California Association for the Gifted 58th Annual Conference

As part of a more complete school science experience, students must understand and appreciate more than the facts of science. Students must learn to know how knowledge is created and evaluated by scientists themselves. This session will provide an "instant update" focusing on common misconceptions about how science functions and provides an overview of the nature of science and rationales for including it as the foundation for science instructional programs. We will explore the definition of science, common myths involving the nature of proof, the role of evidence, models of knowledge generation, the social dimensions of science and the fallacy of the single scientific method all designed to help teachers provide a more robust science learning experience so that students can begin to think like scientists and evaluate the claims of science as future citizens.