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Hi.
This week I'd like to talk to you a little bit about how to use some of these
ethical issues and the framework that you've already, hopefully,
had some time to practice with with your students.
I'd like to frame that around a discussion of some of
the new standards that we've been developing here in the United
States called the Next Generation Science Standards, and focus specifically on
one part of those, which is, are the science and engineering practices.
which are going to tie us into,
this idea of, of something that scientists
do, which is create evidence based arguments.
And that's works really with that thining about these ethical issues.
It's also in the United States we have very high degree of focus on the common
core literacy standards and I'll briefly mention the
standards that apply to this kind of work.
and then think about some of the actual
things that you could do with your students
in terms of framing their examination of some of these ethical issues.
Really briefly, our next generation science standards came
out of a process, long process, that began with.
The, a creation of a framework for K through 12 Science
Education, and this was a consortium of a lot of people.
mostly run by the National Research Council
which eventually led to the release in
the spring of 2013, of the next generation science standards.
And the big, the big ideas here and you can go and you know, both the
framework and the standards are available free online
and I really urge you to go investigate them.
The basic idea is that the three big categories of ideas that are incorporated
into the next generation standards are science
practices, so what do scientists and engineers do?
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and what defines this process of scientific inquiry,
or the process of, of engineering solutions to problems?
It's also framed by cross cutting concepts, which are ideas
that stretch across all the domains of science and engineering.
And then, what we've always though about as the standards before are the, the
core content or the disciplinary core ideas
which are the, the science facts that we
want our kids to know.
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So, for the purposes of this course, I'd like you
to think a little bit about the science in engineering practices.
So, these were the things that scientists actually do.
And in particular what we've asked you guy to
do, is to engage in argument based on evidence.
So, so looking at the science of genetics and looking at
some of the ethical issues we've asked you to basically construct
an argument. So, what is an evidence based argument.
It's basically a justified plan about an issue
or, you know, in broad terms, about the world.
others will attempt to identify the claim's strengths and, and weaknesses.
Like, you've done this with, with ethical issues.
By looking at, at stakeholders and what their arguments are.
And their take on the different ethical issues that.
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So here in the United States, there's been
a big movement towards common core literacy standards.
And I just wanted to briefly emphasize a couple of
these that tie into what we've been talking about this week.
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There's the creation
of informative or, or an explanatory text and this would
basically be a precursor for coming up with your evidence based
argument so this is basically looking at the science and having
your students be able to actually explain the science in text.
So looking at something that is presented, you know, by you, by the textbooks, by
anything that they may see on video and
then coming up with their own written explanation
of that science.
The next level of that is to go to the argument.
We're basically now there using their own reasoning.
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Want to talk briefly about a couple things that you could do with your students.
So, we've presented you with a lot of different issues in this course.
we'll deal with genetically
modified organisms next week. We've already talked about cloning.
We've talked about stem cells.
All of these things are, are issues that have multiple stakeholders
and your students may feel very strongly about some of them.
So what I did when I dealt with these issues with
my students is that I first had them examine the issue
and the way we did that was to actually have them
put together a position paper very similar to the one that we
had you do for this course.
so, I would have them choose an issue,
identify the stakeholders and their positions, think about
the solution or solutions, and then, come up
with their own position and defend that solution.
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after they did that, I'd broke them into teams.
If the class kind of shook out fairly evenly, and there were people on
different sides of the position, I would
sort of give them position that they favored.
And, make then into debate teams. And give them some time, you know?
As a, a group to kind of put together th-, their defense.
And then, Use that, There's a lot
of, you know, really good debate protocols available.
I suggest that you would use one.
And spend, depending on how much time you have in your class.
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you know with opening statements
by both teams.
you know some, some exploration of the core issues.
Some back and forth and then some concluding statements
and then I would use a rubric, for the
students in the class who weren't on the debate
teams in order for them to evaluate the arguments.
to get them really involved in the issue as well.
And, you know, whether you have a winner or a loser
really doesn't matter in these debates, it's really that the science.
You're keeping the kids like on track with the
core issues of the science, the science stays accurate.
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and that kids are making, you know really good arguments, you know, without.
Judgement.
So I hope this helps you in thinking about
how you might want to use these issues with students.
I hope that your experience in doing the peer graded assignments in this course
gives you a framework for thinking about how you would use it with your kids.
And next week we'll talk a little bit about how.
you could present an exploration of
genetically modified organisms to your students.
Rob DeSalle, Ph.D.Curator
David Randle, Ph.D.Senior Manager of Professional Development
