ED PS 5564 - Advanced Secondary Science Teaching Methods

The purpose of this course is to support pre-service secondary teachers in deepening their vision of and capacity for high-quality science teaching by further developing research-based, responsive teaching practices. To achieve this purpose, students will learn to design phenomenon-based science learning experiences built around authentic, local issues related to environmental and social justice. A key part of this course engages students as science learners; each class meeting will feature a science learning activity designed to help pre-service teachers experience the type of science education promoted by modern research and standards. Modeling effective instructional approaches, these experiences will center environmental and social justice issues as phenomena, grounding all learning in real, complex problems facing society. Class will also include dedicated time to supporting students’ developing understandings of how to teach science by engaging learners in scientific practices, such as data analysis and model building, to produce new scientific understandings. This course will culminate with a final project that consists of a set of several fully developed, sequential lesson plans, a “rehearsal” of a learning activity associated with one of those lessons, and reflective writing on these tasks