Final Essay

The integration of scientific practices and science content is an important part of educating students in a science classroom. Asking students to participate in science practices help them to gain a deeper understanding of the content when implemented properly by the teacher. As stated by Osborne (2014), “engaging students in scientific practices will make cognitive demands of a form that science education rarely does and that asking students to engage in practice can improve the quality of their learning” (p. 587). In addition, scientific practices give students the opportunity to display their understanding of science content. There are a variety of scientific practices that research has shown to be beneficial in the classroom. These practices range from asking questions to creating and using models. One of the most beneficial scientific practices, in my opinion, is the ability to ask good questions. In science, the action of asking a question is fundamental to everything that our society has discovered throughout history. It is the beginning of the scientific method and leads to research and evaluation.

Models help students to further comprehend the things that are not easily understood, such as those things that to large to imagine or too small to see (Osborne, 2012, p. 587). The inclusion of models into science instruction helps to shift the goals of the students from finding the right answers, to evaluating and comparing different theories, which improves their higher order thinking skills (Wilensky & Reisman, 2006, p. 192). By incorporation of embodied modeling in the classroom enables students to create models and become more engaged in their own learning. It helps to create student-centered instruction rather than only following a set of instructions or procedures as laid out by the