Transcript Slide 1

In this session (Session 7), we’ll focus on the interdisciplinary
nature of the Natural Inquirer.
The Natural Inquirer seeks, whenever possible, to integrate
math, geography, geology, social science, chemistry, the arts, and
other disciplines with its two main disciplines:
Life science and reading (language arts)
Recall the national science education standards. These are, first and foremost, the
foundation for the Natural Inquirer. You have also learned about the importance of
reading, understanding, and thinking critically about science. These also are priorities
for the Natural Inquirer.
An extension of reading science is the larger domain of language arts. To increase the
educational value of the Natural Inquirer, it is important to have a background in
language arts education standards. The following description of language arts
competencies is from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, 2004, English
and Language Arts Competency Skills.
As you read through these, think of how
each may be applied in Natural Inquirer
Reflection Sections, FACTivities, or in other
ways. If possible, keep 3-4 Natural Inquirers
with you as you go through this session.
Refer to them frequently to see examples of
the integration of disciplines.
Informational
Informational communication involves giving information to explain realities or
ideas, to teach people who want to know what the writer/speaker knows. The
writer/speaker of informational text should be knowledgeable and should
communicate so that the audience may gain the knowledge as well as
circumstances required. Informational texts often depend upon the traditional
prompts of who, what, when, where, and how and can include definitions,
instructions, directions, business letters, reports, and research. Grades six and
seven provide the foundation for the emphasis of the informational
environment in grade eight where students are expected to create a research
product in both written and presentational form.
You can see how the Natural Inquirer provides appropriate and needed
training in informational communication. Students read informational (or
expository) text in the Natural Inquirer, and through FACTivities and
Reflection Sections, they may be asked to communicate information
verbally or in writing.
One way students are asked to communicate information is
through the creation of podcasts or broadcasts based on a Natural
Inquirer article. A lesson plan for this is available in the
monograph, “Worming Their Way In.” The lesson plan can be
applied to any Natural Inquirer article. The lesson plan is
available at http://www.naturalinquirer.org/.
Existing podcasts may also be accessed at
http://www.naturalinquirer.org/
Other informational applications for the
Natural Inquirer are being developed for high
schools. A pilot project in 2007-2008 in
Dearborn, Michigan resulted in the first
“Student Scientist Edition,” in which students
conducted the research and wrote the articles.
You can use these or your imagination to create
other informational activities.
Expressive
Expressive communication involves exploring and sharing personal insights
and experiences. The writer/speaker of expressive text addresses the
reader/listener as a confidante, a friendly, though not necessarily personally
known, audience who is interested in how thoughtful people respond to life. As
authors, students write, speak, and use media for expressive purposes; as
readers/listeners, they learn to appreciate the experiences of others.
As students enter adolescence, they begin to question their role in the world
around them. Understanding self and others is a part of expressive
communication as are autobiographies, journals, friendly letters, and fictional
accounts. The expressive environment is emphasized in grade six and
reinforced in grades seven and eight. By the end of middle school, students
should be thoughtful, reflective learners who actively interact in a wide variety
of settings.
Although the Natural Inquirer is not as well designed to encourage expressive
communication, you may still find an opportunity for this. For example, see how
an opportunity for expressive communication was provided in the Wilderness
Benefits Edition:
“One of the measures of naturalness used by
the scientists is distance from roads. In this
FACTivity, you will use your experience and
imagination to explore whether you agree with the
scientists’ conclusion. You will write a story about
going home from the viewpoint of an animal who
makes his or her home in the forest.”
This FACTivity uses the article’s content as the foundation for expressive
writing (and a critique). If you want to read more of the FACTivity, download
the article from http://www.naturalinquirer.org/Defining-and-Measuring-theEcological-Value-of-Wilderness-a-75.html
22
Argumentative
Argumentative communication involves defining issues and proposing reasonable
solutions. Argumentative works include but are not limited to debates,
problem/solutions, speeches, and letters to the editor. In middle school, students
must learn the differences between an informal hallway confrontation and a
logical, detailed, coherently organized argumentative work.
After establishing the foundations of argument in grade six, the argumentative
environment is emphasized in grade seven with refinement occurring at grade
eight. By the end of middle school, students should be able to construct engaging,
thoughtful solutions to problems as well as detailed, well-argued, coherent, and
convincing responses.
Many of the Natural Inquirer FACTivities address argumentative communication.
