Arguing from Evidence in Middle School Science
Subtitle
24 Activities for Productive Talk and Deeper Learning
Use this straightforward, easy-to-follow guide to give your students the scientific practice of critical thinking today's science standards require. Ready-to-implement strategies and activities help you effortlessly engage students in arguments about competing data sets, opposing scientific ideas, applying evidence to support specific claims, and more.
Use these 24 activities drawn from the physical sciences, life sciences and earth and space sciences to:
• Engage students in eight NGSS science and engineering practices
• Establish rich, productive classroom discourse
• Extend and employ argumentation and modeling strategies
• Clarify the difference between argumentation and explanation
Stanford University professor, Jonathan Osborne, co-author of "The National Resource Center’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education" — the basis for the Next Generation Science Standards — brings together a prominent author team that includes Brian M. Donovan, biological sciences curriculum study; J. Bryan Henderson, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona; Anna C. MacPherson, American Museum of Natural History; and Andrew Wild, Stanford University student, in this new, accessible book to help you teach your middle school students to think and argue like scientists.
Bio
J. Bryan Henderson is an assistant professor in Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. His classroom-based research on critical speaking and listening intersects with his psychometric development of assessments that guage how students learn science through evidence-based argumentation.
Praise for this book
'Arguing from Evidence in Middle School Science' is filled with easy, fun ideas for incorporating many of the Next Generation Science Standards into any science class. Every step — from establishing class norms to evaluating completed student work — is covered in detail and will help teachers set their room up as a place of thoughtful and constructive questioning and argumentation.
Phil Keck Middle school science teacher
"This research-based resource includes activities that make it easy for teachers to incorporate argumentation into their science classrooms. It will get your students actively engaged in meaningful discussions — and help them develop the skills they need to truly engage in the practice of argumentation in science."
Melissa Miller Science educator
