0 or 3 credits
Fall 2025 Laboratory Lecture Lower DivisionScience
The course is aimed at facilitating future elementary teachers to learn physical science that will prepare them to teach these concepts to future elementary students grades K-6. The course will be focused on learning physical science by doing science i.e. developing understanding by collaborative activities and discussion in the laboratory and lecture and communicating your ideas to others. The course will have one 50-minute lecture and two 110-minute laboratory meetings each week. The course content is consistent with the CAEP (Council for the Accreditation of Education Preparation) K-6 Elementary Teacher Preparation Standards (Standard 2: Understanding and Applying Content and Curricular Knowledge for Teaching in Physical Science and Engineering Design) and the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) for the Physical Sciences (Physical Sciences PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS4) as well as many of the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs). The course will be divided into four units: 1) Matter and Interactions 2) Motion and Stability 3) Energy and 4) Waves and their applications. All of these units will be delivered through the paradigm of solving engineering design problems. Engineering design involves many different practices: problem definition, model development and use, investigation, analysis and interpretation of data, application of mathematics and computational thinking, and determination of solutions.
Learning Outcomes1Understand and apply physical science concepts (matter and interactions, motion and stability, energy, waves and their applications) at a level deeper than but necessary to teach elementary school.
2Understand and apply the engineering design process, including problem definition, model development and use, investigation, analysis and interpretation of data, application of mathematics and computational thinking, and determination of solutions.
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