{"id":878,"date":"2012-09-19T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T14:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/?p=878"},"modified":"2012-09-13T16:27:37","modified_gmt":"2012-09-13T23:27:37","slug":"unpacking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/2012\/09\/19\/unpacking\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you do science on a desert island?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My original thesis question was: <em>Does participating in a citizen science program give volunteers a greater understanding of the Nature of Science<\/em>?\u00a0\u00a0Searching the current literature, I realized most authors assumed that understanding the nature and process of science is actually useful to non-scientists.\u00a0\u00a0Considering the lack of\u00a0empirical data to support this assumption,\u00a0it was not something I was willing to adopt uncritically.\u00a0 Instead, I began \u201cunpacking the lines\u201d leading up to my original question, untangling the messy web all the way back to fundamental questions around science and science education.\u00a0\u00a0 <em>What is the value of science?\u00a0 What is the ultimate goal of science education?<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0Asking\u00a0these questions, it&#8217;s hard not to feel like Derek Zoolander staring into a\u00a0puddle (&#8220;Who am I?&#8221;),\u00a0but I think\u00a0they are\u00a0essential for every scientist and science educator to consider.\u00a0 Many of the questions I posed are ultimately unknowable, at least by me, but the process of asking them, writing about them, and discussing them with peers, professors, family, and friends has been what I consider the most valuable part of my education.<\/p>\n<p>Below are several questions I&#8217;m exploring in developing the theoretical framework for my thesis.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>Science Literacy<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is the ultimate goal of science education? What learning outcomes best support that goal?<\/li>\n<li>As an educator, does having a clear idea of how I expect people to actually use scientific knowledge in daily life change how I frame the learning experience?<\/li>\n<li>What is the relationship between scientific literacy and participating in scientific research?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Nature of Science (NOS)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When is it important for non-scientists to understand how science works as a discipline, as opposed to understanding how a particular natural phenomenon works?<strong><\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Is inquiry-based or experiential education simply an effective and engaging approach to science education, or does it give students a deeper understanding of the nature and process of science? If students do learn more about how science works, how will they use that knowledge in the future?\u00a0 How important is explicit NOS instruction?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Citizen Science (CS)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How do participant motivations and outcomes of CS programs differ from other informal science ed programs?\u00a0 From project- and inquiry-based learning, or experiential education?<\/li>\n<li>What science literacy goals are supported by the different models of CS projects?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Science and Democracy<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What science knowledge do people need in order to function in a modern democratic society?\u00a0 Are there any aspects of science literacy that all groups of people should know, regardless of who they are, where they live, and what their interests are?<\/li>\n<li>What does it mean to be an \u201cinformed citizen\u201d?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Perspectives on \u201cdoing science\u201d and \u201cdefinition of science\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are all the definitions of science\u00a0under which\u00a0different groups of people operate?\u00a0 What is the minimum threshold of engagement for someone to be &#8220;doing science&#8221;?<\/li>\n<li>What learning outcomes are supported by \u201cdoing science\u201d?\u00a0 Why do many educators prefer that their students \u201cdo science\u201d instead of watch a demonstration?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">History of Science, Professionalization of Science, and the Novice \/ Expert demarcation<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Can\u00a0you do science unintentionally?\u00a0 Who do you think was the first scientist?\u00a0 Can you do science on a desert island?<\/li>\n<li>At what point of being involved in science-related activities do non-experts begin to feel they are \u201cdoing science\u201d?\u00a0 What&#8217;s the difference between doing science, doing something scientifically, and doing something expertly?<\/li>\n<li>How does the history of science and the professionalization of science over the past couple centuries influence our current definition of science?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Normative Science<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If I was working as a scientist, what would I want my relationship with advocacy to be?\u00a0 If I was working as an educator, what would I want my relationship with advocacy to be?<\/li>\n<li>What are the special roles in society that scientists and educators have?\u00a0 Are there rules each should follow in communicating science?<\/li>\n<li>Do scientists or educators ever receive explicit instruction about how to handle their civic responsibilities as professionals?\u00a0 What is lost by not asking yourself: How do my underlying values get incorporated into my science? Into how I communicate science?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My original thesis question was: Does participating in a citizen science program give volunteers a greater understanding of the Nature of Science?\u00a0\u00a0Searching the current literature, I realized most authors assumed that understanding the nature and process of science is actually useful to non-scientists.\u00a0\u00a0Considering the lack of\u00a0empirical data to support this assumption,\u00a0it was not something I&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/2012\/09\/19\/unpacking\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4409,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1143,104011],"tags":[99809,6852,135587,135585,6505,135583],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-choice-learning","category-theory-and-frameworks","tag-citizen-science","tag-history-of-science","tag-nature-of-science","tag-normative-science","tag-science-literacy","tag-theoretical-framework"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4409"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions\/881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/freechoicelab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}