Description
This High School Diploma Credit carrying course prepares students interested in pursuing advanced scientific courses in U.S. high schools or universities. Offered over two semesters, this course will examine fundamental theories and principles that span core scientific classes such as Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences. An emphasis will be placed on reading, writing, and discussion to improve understanding of content material, while paced to support comprehension by English learners. The interdisciplinary approach fosters creative and critical thinking skills as students learn how fundamental concepts cross into many scientific disciplines. Each unit will highlight and reinforce vocabulary, involve collaborative and individual assignments, and include technical source materials such as news articles and peer-reviewed journals. Through guided instruction students will communicate scientific concepts and data using graphing exercises, written reports, and topic reviews. During the live, virtual classes conversations with the instructor and classmates will allow students to practice speaking English within a scientific framework and a supportive environment.
Objectives
Using reading materials, videos, primary sources, secondary sources, and discussions, the course will explore components of such topics as:
- The Scientific Method
- Laws of Thermodynamics
- Archimedes' buoyancy principle
- Cell and Germ theories
- Evolution and natural selection
- The Theory of Plate Tectonics
Disciplines that will be covered include such areas as:
- Biology
- Genetics and Physiology
- Microbiology
- Chemistry
- Physics
- Environmental Science
- Earth Science
The course will stress the following learning goals:
- Students should develop a perception of science as a way of understanding the world around them, not as a collection of theories and definitions to be memorized.
- Students should understand that assertions require justification based on evidence and logic, and should develop an ability to supply appropriate justifications for their assertions.
- Students should be able to perceive patterns and regularity, make predictions, and test those predictions against evidence and reason.
- Students should be able to analyze and interpret data.
- Student should be able to read a variety of domain-specific scientific and technical texts and to write using the language conventions of scientific discourse, including but not limited to laboratory reports.
The course will incorporate the following SDAIE goals:
- Provide academic content in an environment that supports the development of English language skills
- Supply supplemental materials to improve understanding of content material
- Provide students with guided instruction such that concepts, content material, and vocabulary are more accessible to EL students
- Ensure ample opportunity for student and peer interactions
- Employ a variety of SDAIE teaching strategies to make concepts, content material, and vocabulary more easily understood by EL students
Courses for which this might serve as a pre-requisite:
Any science course that requires the ability to use the scientific method for discovery or communicate scientific findings in traditional written and oral formats.
