When I was in middle school, watching a movie at home meant renting a VHS tape from the video store. You'd drive it all the way back when you were done, and - oh, by the way - you'd get charged extra if you were late or didn't rewind the tape. 🤣 How different is that experience now?!
In another modern marvel, I was invited to this week's edition of the Science is Cool Unplugged podcast. I chatted with host Dave Bakker (CEO of PocketLab) about all sorts of topics, including the crucial role teachers play in preparing students for the future.
The tricky part of teaching toward the future is that some of the roles our students will have then might not even exist yet. With that in mind, I've been thinking about skills and traits that will serve our learners best as the world changes.
💡 Growth Mindset: Teaching students how to approach work, failure, and challenge is so important. Resilient individuals understand that the learning process involves making mistakes, adjusting, and trying again. In the science classroom, we have a great opportunity to highlight this mindset with the engineering design process and iterative testing. We can help our students see that getting a "bad" result is the beginning of success, not the end of it.
💡 Responsible Use of AI: I think it's safe to say that AI isn't going away - in fact, it may shape the future. Students who start using AI tools now get a head start on being AI-literate adults. If you don’t know where to start, here’s a baby-step: students can check the accuracy of an AI-generated answer to a science question prompt. Is AI manufacturing "facts" or not? What a great way to review what you've learned in a unit! Students can also use AI to generate testable questions that can be answered through experiments for their science fair projects. If they're up for a challenge, they can try using AI to sift through large data sets (like weather information) for patterns.
💡Collaboration and Communication: Whatever our students end up doing in life, it's guaranteed that they'll need to work and communicate with others. We can develop those skills in science class with collaborative activities where students learn from each other's ideas. Anything from making a review game as a team or working on a project with a partner can do the job. Just remember, collaboration doesn't come naturally to adolescents! 🤣 Students need your expectations for respect and participation clearly explained at this age.
💡Develop a Curiosity for the World: As science teachers, we can help students see the world as an interesting place in need of critical thinkers. Sharing relatable phenomena and showing your students problems that have been solved through science will also go a long way to answering, “Why are we learning this?” 🤣
What are you thinking will be critical for success in the future? I’d love to hear it!
If you enjoyed the awesome teaching strategies shared here, join the Kesler Science mailing list below! We also send out fun phenomenon, graphs, sale notices, and product highlights throughout the year. You can unsubscribe at any time, and we never sell your info. We hate spam, too!