication and content of their presentation. Students will:
a. Use appropriate philosophical terms and concepts.
b. Develop an understanding of scientific literacy and the scientific method.
c. Show the influence of time, cultural and societal factors on scientific developments.
d. Use creative and technical skills for designing and implementing a Virtual Reality classroom experience.
• Module 2: Becoming a Scientist. Science Education Community Engagement
Learning Objective 2 - Students become critically aware of their own scientific literacy and actively pursue the acquisition of knowledge and skills to be able to design and implement justified science lessons in practice. To reach this objective, students:
a. Systematically build on 21st Century Skills and content knowledge in the context of science education.
b. Justify and assess the choices made in designing and carrying out an outdoor science activity with local primary school children using the TPACK framework.
c. Actively search out and determine the applicability of field trips, the outdoors and the local community as resources for science primary education.
• Module 3: Transdisciplinary Science Education. STEAM House / Science Education Community Engagement
Learning Objective 3 - Students will design and construct a STEAM inspired home given a scenario. Students will incorporate different elements of a fabrication lab to demonstrate an understanding of how to integrate the tools in their future classroom. Students will:
a. Program with a block-based language and apply it to various tools applicable to the primary classroom.
b. Design and adapt two and three dimensional models in fabrication lab construction.
c. Implement scientific tools to address sustainability problems in the world around us.
• Module 4: Science Education in the Primary Classroom. Science Education Community Engagement / Write A Science Opera
Learning Objective 4 - Students demonstrate an understanding of inquiry-based and interdisciplinary pedagogical approaches connected to different curricular frameworks in the design of science learning activities based on research. To reach this objective, students:
a. Evaluate and critique academic ideas using current sources and using APA referencing in the production of various designs.
b. Demonstrate a wide range of practical ideas for how to provide inquiry-based science education for linguistically and culturally diverse primary school children.
c. Develop and execute an interdisciplinary science project in co-creation.
• Module 5: Modelling my Experience. Portfolio
Students culminate their diverse experiences in the science and technology elective through a clear and concise portfolio. Growth is depicted in various mediums regarding the vision statement, PDP goals, theory and practice.