Module 5

S5E1. Students will identify surface features of the Earth caused by constructive and destructive processes.

c. Relate the role of technology and human intervention in the control of constructive and destructive processes.
Examples include, but are not limited to

• Flood control, (dams, levees, storm drain management, etc.) 

Problem: You are at a school that has a river that flows through the property. There is a problem with flooding on school grounds and we need your help to figure out the best way to fix this problem. You are asked to apply your skills as scientists to study the problem and present your ideas to organizations working to solve these problems. 

Authentic Assessment: Students will use the internet to research different types of technology and human intervention to prevent flooding. They must research atleast 4 different types and describe how and why each of them are used by using some form of graphic organizer or concept map. They will come up with a list of best places for each of the interventions to be used. From the information collected they will decide which intervention or technology would be best for the school property and must create a presentation to convince the school board to implement this type of intervention. The students can use powerpoint, prezi, or glogster to present their information. They will then present this to the class and at the end of the presentations the class will take a vote on what the best intervention would be based on the information presented. 

Rubric for Assessment 

	Needs Development	Approaching	Meets	Exceeds
Information gathered	only 1 intervention is researched with little to information provided	2-3 interventions are researched with basic information provided	4 interventions are researched with basic information that is sufficient to make a decision provided	information presented on all four areas is complete with examples of where to find them and how they are created/used.
Graphic organizer/Concept mat	only 1 intervention is present	2-3 interventions are present	4 interventions are present	4 interventions are present and connections are made between the different types
Technology use	No internet resources are used to gather information	Minimal technology used	Various technologies are used to find information	Information gathered from internet, books, and personal interviews of specialists in the area
Presentation	Lacking all parts to make an educated decision from presentation	Presentation is satisfactory but lacks excitement and engagement	Presentation is engaging and information presented in an easily understood manner	Presentation is engaging with various types of multi-media used

Article #3

http://proxy.kennesaw.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ904926&site=eds-live&scope=site

Is the crisis in Science education continuing? By Grady Venville

Summary: This article was written for Australia in 2007. This article summarized why Australia's science education was in crisis which the four reasons were that students were creating negative attitudes towards science, the lack of students joining in higher education science, shortage of skilled science workforce, and a shortage of qualified science teachers. The article goes on to analyze the decrease in students taking higher educational science courses in the Western World through the years 2002-2007. The trends of enrollment in the last year of high school decreased in all areas except for psychology. The three areas of most decrease were Biology, Human biology, and Physics. On top of that the students entering college were decreasing in the amount that were entering for science courses. This same trend applied to some art courses as well. It was noted that students were choosing to enter the workforce rather than to get higher education. What was most difficult was the needs for science education workers in the workforce was increasing throughout all of Western society when it came to technology and engineering fields. The main reason students weren't choosing these fields was due to poor grades, difficulty, boredom, or disengagement to the curriculum. The age in which you had to stay in school for also increased which may have had a factor on what students chose to study that were wanting to enter the workforce right after high school. It was found that 15 year-old Australians were ranked in the lowest in the world for science interest. The author sees the gap widening due to the increased need for science personnel. 

Reflection: The reason I chose to read this article and write about it is because I find it interesting to learn about education in other parts of the world. I realize that it was published in 2007 but that doesn't necessarily mean that the same trends aren't occurring today. I graduated in 2007 as well which made it more relevant to how I was feeling back then. I know from personal experience that I didn't enroll myself in any difficult sciences my senior year because I knew I wasn't going to go into a field that was science intensive in college. From what I noticed with many of my peers they did the same thing that year. I think by the time you get to your last year in high school you are burnt out and see light at the end of the tunnel so you choose courses that might interest you more. I think students get rejuvenated again when they get to college because you have every decision in what you take in college. If you don't want to have a lot of math courses you pick a field that doesn't require that many. The same is obviously true in other parts of the world. This is striking to me though because of all the advances made in technology and science over the past 10-20 years that people aren't wanting to head into science fields. It has been changing constantly which I don't see slowing down anytime soon which I find to be very exciting. What I take away from this article is that as a primary school teacher it is my job to get my students excited and interested in the study of science. I am helping to lay the groundwork for what they will one day become. Science education needs to also continue to be engaging and meaningful the older our students become in order to keep them interested. 

Article #4

http://content.ebscohost.com.proxy.kennesaw.edu/pdf25_26/pdf/2011/ESF/01Jan11/55811382.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=2010882037&S=R&D=rzh&EbscoContent=dGJyMNXb4kSeqLQ4yOvsOLCmr0uep69Ss664S7eWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMOnb7Em549%2BB7LHjfPEA

Science and medical education: is it time to revisit Flexner?
By: David Weatherall 

Summary: Flexner was someone who went into medical schools in the USA in the early 1900s to research how they were running and what they were teaching. His first stop was Johns Hopkins which was structured similar to some schools in Germany due to the first president having spent time overseas. For most of the 20th century medical schools had a very similar structure but at the end of the 20th century it went through a reorganization to include an organ-based curriculum. In 1993 even more changes were evolving in the medical teaching world. The change was to have students exposed to more patients and patient families from the beginning to help build communication among doctors and their patients. This was happening because with higher technology advances they saw the communication of doctors starting to decline. Medical advances with DNA and the human genome project have made it possible that in the next 20 years people will be able to know their susceptibility to diseases and that prescriptions will be set based off the genetics of a person. Many advances in cancer treatment have arisen too but the understanding of how people react to different infections is still of major concern in relation to the environment. Evolutionary biology is going to become even more important in the coming years due to the spread of disease in the future. The question is why do you think doctors need to have more biological background than in the past. The struggle is that medical education is already so long and costly is there time for biological sciences to play a huge part again as originally proposed by Flexner. It is going to become more prevalent for doctors to understand and be knowledgeable on the genome transformations as to guide their patients through it. A huge part of being a doctor is not only the knowledge of science but the art of compassion towards patients. For the future years this article suggests an introductory course of about 6 months for biological sciences alongside patient care could be the start to helping medical doctors progress alongside the science. Harvard has introduced this idea into its first year medical introductory courses which have been very well received by the students and staff. The learning of biological sciences is said needs to be continued throughout their studies whether it be in small group sessions or large group. These ideas would continue throughout the years in school to best prepare the future doctors of our world. 

Reflection: I chose to read an article on Medical education because I find the function of the body to be very fascinating. I never felt strong enough in school to go into the medical field but I enjoy reading about advancements made and new understandings as to why things happen to people. I didn't realize that when you went into medical school that you didn't have a basic biology course to start off your career in medicine. I guess it would make sense to go right into understanding the anatomy and how it works but as we have noticed over the past 20 years there are lots of diseases that we don't know the origins from. This leads us into the importance of having a good background on biology. As with many other fields of study, medicine is constantly evolving and new information is coming to the forefront. I have several friends in medical school currently and I would be interested in hearing from them their experiences with the biological sciences introductory courses. I also can understand why there is an emphasis made on bedside manner with doctors because no one likes to go see a doctor they can't relate to or feel uncomfortable questioning. I know I don't teach anatomy in fifth grade but I do teach life sciences. Again as I said about the earlier article, as a teacher of young children we are responsible for building interest and understanding in the basics of our world and science. I want to be the teacher my kids look back on that got them excited about school and curious about our world. This is something I really want to work on this year as I get to focus on two subjects with science being one of them.