For example, in the Tropical Edition, students are given the opportunity to develop
and present arguments for or against an action:
“In this FACTivity, you will answer the question: Should an
area of land outside of the Guanica forest boundary be closed
to land development?”
The FACTivity has students take one of two positions as a member
of a group. Each group develops an argument for their position and
makes a presentation to a third group which decides whether an
area of land outside of Guanica forest should be closed to land
development. See the entire FACTivity at
http://www.naturalinquirer.org/Land-Use-in-a-Dry-Tropical-Forest-a-4.html
As you can see, the Natural Inquirer should address the
broader area of language arts whenever possible.
Before we leave language arts, let’s discuss reading
science from a different perspective. In an earlier
session, you learned about the importance of reading
science, and how to read a scientific article. Now, let’s
explore some strategies for enhancing reading in
middle school.
In the Introductory session, you learned how the different sections of
the Natural Inquirer function to enhance reading comprehension.
This is a good time to go back to the first session (powerpoint) and
review that information. In addition to its functionality, the Natural
Inquirer now includes reading strategies in its lesson plans. Such
lesson plans are helpful to science teachers, who may not have a
background in reading strategies.
Remember that the Natural Inquirer is primarily a minds-on science
education resource. The main way students use it is by reading and
thinking about science.
Adapted from the Sarasota, Florida, K-12 Web site:
What is a Reading Strategy?
A reading strategy is an activity used to help students increase reading abilities. A
reading strategy outlines what methods of instruction will enable the students to
become proficient readers. In other words, what will the teacher do in the
classroom to meet the needs of all levels of readers?
From the Sarasota, FL K-12 Web site:
When Are Strategies Used?
To assist students in:
•Predicting outcomes in a reading passage
•Summarizing material which has been read, both fictional and informational
•Questioning material being read
•Determining important ideas while reading
•Monitoring their reading
•Searching for clues
•Rereading to confirm
•Reading ahead or back for clues
•Self-correcting
It is a good idea to search the Web and become familiar with at
least a few of the reading strategies available. These can become
the foundation for practical and useable lesson plans. For
example, visit http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ELA/612/Reading/Reading%20Strategies/reading%20strategies%20ind
ex.htm
When you are at the Greece “Reading Strategies” Web site,
continue with the following exercise.
Look at the “Interactive Notebook” strategy. Take a few moments
to think about how you might adapt this strategy for the Natural
Inquirer. Now look at the “Parallel Note Taking” strategy. How
might you adapt this for use in the Natural Inquirer? Write your
ideas down in your notebook.
Read a few more of the strategies. This will give you a good feel
for how reading strategies can be developed into lesson plans for
the Natural Inquirer.
Here is another Web site with a list of reading strategies:
http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/index.htm
As you can see, there is a wide range of strategies which may be adapted for
use in the Natural Inquirer.
To develop the podcasts available on the Natural Inquirer Web
site, the teacher used a reading strategy called SCAN and RUN.
These and other strategies, such as the PAR strategy
(http://educatoral.com/PAR.html), can be found by searching the
Web.
Other reading strategies available in current Natural Inquirers
include two types of graphic organizers. These are available in the
“FACE Look!” monograph and the “Worming Their Way In”
monograph. These can be viewed by downloading the monograph
from the Natural Inquirer Web site, www.naturalinquirer.org.
For purposes of creating Natural Inquirers, it is important to
understand that lesson plans, and especially those that incorporate
reading strategies, are crucial to making your article easily useable
by educators.
Before we leave language arts, it is important to remember that
middle school students enjoy playing word games (as do people of
all ages). Therefore, the Natural Inquirer Web site provides word
searches and other reading comprehension games to make
learning more fun. For more information, visit the Natural
Inquirer Web site and explore these resources. We have software
and can facilitate creating these word searches for your glossary.
“Worming Their Way In’ Word Search
Complete the 12 sentences below by writing the correct word from the article glossary. Then, find the glossary words in the Word Search puzzle by
circling them. The words may be diagonal, from left to right or right to left, and up to down or down to up.
Person who goes fishing.______________________
Environment where a plant or animal naturally grows and lives._______
A type of evergreen tree that produces cones and has needle-shaped or
scalelike leaves, such as pines, firs, and spruces.__________________
The top layer of dead and decaying leaves, small sticks, and twigs that lay on
the forest floor.__________________________
Skilled individual who takes care of natural resources.______________
Not naturally occurring in an area.___________________________
Movement into an area by an object or organism that is likely to cause
harm.__________________________
Remaining in a pure or unspoiled state.__________________
Groups of organisms that resemble one another in appearance, behavior,
chemical processes, and genetic structure._____________________
Any living thing._____________________________
Naturally occurring in an area.______________________________
The science of describing, identifying, and classifying organisms based on
their natural relationships.________________________________
***Note to Educators: Please feel free to make copies for other appropriate
educational opportunities.
