Teaching Elemetary Science Using History as a Guide

Description

In this seminar, Dr. Jay L. Wile discusses a different method for teaching science in the elementary years: covering science topics chronologically. Science was learned in a definite, chronological sequence as early scientists developed ideas that were tested and improved by later scientists. If science is taught this way, students cover a wide range of topics each year and then revisit many of them as they were improved by later scientists. This has a lot of similarities to the spiral approach, but when students revisit a topic, it is not just repetition with a little more depth thrown in. The student learns the topic in the context of a new scientist and his improvements on the idea. This produces the high levels of recall that the spiral approach produces, but it is more interesting to the students. It also gives students a more realistic view of how science is done in the real world.