This workshop will engage participants in a series of strategies and lessons that address middle school performance expectations related to heat transfer and phase changes, with a primary focus on MS-PS1-4 and MS-PS3-4, and apply the concepts of particle theory and energy to these content areas.
The workshop will introduce phenomenon-based teaching and the development of student representational thinking through white-boarding and discourse, planning and carrying out guided inquiry investigations, and using the CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) framework for writing conclusions. Relevance to students’ lives will be explored through discussion of a sample student project – to design a building exterior that minimizes heat transfer from air to the interior (MS-PS3-3: Design, construct and test a device that minimizes thermal heat transfer). The Cross Cutting Concepts of “Systems and System Models” and “Energy and Matter” will be addressed directly, as well as several Science Practices.