Learning Science at Upper Primary Level

Course Code-510
Solved Assignment-1

1. Differentiate among Empiricism, Skepticism and Rationalism by taking

suitable examples.

Answer: Empiricism: Empiricism addresses to the principle that knowledge arises

from experience and evidence gathered specifically using senses. . In scientific use
the term Empirical refers to the gathering of data using only evidence that is
observable by the senses or in some cases using calibrated scientific instruments.
What Empiricist and empirical research have in common is the dependence on
observable data to formulate and test theories and come to conclusion.

There are many examples of empirical evidence. Darwin postulated the theory of
“Natural selection” on the basis of observations only. Lamarck put forth the theory of
“Use and Disuse”. The theory of” Human Carbon di-oxide emission results in global
warming” is also based on evidences gathered by observations only. In fact in the
Vedic period all the scientific principles were based on empirical observations.
Example: Solar and Lunar eclipse, Earth moves round the sun etc. Empiricism is
opposite to Rationalism in that it denies the existence of innate ideas.

Skepticism is practicing the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence or

reproducibility as a part of a methodological norm perusing “the extension of
certified knowledge”. Robert K Morton asserts that all ideas must be tested and are
subject to rigorous and structured community scrutiny. One must question, doubt or
suspend judgments until sufficient information is available. Skeptics demand that
evidence and proof be offered before conclusion can be drawn. One must
thoughtfully gather evidence and be persuaded by the evidence rather than prejudice,
bias or uncritical thinking.

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Skepticism is a part of the scientific method, for instance an experimental result is not
regarded as established unit, and it can be shown to be repeatable independently.

Example: Galileo verified the Aristotelian principle very critically and made a claim
that Light and the heavy objects falling from the same distance reach the earth
surface at the same time. Gravity pulls both heavy and light objects with the same
force. According to Aristotelian principle scientists use to believe the wrong concept
that heavy object falls first and then the lighter one. Galileo was the great skeptic of
his time.

Rationalism is a type of thinking in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but
intellectual and deductive . Reason is the unique path to knowledge. Rationalism is
often contrasted with empiricism. Taken very broadly philosopher can be both
rationalist and empiricist [Lacey]. Socrates [470-399 BC] firmly believed that before
human can understand the world, they first need to understand themselves and the
only to accomplish that is with rational thought. To understand what this means, one
must first appreciate the Greek understanding of the world. Man is composed of two
parts. That is an irrational part, which is the emotions and desires, and the rational
part, which is our true self. In our every day experience, the irrational soul is drawn in
to the physical body by its desire and merged with it, so that our perception of the
world is limited to that delivered by the physical senses. The rational soul is beyond
our awareness. The task of philosophers is to refine and eventually extract the
irrational.

Examples might be such propositions as: *Any surface that is red is colored.

*If A is greater than B, and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C.

The claim is that, once these statements are understood, it takes no further sense
experience whatsoever to see that they are true.

Q2.Multi sensory learning always benefits the learners. Explain the statement
with two suitable examples.

Answer: We are living in a multi-sensory environment. As a result, our experiences

in life involves constant multi-sensory stimulation as audio-visual information in one
way or the other are most of the time integrated into carrying out many tasks in our

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local environment. While for some people who are not audio-visual learners benefits
from an instructional approach that appropriately incorporated multi-sensory. The
human brain also involved to learn and operate in natural environments in which
behavior is often guided by information integral across multiple sensory modalities.

The benefits of multi-sensory approach to enhance and improve teaching and learning
can be seen in countless areas such as: Multi-sensory instruction increases students'
active participation as the lesson is going on. It increases students' understanding of
necessary skills, a variety of media and methods are incorporated while presenting
the lesson. Multi-sensory instruction promotes both group and individualized
learning: multi-sensory instructional approach involve the use of different
instructional content. To this effect, students learn from any of the media or methods
that suit them most such as demonstration, storytelling, discussion, television,
pictures, and texts, computer-assisted. Instruction, programmed packages, taped
instruction, educational films as a group or individual.etc.

Application of multi-sensory to instructional activities creates room for the students

to learn through some senses such as hearing, sight, taste, touch, smell as most media
incorporated in presenting the question appeal to most of the senses fact that variety
of media and methods are involved. As a result each student must have It makes the
process of learning lively and exciting: a Multisensory approach to teaching-learning
makes the instructional exercise energetic and exciting based on what will arouse
his/her interest and makes learning following lively principles of learning. Multi-
sensory instruction meets learning ability of the learners: Multi-sensory instructional
approach is a solution to individual learner's need intellectually, emotionally and
psychologically, as diversified media and methods in use in delivering the lesson to
take care of their needs in one way or the other.

