Name: HawarKhalandi
Article: APS
Solano-Flores, G., (2000). , Science Activities, 37, 31-37.
SUMMARY:
This article talked about how to teach and assess science process skills in a physics class. For the teaching part, the author picked the “bubbles task” to explain how science process skill activities should be taught. The “bubbles task” is a challenging, hands-on activity which teaches the concepts of force and motion. In this activity, students are given both relevant and irrelevant pieces of equipment and are to perform different experiments as a group to find out which one of the three soapy solutions provided, makes the most durable soap bubbles and which soapy solution makes the least durable soap bubbles. After each group had performed the experiment and have answered the question. They are to explain “what happened in the experiment for you to tell which soapy water makes the longest-lived bubbles and which soapy water makes the shortest-lived bubbles?” The author mentions that the students should not be coached or given hints about the answer while they are conducting their investigation and that hey have to come up with their own answer by investigating, experimenting and thinking critically. As far as assessing, the author recommends that teachers assess the students’ performance on the basis of their problem-solving processes and their investigation results. He points out that the focus of assessing science process skills should be on the scientific soundness of the students’ actions, the rationales and reasons they provide for those actions, and the rationalization and explanation they offer to account for the results they get.
REACTION:
I found this article to be very interesting and beneficial for my career as a teacher. I liked the “bubbles task”; it’s an easy activity that any teacher can perform in his/her classroom. The article also talked about assessing science process skills, which was nice because these activities are usually hard to assess. The article points out that when it comes to assessing, the students’ performance should be assessed on the basis of their problem-solving processes and their investigation results. Science process skill promotes higher-order thinking skills and forces the students to experiment and think critically, which are very important aspects of learning. Therefore, I think that science process skills should be a tool used in every classroom.