Now, let’s move on to the integration of other disciplines. First
let’s discuss math. Math is an integral part of the research process.
One of the main ways that math is incorporated into the Natural
Inquirer is through the presentation of data.
Middle school students should be learning how to read and create a
variety of data-based displays, such as tables, pie charts, bar
charts, line graphs, and other displays of numeric data. If the
article’s research is quantitative (and most of them are), each
Natural Inquirer article includes some kind of numeric
representation.
Select any 3 Natural Inquirer articles and
review them for their numeric
representations. When you write a Natural
Inquirer article, you must visualize how to
present data in a format that middle school
students can understand.
Another way math is integrated into the Natural Inquirer is through
special sections called “Number Crunches.” Number crunches are
often transformations of numeric values from one system of
measurement to another (usually metric to customary units, or the
American system of measurement).
Scientists across the world use the metric system of measurement.
Therefore, by asking students to make a conversion to the U.S.
system, you are: 1) giving them experience in math and 2) helping
them to visualize the metric quantity.
Number Crunches
How many yards away from their
breeding habitat were adult male and
female frogs found? Multiply the number
of meters by 1.09 to find out. To find out
how many feet this is, multiply the number
of meters by 3.28.
Number Crunches
If the scientists set a total of
1,125 traps in 20 locations,
how many traps (on the
average) did they set in each
location?
Use your imagination when developing Number Crunches for
your article. Students can calculate averages, add, subtract,
multiply, and divide. You may have them work with decimals
and fractions. You may ask them to compare and contrast
values. By 7th grade, students should have the skills to complete
these tasks.
To become familiar with math standards for middle school,
visit http://www.georgiastandards.org/mathframework.aspx
In 7th grade, students are beginning to learn about statistical
analysis and numeric representation. This makes the Natural
Inquirer an important tool for the integrative middle school
curriculum.
Let’s talk GEOGRAPHY! You
probably know that U.S. citizens have
been found to be geographically low
literate. The Natural Inquirer can help
address this by providing a variety of
map types and scales, and other
geographic images.
Before we go farther, however, let’s
consider the concept of scale. The
Natural Inquirer presents geographic
information at a variety of scales. As
an exercise, look through 3 Natural
Inquirers and find examples of maps
shown at the regional, national, and
international scales. In some cases,
two or more maps (at different scales)
are shown in one figure.
Figure 5. A topographic (to po graf ik) map is a
type of map that shows an area’s elevation.
Elevation is the height of the land above sea level.
Some topographic maps use lines to show
elevation, but this map uses shading. The lightest
areas are the areas with the highest elevation.
The darker the area’s shading, the lower its
elevation.
The dots on this map mark the places where the
scientists set the pitfall traps. Look closely at the
map. What do you notice about the location of the
pitfall traps? What is the range in elevation for the
areas where most of the pitfall traps were set?
Map skills may also be
introduced in the Natural
Inquirer. For example,
students may be asked to
use latitude and longitude
to identify an area, or
they may be asked to
read a contour map for
elevation. (From the
Wildland Fire Edition.
Contour map on previous
slide.)
For 18 national geography standards, visit
http://www.ncge.org/publications/tutorial/standards/.
This will give you guidance about how you can integrate
geography into your article.
Here are a few examples of how these standards have been
incorporated into Natural Inquirers:
From the World’s Forest Edition,
addressing STANDARD 9: The
characteristics, distribution, and
migration of human populations
on Earth's surface.
From the World’s Forest
Edtion, this addresses
STANDARD 8: The
characteristics and spatial
distribution of ecosystems
on Earth's surface.
Also from the World’s
Forest Edition, a series
of cartograms addresses
STANDARD 4: The
physical and human
characteristics of places.
(These cartograms redraw countries
according to a value. For example,
there was almost no forest growth in
Africa between 1990 and 2005.)
Figure 20. Amount of forest growth in each country between 1990 and 2005. Map
by Worldmapper
As you can see, learning geography is a natural companion to
learning science, and it is closely related to environmental and
natural resource science and to environmental social science.
