Self-evaluative Scientific Modeling in an Outreach Gene Technology Laboratory
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Self-evaluative Scientific Modeling in an Outreach Gene Technology Laboratory Tamara Roth 1
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Franz-Josef Scharfenberg 1
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Julia Mierdel 1
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Franz X. Bogner 1
# The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The integration of scientific modeling into science teaching is key to the development of students’ understanding of complex scientific phenomena, such as genetics. With this in mind, we conducted an introductory hands-on module during an outreach gene technology laboratory on the structure of DNA. Our module examined the influence of two model evaluation variants on cognitive achievement: Evaluation 1, based on students’ hand-drawn sketches of DNA models and two open questions, and evaluation 2, based on students’ own evaluations of their models in comparison to a commercially available DNA model. We subsequently subdivided our sample (N = 296) into modellers-1 (n = 151) and modellers-2 (n = 145). Analyses of cognitive achievement revealed that modellers-2 achieved higher scores than modellers-1. In both cases, low achievers, in particular, benefitted from participation. Assessment of modellers-2 self-evaluation sheets revealed differences between self-evaluation and independent reassessment, as non-existent model features were tagged as correct whereas existent features were not identified. Correlation analyses between the models’ assessment scores and cognitive achievement revealed small-to-medium correlations. Consequently, our evaluation-2 phase impacted students’ performance in overall and model-related cognitive achievement, attesting to the value of our module as a means to integrate real scientific practices into science teaching. Although it may increase the workload for science teachers, we find that the potential scientific modeling holds as an inquiry-based learning strategy is worth the effort. Keywords Cognitive knowledge . Scientific models and modeling . Gene technology outreach learning . Science education
Introduction Hands-on experiments in the classroom are key for conveying knowledge of complex natural phenomena that might otherwise remain inaccessible to students (Kind 2015). Yet, for many years, a clear focus on instructional and theoretical teaching has dominated the educational landscape. Today, new national educational standards (KMK 2005) replace these long-established methods and raise hope of more practical approaches to science teaching. However, one must bear in mind that some schools may lack the financial means to build and stock laboratories (e.g., Raviv et al. 2019) which may require expensive and specialist equipment. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-020-09848-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Tamara Roth [email protected] 1
Centre of Math & Science Education, Department of Biology Education, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30 NW I, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
For schools without the necessary means, outreach laboratories (e.g., at universities) offer opport
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