Kindergarten to Grade 4 Science
Manitoba Curriculum Framework of Outcomes
Foundation C:
Scientific and Technological Skills and Attitudes
A science education that strives for scientific literacy must engage students in answering questions, solving problems, and making decisions. These processes are referred to as Scientific Inquiry, Technological Problem Solving (Design Process), and Decision Making (see Figure 3: Processes for Science Education). While the skills and attitudes involved in these processes are not unique to science, they play an important role in the development of scientific understandings and in the application of science and technology to new situations.
Each of these processes is described on the following page. Attitudes, an important element of each process, are also examined.
| Scientific Inquiry | Technological
Problem-Solving (Design Process) |
Decision Making | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose: | Satisfy curiosity about events and phenomena in the natural world. | Coping with everyday life, practicesm and human needs. | Idenitying different views or perspectives based on different or the same information. |
| Procedure: | What do we know? What do we want to know? | How can we do it? Will it work? | What alternatives or consequences are there? Which choice is best at this time? |
| Product: | Knowledge about events and phenomena in the natural world. | An effective and efficient way to accomplish a task or meet a need. | A defensible decision in the particular circumstances. |
| Scientific Question | Technological Problem | STSE Issue | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Example: | Why does my coffee cool so quickly? | How can I keep my coffee hot? | Should we use styrofoam cups or ceramic mugs for our meeting? |
| An
Answer: Heat energy is transformed by conduction, convection, and radiation. |
A
Solution: A styrofoam cup will keep liquids warm for a long time. |
A
Decision: Personal health, the environment, cost, and availability must be considered along with science and technology information. |
Figure 3: Processes for Science Education
Adapted with permission of the Minister of Education, Province of Alberta, Canada, 1999.
Scientific Inquiry
Scientific inquiry is a way of learning about the universe. It involves posing questions and searching for explanations of phenomena. Although no single "scientific method" exists, students require certain skills to participate in science-related experiences.
Skills such as questioning, observing, inferring, predicting, measuring, hypothesizing, classifying, designing experiments, collecting, analysing, and interpreting data are fundamental to scientific inquiry; as are attitudes such as curiosity, skepticism, and creativity. These skills are often represented as a cycle. This cycle involves posing questions, generating possible explanations, and collecting and analysing evidence to determine which of these explanations is most useful and accurate in accounting for the phenomena under investigation. New questions may arise to re-ignite the cycle. It must be noted, however, that many scientific inquiries, past and present, do not necessarily follow a set sequence of steps nor do they always start at the "beginning" of the cycle: scientists can be creative and responsive to scientific challenges as they arise.
Technological Problem Solving
Technological problem solving seeks solutions to problems
arising from attempts by humans to adapt to the environment.
Related skills and attitudes are often represented as a
cycle, referred to as the design process. The design
process includes the proposing, creating, and testing of
prototypes, products, and techniques in an attempt to reach
an optimal solution to a given problem. Feedback and evaluation
are built into this cycle, which like scientific inquiry,
can be an ongoing set of revisited steps. However, technological
problem solving and scientific inquiry differ in purpose,
procedure, and product (see Figure 1:
Science and Technology: Their Nature and Relationship 
14.1KB).
Decision Making
Students, as individuals and global citizens, are required to make decisions, and increasingly, the types of issues they face demand an ability to apply scientific and technological processes and products. The decision-making process involves identifying the issue, gathering data, generating possible courses of action, evaluating alternatives, and making a thoughtful decision based on the information available. Students should be actively involved in decision-making situations as they progress through their science education. Not only are decision-making situations important in their own right, but they also provide a relevant context for engaging in scientific inquiry, problem solving, and the study of STSE relationships.
Attitudes
Attitudes refer to generalized aspects of behaviour that are modelled for students and reinforced by selective approval. Attitudes are not acquired in the same way as skills and knowledge. They cannot be observed at any particular moment, but are evidenced by regular, unprompted manifestations over time. Development of attitudes is a lifelong process that involves the home, the school, the community, and society at large. The development of positive attitudes plays an important role in students' growth by interacting with their intellectual development and by creating a readiness for responsible application of what they learn.
The following General Learning Outcomes (GLOs) have been developed to further define expectations related to this foundation area. (For a complete listing of Manitoba's GLOs, see Appendix.)
Scientific and Technological Skills and Attitudes General Learning Outcomes
As a result of their Early, Middle, and Senior Years science education, students will...
| C1. | recognize safety symbols and practices related to scientific and technological activities and to their daily lives, and apply this knowledge in appropriate situations |
| C2. | demonstrate appropriate scientific inquiry skills when seeking answers to questions |
| C3. | demonstrate appropriate problem-solving skills while seeking solutions to technological challenges |
| C4. | demonstrate appropriate critical thinking and decision-making skills when choosing a course of action based on scientific and technological information |
| C5. | demonstrate curiosity, scepticism, creativity, open-mindedness, accuracy, precision, honesty, and persistence, and appreciate their importance as scientific and technological habits of mind |
| C6. | employ effective communication skills and utilize information technology to gather and share scientific and technological ideas and data |
| C7. | work cooperatively and value the ideas and contributions of others while carrying out scientific and technological activities |
| C8. | evaluate, from a scientific perspective, information and ideas encountered during investigations and in daily life |
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