Carefully review the national geography standards so that you can
take full advantage of these opportunities for your Natural Inquirer
article.
In one article (“Wild
and Free,” from the
Wilderness Benefits
Edition), the process
of creating a
Geographic
Information System
was described.
Now let’s consider Geology. From Wikipedia, “Geology is the
science and study of the solid matter that constitutes Earth.
Encompassing such things as rocks, soil, and gemstones, geology
studies the composition, structure, physical properties, history, and
the processes that shape Earth's components. It is one of the Earth
sciences.”
Past Natural Inquirer articles have addressed soil sciences, and in particular have
looked at soil ecology and the exchange of gases between the soil and the
atmosphere. Other ways to incorporate geology may be to share soil and rock
characteristics of an area, or to describe the geologic history by using a sidebar.
Figure 6. Photograph of
equipment used to collect
nitrous oxide gas being
released from the soil. (From
the Tropical Forest Edition)
Social sciences (or social studies): Social studies standards are
organized around 10 themes:
•Culture
•Time, Continuity, and Change
•People, Places, and Environment
•Individual Development and Identity
•Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
•Power, Authority, and Governance
•Production, Distribution, and Consumption
•Science, Technology, and Society
•Global Connections
•Civic Ideals and Practices
Figure 14. Young man
watering trees to stabilize
sand dunes (From the
World’s Forests Edition)
The Natural Inquirer can address many of these, but the most
natural fit is in the area of People, Places and Environment. It
is worth noting, however, that every one of these ten themes
has the possibility of being addressed in the Natural Inquirer.
Within each Natural Inquirer journal,
at least one of the articles is written
from social science research. From
Wikipedia, “Social Sciences is the
field of sciences concerned with the
studies of the social life of human
groups and individuals, including
economics, geography, history,
political science, psychology, social
studies, and sociology.” (Glossary at
nces.ed.gov. Retrieved 25 April 2008.)
It may surprise you to learn that the
social science article can be the most
popular and widely used article in the
journal. This is because few social
science resources exist.
From the Urban Forest Edition
To students, social science articles may not always have the
appeal of a life science article. There are, however, students
attracted to human behavior and for them, social sciences open up
a new world of science.
Social science articles often provide the opportunity to introduce
different analytical methods. For example, social sciences often
use qualitative methods, providing an important lesson in
scientific inquiry.
From the Wilderness
Benefits Edition
Other scientific disciplines may also be integrated as appropriate.
Examples include chemistry and physics. In such cases, the
integration may be major, such as writing from an article using a
chemical analysis. In other cases, a sidebar may be used to
highlight a concept from one of these disciplines.
Use your imagination to incorporate as many disciplines as
appropriate. Remember, however, to stick to your storyline.
Number Crunches:
Although elephants vary in size and
weight, let’s say the average weight of
an elephant is four tonnes (Figure 26).
How many elephants would it take to
equal one Gt?
To calculate this, divide 1,000,000,000
by 4.
How many elephants would it take to
equal the weight of carbon in all of the
world’s forests? (From the World’s Forests
Edition)
Where possible, recognize the spatial and
visual learner and include opportunities to
incorporate art into the Natural Inquirer.
In the monograph, “FACE Look!,” a celtic circle was shown
and students were asked to compare and contrast the visual
symbol with what they learned in the article.
Tree of Life
Here is a design called the “Tree of Life.” Think
about the article you just read. Compare this
design with what you know about the roots of
trees. In what ways is this design accurate in
what it suggests about trees and their roots? In
what ways is it inaccurate? What does this design
suggest about trees? Is it meant to be an
accurate representation of a tree? Draw your own
design of a tree and its roots. Celtic Tree of Life
by Jen Delyth ©1990 www.kelticdesigns.com
Students may also be asked to draw their understandings. In one
example, students were asked to create word maps. In another, a
FACTivity extension included the creation of colorful posters
that educate people based on the article content.
FACTivity Extension
(or in cooperation with the Art teacher)
Time: One class period
Need: Poster paper, colored markers
One of the ways invasive earthworms travel to new areas is through the
actions of anglers. Create colorful posters to educate anglers about invasive
earthworms. These posters should recommend that worms be disposed of
properly (not discarded on the ground). Your teacher may set up a display of
your posters in your school hallway or in a local library or other public area.
(From the FACE Look! monograph)
You have completed Session 7 of the Natural Inquirer Writing
Course. In this session, you learned how to integrate a number of
disciplines into your Natural Inquirer article.