Above all, cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of educational goals are
best realized by the use of the multisensory approach. Taking into consideration the
facts of individual differences, learning difficulties, etc. multi sensory approach is the
only way to satisfy the different needs of a child.

For instance, students with learning difficulties typically have difficulties in one or
more areas of reading, spelling, writing, math, listening comprehension and
expressive language. Multisensory techniques enable students to use their personal
areas of strength to help them learn.

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Examples:

Air Writing

Air writing (also called skywriting) reinforces the sound each letter makes through
“muscle memory.” It can also help reinforce letter forms that are commonly
confused, like b and d. Students use two fingers as a pointer (keeping elbows and
wrists straight) to write letters in the air. They say the sound each letter makes as they
write it.

They’re also encouraged to imagine the letter as they write it. Teachers may have
students pretend they’re writing in a certain color, for instance .

Read It, Build It, Write It

This technique to teach sight words can be done with a group or one-on-one. Students
have a piece of paper with three boxes on it, labeled “Read,” “Build,” and “Write.”
They also have cards with sight words, magnetic letters (or tiles) and a marker.

Students and the teacher read the sight word that’s in the “Read” box. Then they
build the word in the “Build” box, using their letters. Finally, they practice writing it
in the “Write” box.

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 Solved Assignment-2
1. Explain the following points with one example related to the Expository
Transmission, Discovery and Inquiry approach of teaching science.

• Structured-ness Teaching

• Learning Process

Answer: In expository approach all the cues provided by teacher while teaching, the
deductive thinking where in abstract content is differentiated by the teacher giving
appropriate examples to the students. Teaching Learning process is totally controlled
by the teacher.

Let us study the following example where in expository method has been applied to a
unit from VI standard Science.

PROCEDURE FOR STRUCTURED-NESS TEACHING

Defining Statement of Rule

If two liquids mix very well with each other than the liquids are known as miscible
liquids. If the two liquids do not mix well then the two liquids are known as
immiscible liquids.

The teacher can make use of different media to show this rule to the students such as
writing on the board or use of PPT slide or preparing a worksheet specially prepared
by the teacher to record the data.

After introducing the rule to the students, the teacher will give different examples by
demonstration of miscibility/immiscibility of two liquids. All the cues are provided
by the teacher hence the observations also should be from the teacher only.

Clarification/Explanation of Rule

In order to clarify the rule to the students, the teacher will conduct the experiments to
demonstrate miscibility-immiscibility of any two liquids. He will have to use a
number of liquids to clarify the rule.

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Materials Required

Test tubes, Liquids such as Water, Alcohol, Milk, Kerosene, Lemon Juice, Mustard
oil, Vinegar, Coconut oil, Butter milk and many others.

LEARNING PROCESS PART

Justification of the Rule

This is the rare move used by the teacher in the classroom. The justification of the
rule can be done by various techniques such as historical development of the rule,
proving the rule by different methods, asking the students to perform the experiment
and reporting of the observations. In this example, the teacher can justify by changing
the sequence of the mixing the liquids. If liquid A is miscible with B then B is
miscible with A.

DISCOVERY APPROACH

In Discovery Approach some cues in the form of a learning material is presented by

the teacher to the students and using Inductive thinking, the students are expected to
discover the concept or the generalization/rule. Therefore the teaching learning
process is partially controlled by the teacher and students also involved to a great
extent.

Let us study this method by taking the same unit of Miscibility and Immiscibility of
liquids.

PROCEDURE FOR STRUCTURED-NESS TEACHING

In this method the teacher does not state the rule in the beginning but starts with the
examples of the rule as follows-

Clarification of the Rule

At this stage the teacher will make available all the material required for conducting
the experiment related to miscibility/immiscibility of two liquids. The teacher should

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provide data sheet where in the students are required to record the data/observations
of the experiment.

Materials Required

Test tubes, Liquids such as Water, Alcohol, Milk, kerosene, lemon juice, Mustard oil,
Vinegar, Coconut oil, Butter milk and many others.

LEARNING PROCESS

Justification of the Rule

This is the rare move used by the teacher in the classroom. The students should be
encouraged by the teacher to justify by changing the sequence of the mixing the
liquids. The students should generalize as if liquid A is miscible with B then B is
miscible with A.

Statement of the Rule

Through interaction between the teacher and the students, the students will generate
the rule related to miscibility and immiscibility of two or more liquids. The teacher
should help the students to verbalize the rule.

INQUIRY APPROACH

Inquiry approach the students are given a problem or a discrepant event. The students
will ask the teacher questions to collect the data and they through interaction find out
a satisfactory solution to a given problem or explanation to the given discrepant
event. In this approach the teaching learning process is totally controlled by the
students.

