A Detailed Look: The Teaching for Understanding Framework

Throughlines / Overarching Course Goals "The things that I most want my students to understand after this course or year are... The scope, key concepts, principles, and methods used in chemistry and the relevance of chemistry to their daily lives. The interrelationships that exist between chemistry, other sciences and mathematics. The methods used by scientists to collect information, how that information is used in the development of scientific theories and the multiple ways of presenting and communicating scientific findings and information to others A sense of fascination about chemistry and science in general.
Generative Topic "Students will learn about..." Water Quality Its relevance to their lives The sources of their drinking water. The quality of some natural bodies of water in their area. How the quality of water is determined and how to perform water quality work in the field. What affects the quality of water in a natural environment and how this environment is in return affected by the water quality.	Unit Understanding Goals "Students will understand..." The quality of a body of water using basic Water Quality parameters. The importance of quality drinking water including potential problems. The functioning of a public water supply system. Six basic water quality parameters: Temperature, pH, Turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen, Total Hardness, Fecal Coliform. The basic issues involved with conducting water quality testing and sample collection in the field. How the introduction of a sampling variable can affect the parameter tested
Performances of Understanding In the unit, the Understanding Goals were addressed (by number) sequentially as follows: Group brainstorming session and class discussion Class brainstorming session, exploring Charles River water quality maps and data on the Internet For each parameter, the class started with an individual or a group brainstorming session, which progressed into a class discussion, followed by a demonstration, lab, and sometimes a post-lab discussion Class brainstorming session and discussion of site surveying and field testing issues, followed by a field trip, field sample analysis in the lab, and a discussion of the results (And Main UG) The Final Project. Students choose a lake, pond, or river in the vicinity of Boston and conduct an independent water quality study using the six parameters they learned. This included submitting a research proposal, conducting the tests and presenting their results and conclusions in the form of a poster and a group presentation to the class.	Ongoing Assessment Initially All the understanding goals and what the students were expected to do was explained and given in a handout. Throughout the course of the unit Informal feedback during student brainstorming sessions, class discussions, and laboratory activities. The teachers helped the students to evaluate and change their ideas about the six water quality parameters. Formal and graded feedback on student understanding of water quality parameters was given on daily homeworks In the lab, the students were repeatedly exposed to the six water quality tests, which gave them an opportunity to continually refine their skills and become experts at the proper laboratory procedure for each. On the field trip, feedback was given to the students as we discussed their site surveys and predictions made on site. The students then had an opportunity to improve these skills as they surveyed their own sites for the final project. Students received more formalized ungraded feedback at their project proposal conferences, when they discussed their site surveys, predictions, and research design with the teachers. We recommend holding another conference session after the students have done all their tests to discuss their results. The final project constituted most of the students' grade and was evaluated on the project proposal, the posters, and the presentations. The posters, were evaluated on the quality of information about the students' site, the data, students' understanding and analysis of the data, and the visual aspect of the poster. For more information about the grading of the final projects look at Final Project Grading Guidelines.

Onto:

• Standards