Q. 1 What are the meanings of Science? Describe scientific inquiry and processes.

Ans: Science is a broad based human enterprise that may be defined diiferently by individuals who
view it. A layman may define science as a body of scientific information; the scientist might view it as a
method by which hypothesis are tested; a philosopher may regard it as a way of questioning the
truthfulness of knowledge. All of these views are valid but each presents only a fragmented definition of
science; only collectively do they define the comprehensive nature of science and the scientific
enterprise. Science should be viewed as a way of thinking in the pursuit of understanding nature, a way
of investigating, and a body of established knowledge. An understanding of these aspects of science will
help teachers conduct science courses convey to their students a complete picture of the scientific
enterprise.

Without a broad based understanding of science, it is likely that science teachers will place heavy
emphasis on science as a body of knowledge, teaching, and testing for factual information. Scientific
facts, concepts, principles laws and theories must be included in a science course, but not to the point
where they become long lists of vocabulary words for students to learn.

Students must learn factual information, but more important, they must discover ideas for themselves
through laboratory activities, field studies, and library work. Students need to ask questions that serve
to develop their inquiry skills as well as their ability to seek knowledge. Only through these activities will
they learn that “science is a way of knowing”.

The only way that students will ever learn that meaning of hypothesis, how hypothesis differ from
hunches and speculation is through activities that expose them to the scientific enterprise. Along with
aiding students in developing inquiry skills and learning useful information, science teachers need to
help them acquire certain attitudes in relation to the scientific enterprise.

Students must believe that it is important to search for evidence, to collect data, and to be as objective
as possible. They need to be taught the distinction between opinions and facts so that they can evaluate
statements they read in newspapers and magazines and hear from others. Students need a great deal of
assistance in order to develop a value system that inclines toward analysis and evaluation and that
permits self examination and questioning of their belief.

Scientific inquiry and processes:

Scientific inquiry is a search for truth and knowledge. If you are scientific, you are able to identify
problems, make educated guesses or hypothesis and investigate them.These attitudes influence scientist
discovery behaviors. The discovery behaviors of scientist in turn result in scientific methods, which are
reffered to in science for elementary school children as the processes of science.

Elementary school processes of science:

1. Observing
2. Classifying
3. Measuring
 4. Hypothesizing or predicting
5. Describing
6. Inferring or making conclusion from data
7. Asking insightful questions about nature
8. Formulating problems
9. Designing investigations including experiments
10. Carrying out experiments
11. Constructing principles, laws, and theories from data

Acting like a scientist means using these attitudes and processes. Innovative science projects and
textbooks series stress the seven scientific attitudes and eleven processes of science.

Q 2. Aims are considered high hopes for teaching science. Discuss.

Amis are the higheat expectation or general purposes you have for yourself, your students your school ,
and your community. The often are very broad and philosophical, and may never be fully achieved. Amis
tend to ask such broad question as:

What are the purposes of the public schools and science education?

What is it that we want our students to become?

How should the ways children develop and learn influence what and how we teach in science?

How your answer these broad question and others like them helps shape how you view science
teaching. They are your philosophy of science teaching, or your aims. Because these aims are so broad,
some may take more time to achieve than the years you have the children in your elementary “desired
states” or aims of science education from the National Science Teachers Association’s Porject Synthesis:

1. Science can help children to meet their personal needs-help them maintain healthy bodies,
make “smart” consumer decisions, and use a variety of skills to gather knowledge for personal
use.
2. Science can help children to become informed citizens prepared to deal responsibly with social
issues- prepared to vote intelligently on science-related concern such as energy and the
enviroment , to participate in responsible community action and to recongnize that solving one
problem can create new problems.
3. Science can provide children with the opportunity to learn scientific ideas and processes from a
wide variety to interesting topic selected from the life , physical , and earth science . It can help
them develop skill in gathering, categorizing , quantifying , and interpreting infromation.
4. Finally , science can help children to make informed decisions about careers related to science
and technology-help them get a “feel” for jobs in these fields, become familiar with
qualifications for entry , and recognize the role of sceintific and technological careets in society
and how their lives are affected by persons in these careers.
 You may find aims for your science teaching in publication from national science tecaher
organzation (i.e NSTA , AAAS,etc), your state education departement or local school board, or a
science text book. They can provide you with a broad general direction for your science teaching.
After that beginning, you will need to make your planning more specifically geared tp your
philosophy, to the philosophy of the school and community, where you tecah, and aspecially to the
needs interests and abilites of the students you have in your class room. More specific goals and
objects to meets these criteria.

Q. 3 How use of textbook is effective in Science teaching?

You may think it unusual to have a section on using textbooks but textbooks are central to science
teaching. In spite of some common myths, textbooks in and of themselves or not bad, most good
teachers use textbooks, and textbooks can be used to enhance learning.

