A New Way to Think about Teaching 1st through 12th Grade Science — 8+1 Fundamental Science Concepts from the PROM/SE Project

© 2012 Peter Free

 

10 April 2012

 

 

PROM/SE stands for “Promoting Rigorous Outcomes in Mathematics and Science Education”

 

After six years of work, the PROM/SE Project has come up with a concept-organizing idea to boost American K-12 students’ science proficiencies.

 

The Project, funded by the National Science Foundation and hosted by Michigan State University, involves 60 school districts in Michigan and Ohio, comprising 300,000 students.

 

PROM/SE proposes that its “8+1” theme better organizes the United States’ traditionally discipline-separate approach, which depends too much on compartmentalized, disconnected memorization.

 

 

What is the basic 8+1 idea?

 

Eight plus One represents 8 basic science concepts, organized into two categories, wrapped in Inquiry’s guiding motivation.

 

The two concept-organizing categories/questions are:

 

What are things made of?

How to systems interact and change?

 

Eight basic science concepts are then distributed between the above two divisions.

 

 

Here is how the generic 8+1 list looks — regardless of grade level

 

This is taken from an inset on the 8+1 website.

 

I have added subsection keywords that accord with the way Michigan State formulated its three school level versions of the same idea:

 

Inquiry

How do we know what we know?

 

What are things made of?

Atoms: Everything is made of atoms and atoms are made of subatomic particles.

Cells: Cells are the basic units of organisms.

Radiation: Electromagnetic radiation pervades our world.

 

How do systems interact and change?

Systems Change: Evolution — systems evolve and change with time according to simple underlying rules or laws.

Forces: Parts of a system move and interact with each other through forces.

Energy: Parts of a system can exchange energy and matter when they interact.

Conservation of Mass and Energy: Physical concepts like energy and mass can be stored and transformed, but are never created and destroyed.

Variation: Life systems evolve through variation.

 

© 2011 Michigan State University, 8+1 Fundamental Science Concepts (at embedded picture adjacent to fourth paragraph) (subsection titles and formatting changed to accord with the below listed grade-level posters)

 

 

There are three age-appropriate versions of the generic 8+1 formulation — these are divided by elementary, middle, and high school grade levels

 

These versions are depicted in the form of posters on the Michigan State University’s 8+1 website.

 

I list the elements of each poster below.  The posters comprise an educational progression.

 

 

8+1 in ELEMENTARY school form

 

Inquiry

How do I know what I know?

How do I know what I need to know?

 

What are things made of?

Atoms: Big things are made of smaller things.

Cells: There are a vast number of different types of plants and animals.

Radiation: Radiation is everywhere.  Light is a form of radiation.

 

How do systems interact and change?

Systems Change: A system is a bigger thing made of smaller things that can change over time.

Forces: Changes in the motion of objects are caused by forces.

Energy: Everything that happens involves energy.

Conservation of Mass and Energy: Sometimes matter changes how it looks and feels, but it seems to exist forever.

Variation: Offspring are mostly similar, but not identical to their parents.

 

© 2011 Michigan State University, Fundamental Science Concepts for Elementary Grades (PDF document) (visited 10 April 2012)

 

 

8+1 in MIDDLE school form

 

Inquiry

How can I test my ideas about the world?

 

What are things made of?

Atoms: All matter on Earth is made of about 100 different types of atoms (elements).

Cells: Cells are the basic units of all living organisms.

Radiation: Electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, pervades the Universe.

 

How do systems interact and change?

Systems Change: Changes in a system are caused by interactions.

Forces: Parts of systems interact with each other through forces.

Energy: Energy exists in many different forms and can be transferred, transformed, and stored.

Conservation of Mass and Energy: A quantity that is conserved cannot be created nor destroyed.

Variation: Populations of species evolve in response to environmental changes.

 

© 2011 Michigan State University, Fundamental Science Concepts for Middle Grades (PDF document) (visited 10 April 2012)

 

 

8+1 in HIGH school form

 

Inquiry

How can I test my ideas about the world?

 

What are things made of?

Atoms: Atoms combine in different, but predictable ways to form molecules, chemicals, and the wide array of materials that exist.

Cells: All organisms are made of cells which are structurally and functionally similar.

Radiation: Radiant energy pervades the Universe.

 

How do systems interact and change?

Systems Change: Complex systems change and/or evolve according to a small set of relatively simple rules.

Forces: The behavior of matter and systems is driven by forces.

Energy: Systems can transfer, transform, and store energy/mass.

Conservation of Mass and Energy: Humans discovered that only a few quantities are conserved.

Variation: Genetic variations and natural selection enable life systems to evolve in response to many environmental changes.

 

© 2011 Michigan State University, Fundamental Science Concepts for High School Grades (PDF document) (visited 10 April 2012)

 

 

Is there merit to the 8+1 idea?

 

I think so.

 

Being a holistic thinker, even when very young, I was often annoyed by the lack of attempts to organize science and math in ways that would easily transfer from one discipline to another.  What very eventually seemed obvious to me appeared not to be so to my teachers or the school districts they worked in.

 

PROM/SE’s criticism of the disjointedness of American science instruction therefore seems valid to me.

 

Education should be about elders opening youth’s eyes to the wonder and symmetry in the world.  I see no value to letting young people blunder through artificially imposed disjointedness, when an organizing harmony (provided by basic concepts) exists.

 

The 8+1 guideposts have the merit of reminding students where they are trying to go and how everything fits together.

 

 

The moral? — 8+1 seems to have merit

 

If only to force school districts to think about the process of teaching students to think about inquiry.