LEARNING PROGRESSIONS TOWARD ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY Charles W' Anderson, Beth Covitt, Kristin Guncke

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LEARNING PROGRESSIONS TOWARD ENVIRONMENTAL
LITERACYCharles W. Anderson, Beth Covitt,
Kristin Gunckel, Lindsey Mohan, In-Young Cho,
Hui Jin, Christopher D. Wilson, John Lockhart,
Ajay Sharma, Blakely Tsurusaki, Jim Gallagher
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
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PARTNERS

• Mark Wilson, Karen Draney, University of
  California, Berkeley
• Joe Krajcik. Phil Piety, University of Michigan
• Brian Reiser, Northwestern University
• Jo Ellen Roseman, AAAS Project 2061
• Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network
• Alan Berkowitz, Baltimore Ecosystem Study
• Ali Whitmer, Santa Barbara Coastal
• John Moore, Shortgrass Steppe

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CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY
LEARNING PROGRESSION PracticesPrinciplesProces
ses in systems
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
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PRACTICES for ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY
(SECTIONS OF TABLE)

• 1. Inquiry Learning from experience (not
  addressed in these papers)
• Practical and scientific inquiry
• Developing arguments from evidence
• 2 and 3. Scientific accounts and applications
  Learning from authorities
• Applying fundamental principles to processes in
  systems
• Using scientific models and patterns to explain
  and predict
• 4. Using scientific reasoning in responsible
  citizenship Reconciling experience, authority,
  and values
• Enacting personal agency on environmental issues
• Reconciling actions or policies with values
• Understanding and evaluating arguments among
  experts

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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ACCOUNTS and APPLICATIONS

• Applying fundamental principles (rows of table)
• Structure of systems nanoscopic, microscopic,
  macroscopic, large scale
• Constraints on processes tracing matter, energy,
  information
• Change over time evolution, multiple causes,
  feedback loops

• to processes in coupled human and natural
  systems (columns of table)
• Earth systems Geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere
• Living systems Producers, consumers, decomposers
• Engineered systems Food, water, energy,
  transportation, housing

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METHODS FOR INVESTIGATINGPROGRESSIONS IN STUDENT
PERFORMANCES

• Data sources
• Volunteer teachers in working groups
• Tests administered to upper elementary, middle,
  and high school students (available on website)
• Data analysis
• Developing rubrics for open-response questions
• Searching for patterns and common themes within
  and across tests
• Patterns in accounts of environmental systems
  (Practices 2 and 3)
• Patterns in reconciling experience, authority,
  and values (Practice 4)
• Looking for developmental trends

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A K-12 LEARNING PROGRESSION TO SUPPORT
UNDERSTANDING OF WATER IN THE ENVIRONMENTBeth
Covitt Kristin GunckelCCMS Knowledge Sharing
InstituteJuly 10, 2006
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
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TRACING WATER IN ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS

• What to know about tracing water and other
  substances
• In environmental systems, water usually exists as
  a mixture
• When moving through systems, water carries other
  substances
• Substances picked up by water occur naturally
  or are result of human action
• Humans prefer to find and use water with few
  added substances
• Humans treat water to minimize harmful substances
  before/after use
• Humans return used water to natural systems.
  Water travels through water cycle and is reused
  by humans and other species.

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PRINCIPLES, PROCESSES and SYSTEMS

• One facet of water literacy is that
• Students can apply FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
• (e.g., structure of connected human
  natural systems)
• to PROCESSES IN SYSTEMS
• (e.g., tracing water other substances
  through systems)
• Examples
• Groundwater
• Landfill Contamination
• Watersheds
• Ocean Water
• Human Water System

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SOME QUESTIONS NOT ADDRESSED TODAY

• Watersheds
• If a pollutant is put into a river at Town C,
  which towns will be affected?

• Ocean Water
• Why cant we drink clean ocean water without
  treating it first?
• How could you make ocean water drinkable?
• Human Water System
• Where does water come from before it gets to your
  house?
• Where does it go after your house?

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GROUNDWATERDraw a picture or explain what it
looks like underground where there is water.
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GROUNDWATERDraw a picture or explain what it
looks like underground where there is water.
Example from High School
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LANDFILL CONTAMINATIONCan a landfill (garbage
dump) cause water pollution in a well?
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LANDFILL CONTAMINATIONHow could a landfill
contaminate a well?
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KEY FINDINGS PROGRESSION IN STUDENT
UNDERSTANDING OVER TIME

• Increasing understanding of complexity of systems
  
• BUT invisible parts of systems remain invisible
• Water as mixtures transport substances
• Groundwater, watersheds, atmospheric systems
• Connections between natural human systems
• Increasing understanding of need for processes
  mechanisms, BUT how these mechanisms work
  constraints on processes remain poorly
  understood.
• Evaporation, condensation
• Treating water
• Increasing awareness of scales, BUT little
  success in connecting accounts across different
  levels
• Macro-Large Scale Watersheds

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DEVELOPING A CARBON CYCLE LEARNING PROGRESSION
FOR K-12
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
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PRINCIPLES, PROCESSES and SYSTEMS

• Applying fundamental principles
• Structure of systems
• atomic-molecular (CO2 and organic materials),
• single-celled and multicellular organisms
  (producers, consumers, decomposers),
• ecosystems
• Constraints on processes
• Tracing matter inorganic to organic forms

• to processes in coupled human and natural
  systems
• Physical Change of Dry Ice
• Burning Match
• Losing Weight
• Plant Growth

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TRACING CARBONIN ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS

