In this inquiry activity you will proceed through the process of designing a science unit step by step. The steps in the process are shown in Figure below (Posner and Rudnitsky, 1986). You should take a moment to examine the figure before you go on. Note that the process is shown as a cycle, rather than simply a linear process. The feedback you obtain from the evaluation component of the model will enable you to revise your teaching units.

One of the major emphases in this book and in the science education community is the use of cooperative learning. We have found that cooperative planning is an effective tool in helping beginning science teachers design teaching materials. Student interns can be organized in heterogeneous (different majors, sex, age, experience) dyads (teams of two) or triads (teams of three) for planning purposes. This will work especially well for designing teaching materials. Forming teams composed of different majors (e.g. an Earth science major working with a biology major) will enable you to raise interdisciplinary questions for your teaching plans, and allow you to play off each others' experience and knowledge. Although everyone will develop their own science mini-unit, each will benefit from a cooperative team planning process. Now let's get on with the process of designing a science mini-unit.

Materials

Teaching unit design steps, Large sheets of newsprints, Marking pens, middle or high school science textbooks in your field, access to the Internet.

Procedure

1. Your task is to design a mini-unit in a content area of your choice. Discuss with members of your team the content area to work in. Be sure to agree on the course and the grade level of the students to help focus your work.

2. Develop a mini-unit by following the "teaching unit design steps' that follow the inquiry. Use the check list shown below to keep track of your process (See "checklist, below). Your goal is to create a three-to-five lesson mini-unit which will be taught to a group of secondary students. Use the information in the section "teaching unit design steps" as a reference manual as your work together as a team. The best way to use this material is to get in there and let the ideas flow.

3. It will be obvious that you will be unable to all your work in a team. There will times when you will have to work individually to write objectives, lesson plan details, and assessement items. However, you should take the time to explain to your design team what you have done in order to recieve their feedback.

4. When the units are completed, you should report to the entire class by explaining the nature of the process, and the details of the mini-unit. The report to the class should include feedback data gathered during the implementation of the unit either with peers or secondary students.

1. Brainstorming Ideas

2. Naming your science mini-unit

3. Identifying focus questions

4. Identifying intended learning outcomes

5. Categorizing intended learning outcomes

6. Develop a concept map

7. Writing a rationale

8.Categorizing outcomes: cognitions, affects, skills

9. Listing potential activities

10. Develop specific lesson plans

11.Develop an assessment plan

12. Implement the mini-unit

13. Feedback and reflection

 Minds-On Strategies

1. How effective was your mini-unit in helping "your students" understand and develop positive attitudes toward science?

2. What were some problems you encountered in developing the mini-unit?

3. How would you modify your unit planning process the next time you engage in the process? Do you think the process you used was effective? To what degree?

4. What do you think is the most important aspect of instructional planning?