Atomic Models and The Nature of Science

A WebQuest for Levels I - III Science Students

By S. Burton, A. Mercer, C. Mercer, D. Way

scottburton@ncsd.ca
amercer@cdli.ca
christinemercer@esdl.ca
m_della@hotmail.com

Introduction

This lesson was developed as part of the coursework requirements for Ed. 6655, The Nature of Science and Science Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

The purpose is twofold:

• Introduce/review key atomic models.
• Illustrate the Nature of Science (NOS) as related by the models.
  • Science is tentative.
  • Science is influenced by history.
  • Science involves observations and inferences.
  • Science is subjective.
  • Science is creative.

Learners

This webquest lesson is targeted at senior high science students, specifically those in Science 1206 and Chemistry 2202. It could also be used to review atomic models and instroduce/review NOS issues as part of the STS connections in Chemistry 3202.

Students have already been introduced to the idea of matter being composed of atoms previously in junior high. They should also be familiar with the proton, electron, and neutron as subatomic particle, and the concept of the nucleus/orbital structure of atoms.

Curriculum Standards

What will students learn as a result of this lesson? Describe the outcomes succinctly. Use the language of existing standards. For example:

Social Studies Standards Addressed

• Recognize the relationships among the various parts of a nation's cultural life.
• Learn about the mythology, legends, values and beliefs of a people.

Most lessons don't just teach a block of content; they also implicitly teach one or more types of thinking. In addition to describing learning outcomes within traditional subject areas, describe what kind of thinking and communications skills were encouraged by this lesson. Inference-making? Critical thinking? Creative production? Creative problem-solving? Observation and categorization? Comparison? Teamwork? Compromise?

Process

In order to prepare students for the upcoming task we suggest that you start with this Puzzle Activity as an icebreaker. The purpose of this activity is to get the students thinking about the Nature of Science, and to show the importance of being active in the learning process.

Students should realize that science is dynamic, hands-on, and that it changes as our knowledge of the world changes.

Brainstorm and share how this activity is similar to doing science.

• Nature is a puzzle that is yet to be solved.
• Experimentation is essential to the NOS.
• New info. may require the old theory to be modified or discarded. (Tentative NOS)
• Current info. may be incomplete, theory may not be correct.
• Collaboration may be helpful.

Students will be expected to complete three task during this webquest and to utilize time your should structure it over 4-5 class periods depending on your schedule. This activity can occur in a computer lab or you may wish to print a hard copy of the webquest to take to your classroom. You can improvise activities to utilize them in your everyday classroom. Infact other than to print resources you can carry out all objectives of this webquest without the use of computer technology. Because of the nature of the topic you may wish to colloborate this with a history course or technology class to develop curriculum outcomes from another subject area. Students gain great satisification in co-curricular activities.

They will be introduced to four atomic models and the scientists who contributed to these models. Students should be broken into groups of three or four. This selection should maximize learning for all and one should be cogniciant of the differing abilities in your classrooms for all task before making the selection of group members is made. Once they have completed task one they will be expected to do a presentation of their new found information to the remainder of their class. And as a wrap up activity students will use a reflective journal to explicity discuss some of the concepts embedded in the NOS. The NOS is a concept that is mentioned in many of the curriclum documents but a task that many teachers find hard to incorporate into their everyday activities. This is an activity in which we hope that will enable teachers to incorporate the NOS into a lesson designed to cover curriculum content related to the development of the atomic models.

Part 1 - Question and Answer

Students will be expected to answer specific questions in relation to four scientists and the development of their atomic models. These are highly guided questions and the websites are provided inorder to structure this activity.

In doing this section students will gain a deeper understanding of how each scientist developed their models and the trials and tribulations that accompany each discovery. Students will be able to see science as tentative, progressive, creative, social, public and empirical. They will be able to reflect on these components of the NOS in the reflection journal provided at the end.

In order to elicit this information in the reflective journals you may new to bring up some of the questions here and guide some discussion around the concepts of the NOS. These concepts will be highlighted in a later activity of reflective journal writing but it would be a good idea if you could establish an introduction here for the later activity. It is not the intention that students will grasp the concepts of the NOS implicity by doing this first activity it is just a building a foundation for the explicit jorurnal activity at the end.

Part 2 - Presentation

Students will be expected to create a presentation on one of the four scientist and their models. As the teacher you should select which scientists they should present and take suggestions from the class on how to make the selection.

Part 3 - Reflections on the Nature of Science

Students will be expected to do a reflective journal activity. Questions are designed for this activity in such a manner that the concepts of the NOS are explicitly dealt with. Students may have some difficulty with these concepts especially if it is thier first introduction. If this is the case maybe a guided group discussion could be held in order for students to gain some background knowlegde about the NOS before they start making connections by themselves.

As an extension (put ideas in here)

Resources Needed

In order to implement this lesson you will need:

Access to computers or a printed version of all resources. Depending on the presentation method you may need a variety of resources, mainly art supplies or LCD projectors. Students will decide this once they have choosen a mode of presentation. But they should be able to do this with minimal tangable resources.

You may need to collaborate with a co-operating teacher if you wish to do this as a collaborative activity. You should review your understanding of the NOS concepts and we have included a list of related webpages below for teachers.

• John Dalton's atomic theory: Using the history and nature of science to teach particle concepts?
• The Nature Of Science, The Scientific World View, Scientific Inquiry, The Scientific Enterprise.
• The Principal Elements of the Nature of Science: Dispelling the Myths.
• Understanding the True Meaning of Nature of Science
• Error and the Nature of Science
• Teaching Science in the 21st Century--Teaching the Nature of Science: Five Crucial Themes
• Teaching the Nature of Science
• Teaching the Nature of Science: What Illustrations and Examples Exist in Popular Books on the Subject?

Evaluation

In order to know if this lesson was successful you should use one of the following rubrics found in the resource section above. You should use a rubric to evaluate each section of the activity.

We have included a rubric for part A and part C in the student evaluation section, but you will have to use one of the above to evaluate their different methods of presentation. Students will choose to different methods of presenting based on their strenghts and you should handout the appropriate rubric before they start their design process. This will give them guidance and structure in order to carry out the activity.

Credits & References

This webquest is the product of Art Mercer, Christine Mercer, Scott Burton and Della Way. It was created as a part of their M.Ed. Program at Memorial University.

"We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL."

Thanks to Rubistar for the prepared rubrics that are easily edited and can be downloaded to an Excel file.

This webquest is based on a template from The WebQuest Page. If you enjoyed using this webquest, try The WebQuest Page Portal.