Produced by the WGBH Educational Foundation in partnership with the Physics Education Group of the University of Washington. Funded by the National Science Foundation. Physics by Inquiry: A Video Resourceis available for distribution. To order, please call WGBH Boston Video, 1-800-949-8670.

    In order to teach science effectively, teachers need an appreciation for and an understanding of the subject matter that goes beyond memorization of facts or formulas.  In-depth knowledge of the content and familiarity with effective instructional methods are both required.  However, there are few opportunities for K-12 teachers to study science in a way that promotes this kind of learning and that is consistent with how they are expected to teach.

    Physics by Inquiry: A Video Resource, illustrates a hands-on, inquiry-oriented approach to the study of science that can strengthen teachers' understanding of basic physics and physical science and help them begin to teach through inquiry. The video documents an intensive program that helps K-12 teachers learn important scientific concepts and reasoning skills.  Teachers from around the country are shown as they participate in a six-week summer institute for in-service teachers funded by the National Science Foundation.  The video, also funded by NSF, is produced by the Educational Programming Department at WGBH.  It features the laboratory-based curriculum, Physics by Inquiry, developed by Lillian C. McDermott and the Physics Education Group.

    Physics by Inquiry:  A Video Resource is a 90-minute videotape, with natural break points for ease of use, that can be used by faculty and others in the preparation of teachers.  The tape presents an in-depth look at the summer institute and provides an overview of the approach and research.

    The video features teacher participants in the summer institute as they study simple physical systems, develop basic physical concepts, relate scientific concepts to real-world phenomena, and discuss their reasoning with peers and instructors.  Through carefully sequenced questions and experiments, K-12 teachers are guided in constructing some of the basic concepts required to teach K-12 science effectively.  Viewers can observe the process of guided inquiry as it unfolds. The tape highlights some of the necessary components of this kind of teacher preparation program, with particular attention paid to common difficulties identified through research on the learning and teaching of physics.

   Physics by Inquiry: A Video Resource received an International Association of Audio Visual Communicators (CINDY) Award gold medal in 2001.

        Physics by Inquiry: A Video Resource

 

TOPICS: The video features teachers engaged in discussions with the instructors and with one another as they develop important scientific concepts and reasoning skills.  Through direct experience, they begin to recognize and resolve some of the difficulties that are commonly encountered in the study of science.  The video illustrates this process in the context of four topics, listed below, that are commonly taught in the primary and secondary grades.

Properties of Matter  (20 minutes)      Addressing Specific Difficulties       Interpreting Experimental Results       Checking Student Reasoning       Designing Valid Experiments    Electric Circuits (25 minutes)      Developing a Scientific Model       Checking Models for Consistency       Relating Concepts to Scientific Representations       Refining Scientific Models       Demonstrating Conceptual Understanding   Light and Shadow (8 minutes)      Eliciting Specific Difficulties       Assessing Student Learning   Astronomy by Sight (24 minutes)      Observing the Sun       Looking for Patterns       Developing Scientific Models       Relating Concepts to Real-World Phenomena

FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS:  The videotape can be used by professional developers, science faculty, education faculty, and policy makers to introduce the idea of teaching science as a process of inquiry.  Questions that might be used to focus discussion of the video include:

How is the process of teaching by guided inquiry, as demonstrated in the video, different from (or similar to) what you thought before viewing the video? What knowledge and skills do the instructors demonstrate in working with the teachers? What will be necessary for the teachers to construct this kind of learning experience for their own students? How can teachers benefit from learning (or relearning) science through a process of inquiry? How can K-12 students benefit from learning science through a process of inquiry? What is the role of the instructor in an inquiry-based classroom?

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