PROCEDURE FOR STRUCTURED TEACHING

The first step in Inquiry Training model is the teacher demonstrates the experiment to
all the students.

The teacher takes 20 cc of one liquid in one of the test tube and it was mixed in 20 cc
of another liquid.
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The teacher measures the volume of the resultant mixture of two liquids which is less
than 40 cc.

The students can questions to verify objects, events, properties and conditions with
respect to verification, experiments and necessity.

Clarification of the Rule

After observing the discrepant event demonstrated by the teacher, the students are
allowed to ask the questions as they like so that they will collect the data with respect to the
discrepant event.

LEARNING PROCESS

Justification of the Rule

This is the rare move used by the teacher in the classroom. The students should be
encouraged by the teacher to justify by changing the sequence of the mixing the
liquids. The reduction in volume takes place irrespective of order of mixing the two
liquids.

Statement of the Rule

Through interaction between the teacher and the students, the students will generate
the satisfactory explanation why there is reduction in the volume when alcohol and
water are mixed together.

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 Solved Assignment-3

1. Select a topic of your choice from class VII science text book and develop a
suitable lesson plan to teach the topic based on Inquiry Approach.

Answer. Lesson plan from chapter 16 i.e. Water: A Precious Resource of Class VII
science book.

Sustainable Water Solutions

Weighing the Pros and Cons

How do we assess the benefits and drawbacks of various solutions to a problem? To

decide how one potential solution compares to another, we have to consider the pros and
cons of each from many dimensions: environmental, social, cultural, and economic. In
this activity, students will work together to map out the strengths and limitations of
potential solutions to some important water use and conservation issues.

Engage students in creative ideation with the preceding activity in this unit, at the end of
this unit, students can participate in a design thinking challenge to tackle a water
conservation issue at home or school.

Essential questions

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of different solutions that have been
proposed for global water issues we are facing in the world today?

2. How do we assess the environmental, social, cultural, and economic benefits and
drawbacks of various solutions to a problem?

3. How do we ultimately decide what solution is the ‘best’?

Objectives

Students will

1. Explore some of the solutions being proposed for global water issues like our
growing need for freshwater, water waste, groundwater depletion, and agricultural water
use.

2. Learn how to evaluate and compare various solutions to a problem by mapping out
the multidimensional strengths and weaknesses of each.

Materials needed

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• Computer lab with one computer for every student (computers should have Internet
access) and one computer that the instructor can project from

Pre-activity

Teach students about water conservation and the ways we achieve it. Also describe the
benefits and difficulties in achieving it.

Activity procedure

Total Activity Time: 60 minutes

Part I: Exploring global water issues (15 min.)

1. Hand out to students or write on the board a list of questions for them to think about
while they listening the lecture.

2. Tell students the How Do We Meet the Growing Need for Water?

3. Ask student to jot down some of their thoughts about the questions that they were
asked to consider while listening lecture. Give them 5-10 minutes to do this. Discuss
these questions as a class after students have had a chance to reflect individually.

 What kinds of water issues were raised in chapter?

 Where can we find freshwater on the earth? What are some freshwater reservoirs,
or places where it is stored?
 Why is a growing population a concern for our water resources?
 What is one impact of over pumping groundwater? What do we use groundwater
for?
 Who/what uses water? Who/what is the largest user of water?
 In what ways is water wasted?

4.Ask students to choose one of the main water issues introduced in the chapter on
which to focus (growing need for freshwater, water waste, aquifer over-pumping, and
agricultural water use) and to find a partner who chose the same issue. Note: To
expedite this process or if you would like to ensure that all water issues are represented,
you can also have students pick water issues out of a hat and pair up that way too.

Part II: Comparing water conservation solutions (25 min.)

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1. Hand out one Student Worksheet to each student. Explain to students that they will be
listening chapter that will introduce them to some possible solutions that people have
thought of for the issue on which they are focusing.

2. With their partners, students will guide themselves through the activity as outlined on
their Student Worksheets. During this time, students will be asked to read chapter for
the problem they chose and they will proceed through an exercise weighing the pros and
cons of the solution(s). As they work, walk around the classroom and ask different
groups to explain their thinking. Probe them to uncover environmental, social, cultural,
or economic factors that relate to proposed solutions.

3. Remind students when they have 15 minutes and 5 minutes left in the activity.

Next steps

Fresh Solutions: Water Use and Conservation Design Thinking Challenge:

Challenge your students to apply their design thinking skills and design a solution to a
water conservation issue at home or school! Choose from a spectrum of challenges one
that suits your available class time and resources.

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