As I began to read this article I recalled the saying, "How do you eat a frog?" Or was it an elephant? Either way, "One bite at a time!" I tried to move through the article quickly for a first read. I highlighted key words and looked up words quickly on my phone that I did not know. I was excited to see the reference to qualitative and quantitative (fun science words!) research (more fun science words- speaking my love language here folks!) so I annotated the text with some appropriate smileys. As I highlighted key ideas, I was asking myself the whole time, "What exactly is sense-making? What does this hyphenated word mean and why have I not heard of it before?" The new NGSS science standards we are using in science have this same idea, sensemaking, and it especially relates to the SEPs, Science and Engineering Practices. Does this word have the same meaning in both situations? My brain was focused on finding and answer to this question.
The sense-making metaphor Fig. 6.1 made things a bit clearer for me. Thank goodness for visuals! It also helped me to see that we can help people create the strategies that they will use to "make-sense" and bridge the gap. From a few other sources I looked at it seems that all the crazy piles of data being collected on everybody and everything cannot fully make sense with out considering this assumption stated in the article, "...the individual is situated at cultural / historical moments in time - space and that culture, history, and institutions defne much of the world in which the individual lives." As I read the sentence, "However, since much of human life is inherently unpredictable, much of human behavior involves creating new responses," I thought about the pandemic as a great example I would use if I was teaching this idea to my middle schoolers.
1 Comment
Amy Bardwell
9/23/2020 10:53:33 am
Visual do help quite a bit ; understanding the text and realizing that your brain can make sense of the text is very powerful! I did not know the new science standards are using the sense-making design! Very informative!
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AuthorHello! Welcome to my blog! This will be a fun place to share thoughts about teaching and learning. I am a middle school science teacher at Redwood. When I'm not teaching, I'm hanging out at home with my family or enjoying nature somewhere in the valley. Archives
March 2021
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