The majority of teachers use textbooks. In a 1985 survay, Iris Weiss found that 93 percent of science
teaching in grades 7-12 used a published textbooks. Interestingly , the majority o science teachers
did not consider textbooks quality to be a significant problem in their schhols. The most highly rated
aspects of science textbooks were their organizations, clartity , and reading level. We should not
here that a number of individuals and groups do see problems with quality and useablitily of
textbooks.

Since the 1980s the prevailing wisdom in science education was that programe should be
activitybased abd not textbooks dominated. Research shows that the oppostie in case-teachers are
using fewer activities and relying more on the textbooks . Use of textbooks is necessitated by the
need for science teacher to plan for several subjects, the reduction of budgets , and the scheduling
of scienec classes in nonlaboratory rooms.

Our purposes in this section is to assits you in becoming and intelligent users of the textbooks. That
is, to help you recognize the potentials and limitations of textbooks , and to use them in enhence
learning.
The section relies heavily on the research and writing of “Kathleen Roth and Charles Anderson “ of the
institute on Research for theaching and leraning , Michigan State University.

Science teachers use textbooks in several ways . Textbooks help teacher make decisions about the
curriculum. Questions about topics , activities of coverages , depth, sequence , and emphasis are
answerd by reference to the textbooks. Although the textbooks, helps teachers with the efficiency of
decision, they do not necessarily help to makes the best decisions for students. Teachers must carefully
mediate those decisions.

Textbooks helps teachers select teaching strategies. Again this use of textbooks has both advantages
and disadvantage. The clear advantage is efficiency. It takes considerable effort to manage in
activitybased program. It is much easier to have students read the textbooks . The disadvantage is that
reading the textbook may not facilitate students leraning. We will discuss this in greater detail later.

Textbooks provide scientific explanations. Descriptions of key concepts and infromation are usually
straightforward and succinct in textbooks. Providing students with good description of scientific ideas is
difficult; It is especially difficult when teachers are teaching out of their discipline. So textbooks can be
useful resource for the scientific explanations.

You can see that textbooks are quite helpful. Given the function of textbooks. It is easy to see why the
majority of teachers rely on them. What do science teachers need to understand in order to use
textbooks more effectively? First in importance is to understand how students use textbooks.

Several times we have pointed out that students have prior knowledge about science. Often this
knowledge is inadequate or incomplete whwn compared to scientific knowledge, thus the label
misconceptions. Students prior knowledge is important to understand when considering students
reading strategies. What happens when students are asked to read a text that has explanations about
phenomena.

Q. 4 What is importance of Lecture method for teaching of Science? Give suggestions for better
improvement of lecturer method in Science Teaching.

THE LECTURE METHOD

The lecture method of teachings commonly used in middle and secondary school science
teaching. It is a traditional method that deserves consideration as a teaching strategy in science
instruction. When using the lecture method, a teacher must be able to justify it over other
methods available for science instruction. The teacher who employees this strategy must cope
with its limitationsg and use its strengths to best advantage.

Teachers who use the lecture method must be convinced that the knowledge or information
that is to be presented for background or other reasons is important to students and that the
only individual who can give them this information is the teacher. The teacher has the
knowledge to give to the student, and the easiest and most efficient way for the student to
acquire it is through a lecture presentation not by reading, discussion, or any other method.
This assumes that the teacher can present the information in a stimulating and interesting way,
so that the students want to learn it. The teacher therefore, is the stimulus fir students to want
to learn information that the teacher feels I important.

The science teacher must be sensitive to how students receive the information he conveys
through the lecture method. Students can receive information either by rote or in a meaningful
way (Ausubel, 1961). Not knowing the difference between rote and meaningful reception when
using the lecture method in instruction can cause problems. Ausubel states, “ It is fashionable in
many quarters to characterize verbal learning as parrot-like recitation and rote memorization of
isolated facts and dismiss it disdainfully as an archaic remnant of discredited educational
tradition” (1961, 15). It is to be hoped that teachers who know the distinction between rote
and meaningful reception will not misuse the lecture method. They should be able to employ
various techniques to make lectures interesting and meaningful to students by building on what
the students already know. Ausubel believes that weaknesses attributes to the lecture method
are not due to the method itself, but to the abuse of the method by the teachers who use it
(1961, 16).

Helpful Suggestion for presentation

The success of a lecture depends largely upon collaboration between the lecture and Audi ence.
The successful lecture is an interaction in which the lecture offers information and re ceives
attention; the audience offers attention and receives information (Clarke, 1987).

To assure a successful presentation, the lecturer should use various techniques to assure
continuous interaction between the lecturer and the audience. The following suggestions
adapted from Clarke (1987) can be helpful in maintaining audience attention.