• Living systems follow the basic principles of
  physical and chemical change, including
  conservation of mass and conservation of atoms
• Organisms are made mostly of water and organic
  substances
• Organic substances consist of molecules with
  reduced C plus H, O, and a few other elements
• Virtually all reduced C is created from CO2 and
  H2O through the process of photosynthesis
• Virtually all organisms get their energy by
  oxidizing reduced C compounds in cellular
  respiration
• The products of cellular respiration are CO2 and
  H2O
• Summary CO2 H2O minerals with N, P,
  etc. Organic substances O2
• CO2 H2O minerals

photosynthesis
c. respiration
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CONSERVING MASS DURING PHYSICAL CHANGE

• A sample of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) is
  placed in a tube and the tube is sealed after all
  of the air is removed. The tube and solid carbon
  dioxide weigh 27 grams.
• The tube is then heated until all of the dry ice
  evaporates and the tube is filled with carbon
  dioxide gas. The weight after heating will be
• a. less than 26 grams.
• b. 26 grams.
• c. between 26 and 27 grams.
• d. 27 grams.
• e. more than 27 grams.
• Explain the reason for your answer to the
  previous question.

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CHANGE OF STATE

• Because going from a solid to a gas, it weighs
  less
• Because of the law of conservation of mass

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BURNING MATCH
What happens to the wood of a match as the match
burns? Why does the match lose weight as it
burns?
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LOSING WEIGHT

• A person on a diet lost 20 pounds. Some of his
  fat is gone. What happened to the mass of the
  fat?
• As mass is converted into energy for energy for
  use, it has to go somewhere. This energy is used
  to power the body and the fat (now transformed to
  energy) is spent and no long in the body
• I think it is turned into energy and it also
  comes out by it turning into water or gas
• it will come out of the large intestine
• the person sweats

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LOSING WEIGHT
A person on a diet lost 20 pounds. Some of his
fat is gone. What happened to the mass of the
fat?
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PRINCIPLES, PROCESSES and SYSTEMS

• The fundamental principle of tracing matter is
  not being applied by students.
• Few students understand gases as products or
  reactants in cellular respiration
• Students frequently interconvert matter and
  energy.
• Many students saw fat burning as a process
  involving breaking down, but did not trace it
  to a chemical process of oxidation into CO2 and
  H2O in cellular respiration

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PLANT GROWTH
A small acorn grows into a large oak tree. Where
do you think the plants increase in weight
comes from?
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PRINCIPLES, PROCESSES and SYSTEMS

• The fundamental principle of tracing matter is
  not being applied by students.
• Few students understand gases as products or
  reactants in photosynthesis.
• Students frequently saw water and soil nutrients
  as the critical source of plant weight.

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KEY FINDINGS FROM YOUNGER TO OLDER STUDENTS, WE
SEE PROGRESS

• From stories to model-based accounts
• Shift from why to how--purposes to mechanisms
• BUT lack knowledge of critical parts of systems
• From macroscopic to hierarchy of systems
• Increased awareness of atomic-molecular and
  large-scale systems
• BUT little success in connecting accounts at
  different levels
• Increasing awareness of constraints on processes
• Increasing awareness of conservation laws
• BUT rarely successful in constraint-based
  reasoning
• Increasing awareness of invisible parts of
  systems
• Increasing detail and complexity
• BUT gases, decomposers, connections between human
  and natural systems remain invisible

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TO DO LIST

• Systematic review of literature
• Better assessments
• - for inquiry (Practice 1)
• - for applications to citizenship (Practice 4)
• - Psychometric quality (BEAR assessment system)
• Understanding pre-model-based reasoning in
  elementary students (and all of us)
• - Embodied reasoning and inquiry
• - Storytelling and scientific accounts
• Teaching experiments at upper elementary, middle
  school, and high school levels

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MORE INFORMATION

• Papers, Assessments, and Other Materials are
  Available on Our Website
• http//edr1.educ.msu.edu/EnvironmentalLit/index.ht
  m

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SLIDES AFTER THIS ARE FOR BACKUP IN RESPONSE TO
QUESTIONS
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NEXT STEPS

• Continue literature review
• Revise and expand assessments
• Greater emphasis on inquiry and citizenship
• Develop mini water units
• Conduct teaching experiments
• Further articulation of K-12 Water in
  Environmental Systems Learning Progression

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WATERSHEDSIf a water pollutant is put into river
at town C, which towns will be affected?

• Few students understand how water flows in
  watersheds

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WATERSHEDSIf a water pollutant is put into river
at town C, which towns will be affected?
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OCEAN WATERWhy cant we use clean ocean water
for drinking without treating it first?
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OCEAN WATERHow could you make ocean water
drinkable?
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THE HUMAN WATER SYSTEMWhere does water come from
before it gets to your house? And where does it
go after?
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THE HUMAN WATER SYSTEMWater Treatment

• Most students do not mention water treatment
• More of elementary middle mention treatment
  before
• More of high school mention treatment after

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THE HUMAN WATER SYSTEMWater Recycling in the
Human System

• 40 percent of high school students indicate that
  water recycles

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PRACTICES 2 and 3 SCIENTIFIC ACCOUNTS and their
APPLICATIONS

• From stories to model-based accounts
• Shift from why to how--purposes to mechanisms
• BUT lack knowledge of critical parts of systems
• From macroscopic to hierarchy of systems
• Increased awareness of atomic-molecular and
  large-scale systems
• BUT little success in connecting accounts at
  different levels
• Increasing awareness of constraints on systems
• Increasing awareness of conservation laws
• BUT rarely successful in constraint-based
  reasoning
• Increasing awareness of invisible parts of
  systems
• Increasing detail and complexity
• BUT gases, decomposers, connections between human
  and natural systems remain invisible