Say What You Mean!

Strategies to Help Students Better

Communicate Science

MSTA 56th Annual Conference

Detroit, Michigan

Nancy Williams and Stephen Best

University of Michigan School of Education
 Objectives

• Recognize some of the common “communication”

issues we present to students through written
tasks and questioning
• Discuss what constitutes an explanation, a
“scientific explanation”, a description, and a
definition of a scientific term
• Examine possible ways in which the tasks we
present students do not align with the
understanding we are looking to assess or build
• Provide strategies to support student written work
in science
Say What You Mean...
“Then you should say what you mean.” (March Hare)
“I do; at least - at least I mean what I say -- that’s the
same thing, you know” (Alice)
“Not the same thing a bit! Why,
you might just as well say that, ‘I
see what I eat’ is the same as ‘I eat
what I see’!” (Mad Hatter)
“You might just as well say, that ‘I
like what I get’ is the same thing
as ‘I get what I like’!” (March Hare)
A Task for You

• Your handout packet has a task under

the cover page
• Take 2-3 minutes to review the
question and to reply in writing as you
would want your students to do for this
question
• Don’t worry if you aren’t as familiar
with the content - do what you can...
• Let’s see what you all came up with...
A Little Experiment

• You all had different questions with similar

content, but the “verb” changed.
• Do we know the difference between the
following sets of verbs:
• Explain • Classify
• Describe • Organize
• Define • Compare
• List • Contrast
• Do our students understand these
differences?
 Descriptions
• description |diˈskrip sh ən|
noun
1 a spoken or written representation or account of a
person, object, or event : people who had seen him were
able to give a description.

• Generally use adjectives to present observable

characteristics of the object or phenomena being
described.
• Provide imagery or other sense-specific
concepts to convey a reasonable representation
of the topic
 Common Problems With
Descriptions
• Students use examples of a particular
object or concept, but don’t actually
describe its characteristics
• Descriptions are too vague to discern
understanding of the concept
• Students may use analogies that are not
appropriate to the topic or concept
• Description is appropriate, but does not
then apply this to a more challenging task
or problem context to present understanding
 Definitions
• definition |ˌdefəˈni sh ən|
noun
1 a statement of the exact meaning of a word, esp. in a
dictionary.
• an exact statement or description of the nature, scope,
or meaning of something : our definition of what constitutes
poetry.

• A description that is so accurate as to uniquely

describe that word or concept
• A description where the converse statement is true
 The Definition “Test”

The “Inverse” test:

If A then B is true
If B then A is also true
(not so for descriptions or examples)

If it is an ATOM, then it
is A SMALL PARTICLE

If it is A SMALL
Atoms Small Particles PARTICLE, then it is an
ATOM
 Common Problems with
Definitions
• Students use examples of a particular
object or concept, but don’t actually define it
• Definitions are too vague to pass the
Inverse test (but may show the limits of the
student’s actual understanding)
• Students might be able to recite a definition
for an object or concept, but do not
understand what it means and cannot
apply it or restate it in their own language
Explanations

• explanation ¦ eksplə nā sh ən¦

noun
a statement or account that makes something clear :
the birth rate is central to any explanation of population trends.

a reason or justification given for an action or belief :

Freud tried to make sex the explanation for everything | : my
application was rejected without explanation.
 Common Problems with
Explanations (in Science Class)
• Scientific explanations are different than typical
explanations, especially when used to explain a
conclusion from investigation
• Students don’t recognize the difference
between regular and scientific explanation
• Students explain a theory or conclusion by
restating the observation
• Students don’t know how to reason through a
conclusion (in written form)
• Students don’t understand the concept, but
know how to take a test
A Structure to Scientific
Explanation

• Claim
• Evidence
• Reasoning
The REAL Problem with Descriptions,
Definitions, and Explanations
• We often don’t teach these things, and
assume students know them
• We don’t understand them ourselves
• We don’t provide structures for kids to
better understand these ideas
• We often accept oral versions during
instruction, but then assess student written
explanation
• “I’m not a Language Arts teacher”
For More Information

• Handouts and slides available at:

http://mmstlc.net

• Slide shows, commentary, podcast,

and other resources at:
http://catalyst.mmstlc.net

• Contact information at the MMSTLC

Site listed above