1. Emphasize important ideas by changing the rate, volume, and pitch of the voice.

2 .Emphasize important statements by using pauses that allow time for the audience to
respond.

3. Enunciate word clearly.

4. Avoid repetition of words

5. Avoid using such words or phrases as um and ab, like well, ab, you know, ub-ba.

6. Maintain eye contact with the audience.

7. Scan the audience to observe reactions.

8. Interject humor, sings of curiosity, interest, and other indications of the lecturer personality
9. Keep the flow of visual aids smooth and free from distraction..

Q. 5 Describe “media use during oral presentations”.

USE OF MEDIA DURING ORAL PRESENTATIONS

Visual aids can be used to illustrate points made during a recitation, discussion, or lecture.
Before using them, the teacher should consider their benefits and use during a presentation.
Visual aids should fit into a presentation logically and sequentially. They should be integrated
for the purposes of elaboration, clarification, illustration, or emphasis.

The type of aid to be used will depend on what it will do to improve the presentation. The aids
may be used to make points clearer more meaningful to students, to present information,
introduce a problem, initiate a discussion, or acquaint students with unusual phenomena and
living organisms. They can also summarize a lecture, discussion, or the results of an experiment
or a series of observations or be used to initiate a lecture or discussion. Whatever the use, the
teacher must determine their effectiveness in instruction.

The chalkboard
The chalkboard is the most commonly used medium in science teaching and is also carelessly
used. It is found in most classrooms and laboratories and is usually permanently installed at the
front of the classroom and at other points where instruction take place. Portable chalkboard
are also available that can be moved to areas in a classroom where one is not installed but may
be necessary for instruction.

Science teachers use the chalkboard because of its versatility. It is available at the teacher’s
discretion and use extensively to explain concepts by using diagrams, symbols, words, and
sketches. Concepts and ideas can be developed gradually with illustrations on the chalkboard
accompanied by verbal explanations. Illustrations, diagrams, and sketches can be altered as
needed while presentations are being made.

To use the chalkboard effectively, the following points should be emphasized.

Recitation strategies
1. Make sure the chalkboard is free of material that is extraneous to that which is being
presented.

2. Prepare difficult or complicated diagrams in advance. It is often advisable to first lay out the
diagrams on paper to determine space limitations on the chalkboard. Complicated diagrams
that need to be gradually developed can first be placed on the board and then lightly erased,
leaving a vague image. As the teacher presents the lesson, the diagram is developed by tracing
over the lines of the image.

3. Try to avoid glare on the chalkboard so that students can view it without difficulty.

4. Always check to see whether enough chalk is available. Also make certain that items such as
erasers, rulers, and compasses are at hand as needed.

5. Write as large as possible so that all material written or drawn can be seen from all parts of
the room where students are seated or standing. Rooms that measure 30 *40 feet or 25*50
feet require letters or figures approximately three inches in height to be seen easily by all
students in the classroom.

6. Do not stand in front of the material being written or drawn on the chalkboard. Stand to the
side so that what has been written or drawn on the chalkboard can be viewed easily and use a
yardstick or pointer to draw attention to part of the diagram, graphs, or pictures.

7. Do not talk while facing the chalkboard always try to speak in the direction of the class.

8. Use colored chalk when needed to provide contrasts. Yellow and green chalk are excellent to
use to provide contrasting colors.

Flat pictures
Flat pictures are better adapted for individual study than for general class use. However an
opaque projector makes it possible to project an image of a photograph or flat pictures from a
magazine or journal so that it can be observed by the entire class.

Charts
Charts are standard equipment in most science departments. some teachers use them
extensively during lecture presentation, discussions, and recitations. Charts have limitations
but they also have certain advantages. The diagram on a chart is generally superior to one that
a teacher may draw on the chalkboard and can be used as a substitute for the teacher prepared
diagram. Good chart possess visual appeal and ciarity when the have sharp lines, bright colors,
and bold printing. Charts should be simple and uncluttered and large enough so that the print
can be read from all parts of the room. Crammed charts are confusing to students, unattractive,
difficult to read, and difficult use for illustrative purposes during a lecture or discussion. Charts
should be hung on properly lighted walls. A chart should never be placed in a position where
students have to look toward a window because the glare will prevent viewing. In using charts
the teacher should remember that the students must know what they are looking at; otherwise
students may find the charts difficult to interpret.

Models
Models are usually superior to teacher-made diagram, charts, and flat picture because they are
three dimensional. They do, however, have the same limitations as diagrams, charts, and
picture. If students do not know what a model is supposed to represent, they will find it difficult
to interpret.

A model for classroom use should be large enough so that it can be viewed from all parts of the
room, particularly if it is used to illustrate points during a lecture or serve as the center of class
discussion.