Fostering creative science through pedagogical techniques

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Fostering creative science through pedagogical
techniques

• By Leslie Barton
• Toronto French School (retired)
• CSC Conference 2005

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Fostering creative science through pedagogical
techniques

• Abstract
• Creativity is a part of science just as much as
  it is a part of the arts. Creative thinking
  needs to be taught from the early years of
  science education, starting with simple
  techniques, and continuing throughout the
  educational process, gradually broadening in
  scope as the students knowledge expands.
• This paper will discuss classroom techniques
  that can be used to encourage and develop
  creative scientific thinking. Ideally the
  methods used need to be appropriate for students
  who have a variety of learning styles. They
  should also be designed to reduce the amount of
  memory work required to solve problems. Where
  project work is involved, students need to
  develop the ability to ask good questions that
  can be resolved in a creative way.

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Aspects of creativity

• Producing an end product
• Originality of thought
• Inventiveness
• Imagination
• Design
• All these aspects are important in science - and
  in fact in
• most workplaces.
• Note I found no dictionary definition that
  restricted
• creativity to the Arts!

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Creative or innovative thinking is the kind of
thinking that leads to new insights, novel
approaches, fresh perspectives, whole new ways of
understanding and conceiving things.
(Peter Facione, Santa Clara University)
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Creativity can be taught

• Students enjoy being creative, provided that they
  are not faced with too much at once.
• Go forth and create a Science Fair project
  simply doesnt work if the students have never
  before been asked to do anything creative for
  themselves.
• We need to start teaching creativity as soon as
  students begin their scientific education so that
  students learn early on what science is really
  all about.

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How are we going to promote creativity in Science?

• The answer is NOT simply to link Science
• with the Arts, as in
• Writing a poem, letter, short story, song
• Drawing a picture, painting a poster etc.
• Instead we need to look at the different steps
• involved in the creative process.

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Steps in the creative process

• Concept
  Conclusion
• We need to break down the process into
• small steps and concentrate on teaching
• one small step at a time.
• We need to do this within a realistic context.

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Example Organic Synthesis

• Reactants
  Products
• Consider all X
  Consider all
• possible
  possible
• products
  starting materials
• We start with the students having to think of
  just one
• intermediate, X, and then expect them to increase
  the
• number of intermediates between reactants and
  products.

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Looking at some areas of science in which
creativity is important

• 1) Problem solving
• 2) Experiment design
• 3) Project work

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Problem solving a start

• Introduce the theory
• Ask the students to do a problem based on the
  theory (either individually or in groups)
• Help the students to work out how to apply the
  theory to the problem
• Sum up at the end of the lesson, discussing any
  differences in approach that students may have
  developed by themselves
• Make sure that at least one logic sequence is
  in
• place, so that it is possible for students to
  solve a
• problem using what they have learned.

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Understanding needs to be madeeasier than
memorising.

• Students shouldnt be shown how to do a problem
  before they have had a chance to try solving it
  by themselves.
• (even if they complain!)
• Beware of textbook solutions!

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Problem solving continued

• Homework
• Consolidation practise doing examples just like
  the one done in class
• Development practise doing examples that are
  small variations of the one done in class
• The following class
• Review the previous class and homework
  emphasize possible different approaches
• Anticipation
• consider what questions might come up next
• consider where the theory is leading us
• solicit ideas from students

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Developing creative problem solving by
cross-training the brain

• Introduce students to theoretical concepts in a
  variety of different ways encourage listening,
  reading and visio-spatial skill development, as
  well as note-taking skills
• Allow students to develop their own methods of
  solving problems, but demonstrate alternate
  solutions to them especially ones that use
  different skills
• Avoid situations in which students can keep on
  using the same skill set to solve different
  problems encourage versatility and avoid
  template problem solving
• Vary the way in which problems are presented
  dont simply change the numbers in a question
  that is always worded the same way, but use
  graphs, diagrams etc.
• Ask for solutions to be presented in different
  ways.

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Designing experiments

• Students need to do lots of experiments!
• Because
• Experiments provide concrete examples of what
  science is about
• Experiments help to develop visio-spatial ability
• Experiments help in understanding concepts
• In other words
• Experiments help in cross-training the brain

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But how to get students to design successful
experiments?

• Start with prescribed experiments, but discuss
  the design features
• Then expect the students to evaluate their
  results and critique the experiment design
• Build up a repertoire of techniques over time
• Only then ask students to design a simple
  experiment that can be done using the techniques
  and concepts that they have already met.

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Some examples of topics for student-designed
experimental investigations

• First year high school chemistry
• Acid rain and buildings
• Iron nails and rusting
• Washing soda
• Second year high school chemistry
• Calorific values and cookies
• The escape of CO2 from soda water
• Catalysts e.g. for decomposition of hair bleach
  (H2O2)
• Paper chromatography
• Cells and batteries

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Projects

• The steps in setting up a science fair project
• Defining the question
• Designing the experiment
• Performing the experiment
• Refining the experiment
• Conclusion and evaluation
• Anticipation of further work
• Presentation of the project
• At TFS we provided specialist teacher support for
  
• the first three steps for every student by means
  of
• 3 in-school workshops. (Less formal support
  after that.)

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IB Group Science Project

• This is a compulsory part of the IB Diploma it
  carries no
• marks (but evidence for having done it must be
  included in
• each students portfolio).
• Students are divided into multidisciplinary
  groups (not more than 10 students per group)
• Students collectively decide on a theme that
  lends itself to experimental work in each science
  discipline
• Experimental work is done as for Science Fair
  projects
• An oral presentation is given to the whole school
  to report on the conclusions of the group project

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To sum up

• Cut students plenty of slack so that they can
  work things out for themselves
• Make sure that what they are being expected to do
  is within reach of most of the students in the
  class
• Vary the way in which assignments are presented
  so that they cannot be solved by memory work
  alone
• Work on cross-training the brain
• Provide plenty of teacher support, and
• Be creative yourself!

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Thank you for coming to my presentationIf you
have any further questions please catch me
sometime during the conferenceor contact me
atbartonl_at_sympatico.ca