Science Philosophy Statement

"To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection."
"Science is built up with facts as a house is with stone. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones."
~ Jules-Henri Poincarė, 1854-1912

"True science teaches us to doubt and to abstain from ignorance"
~ Claude Bernard, 1813-1878

“In our description of nature the purpose is not to disclose the real essence of the phenomena but only to track down, so far as it is possible, relations between the manifold aspects of our experiences"
~ Niels Bohr, 1885-1962

Below, please find how our philosophy relates to specific grade levels. 

Science K-5 Philosophy

It is our hope that children will become responsible citizens of our world with the knowledge and skills to think critically and make informed decisions. Humans are not separate from the world. What we do impacts the environment and the collective learning of centuries of scientific thinking provides us with the technology to sustain us in our lifestyles. Therefore, science is an important part of the elementary curriculum.

Children are naturally curious about their world. At the elementary level, students should be encouraged to find out more about the things that they would naturally be exposed to. One of the biggest objectives of early scientific education is to sustain and foster scientific curiosity.

Another objective of elementary science education is teaching scientific skills and ways of thinking. Much of science at the elementary level is in the doing: experimenting and noticing and wondering. Standard 7.1 of the VT's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities states, "Students use scientific methods to describe, investigate, explain phenomena, and raise questions." This is accomplished through teacher and/or student directed investigations. Students are also taught to communicate scientifically through writing (recording observations, for example) and speaking.

While there is a strong emphasis on the scientific process, students should also be exposed to scientific content. (VT Standards 7.12-7.16) Research shows that for people with extensive knowledge in their field, "their interaction with their environments affects their abilities to remember, reason, and solve problems. For their knowledge to be usable in these ways, it must be connected and organized through important concepts." (Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards, p. 116) Thus, students learn the concepts within the chemical, physical, life, and earth sciences. Within any given unit, the science strands are interwoven to reflect the interconnectedness of the natural world.

Learning the scientific content is essential to being able to communicate about the world we live in. By teaching our children to become scientific thinkers, we are providing them with the skills needed to better explore and understand -their world. These two aspects of science education at the elementary level build informed thinkers who will become able to assume responsibility for the future of technology, the environment, and society.

References:

• Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A guide for Teaching and Learning.National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 2000.
• Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities, VT Department of Education, 2000.

Science Middle School 6-8 Philosophy

Middle School students are very unique individuals. They are on the cusp of transitioning from concrete thinkers to abstract thinkers. A good middle school science program helps students make this transition by purposely helping students with carefully thought out investigations and guided inquiry based lessons.

Guided inquiry involves making sure there is "a subject matter base so that students can effectively conduct investigations, because developing explanations establishes connections between the content of science and the context within students can develop new knowledge." (National Science Education Standards)

Students at this level need a balance of the systematic learning of science concept and inquiry based learning. Indeed it is not possible for a student at this level to discover all the concepts they need to learn or to observe all the phenomena they need to encounter without the help of selected readings, limited student outcomes or help with the lessons of how science works.

Keeping this in mind, students in a comprehensive middle school program should begin or further the abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry by

• beginning to recognize the relationship between explanation and evidence.
• identifying and focusing questions that can be answered through scientific investigations.
• designing and conducting experiments.
• using appropriate tools to gather, analyze and interpret data.
• developing descriptions, explaining, predicting, modeling by using evidence.
• beginning to think critically and logically to make relationships between evidence and explanations.

All this should be done with the thought that "In the middle school years, student's work with scientific inquiry can be complemented by activities that are meant to meet a human need, solve a human problem, or develop a product. Activities should be designed to be straightforward with a few well defined ways to solve the problem involved." Guided inquiry such as this will help the student develop abilities and understanding that will form a foundation for the kind of abstract thinking that comes in later years.

Science High School 9-12 Philosophy

Science is a fundamental way that humans use, consciously or not, to make sense of the world. Throughout history, people have tried to fulfill this human need to make sense of their world. Collectively and individually, they have constructed models and theories that order their understanding of their environment. In constructing their theories students need to be able to observe, predict, analyze, interpret and justify. Our students will use math as the logical framework to make this exploration of their world. We will foster curiosity and healthy skepticism so our students question and reshape current thinking in order to contribute to their community.

Science Continuum, K-12 (PDF file)