Summary: Loverude, et al.Summary of “Inquiry-based course in physics and chemistry for preservice
K-8 teachers,” Michael E. Loverude, Barbara L. Gonzalez, and Roger Nanes,
pp. 46–83.This paper describes an inquiry-based course for preservice K-8
teachers (Physics/Chemistry 102) developed at California State
University, Fullerton (CSUF). CSUF is a regional comprehensive
university in southern California, primarily serving students from
Orange, Los Angeles, and neighboring counties. With 35,590 stu-
dents as of Fall 2010, CSUF has the largest enrollment of the 23
campuses in the California State University (CSU) system.
Physics/Chemistry 102 [Phys/Chem 102], “Physical
Science for Future Elementary Teachers,” is taught jointly by
the Department of Physics and the Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry. The course is one of three that were devel-
oped as part of an NSF-funded initiative to enhance the sci-
ence content understanding of prospective teachers; the other
courses cover geology and biology. This structure was moti-
vated by the fact that general education requirements at CSUF
as well as state content standards for teachers and K-12 stu-
dents are divided into three categories: physical science, earth/
astronomical science, and life science. In Phys/Chem 102,
one instructor from each department is typically assigned to
the course, although one or both may be a part-time lecturer.
Phys/Chem 102 is taught in a weekly six-hour laboratory
format: either three hours twice a week, or two hours three
times a week. There is typically no lecture; rather, students
work in small groups on carefully structured learning activi-
ties. Because of the lab format, enrollment is limited to 26
students per section. The course emphasizes learning sci-
ence in context, a focus that was infl uenced by the Physics in
Context thread of the IUPP project^1 as well as the American
Chemical Society’s Chemistry in Context curriculum.^2 The
intention is that students will see science as an interconnected
discipline with real-world implications, rather than a collec-
tion of facts and equations. The text used for the course is
Inquiry Into Physical Science: A Contextual Approach, by
Roger Nanes. The text is built around three contexts: Global
Warming, centered on the physics and chemistry of climate
change, including heat and temperature as well as the interac-
tion of light and matter; Kitchen Science, focusing on eve-
ryday aspects of chemistry and some additional topics from
thermal physics, such as phase transitions and specifi c heat;
and the Automobile, emphasizing kinematics, dynamics, and
electricity and magnetism. Each topic is rich with diffi cult
content, and could easily occupy a full semester or more,
but the units are tightly focused on introductory science that
meets the California content standards.
The last point is a crucial one; teaching in a contextual
approach can involve very challenging content and may not
demonstrably improve student understanding. This course
focuses on activities and experiments that cover basic con-
cepts suitable for the target audience but rely on the context to
stitch together these activities into a storyline. The individual
activities are strongly infl uenced by published physics and
chemical education research and research-based curricula,
and in several cases our own research led to new activities
and modifi cation of existing ones. Thus, the course functions
on multiple levels: day to day, students work on activities not
too different from those in comparable research-based courses
for prospective teachers, but these activities are placed in thecontext of real-world applications to provide a more coherent
learning experience.
In addition to the non-traditional course structure, the
course assessments are designed to refl ect course goals and
emphasize conceptual understanding and refl ective thinking.
In addition to conceptually-oriented homework and exams,
students write one or two refl ective essays tracing how their
own understanding of target topics has changed over the
course of instruction. In-class performance tasks for each unit
provide hands-on authentic assessment.
Since the course was fi rst taught in Spring 1999, it has
grown in enrollment to a peak of eight sections per academic
year. The number of sections has been reduced to four per
year in response to state budget diffi culties, and it should be
noted that the course is expensive compared to more tradi-
tional offerings.
The article documents research on the course and the stu-
dent population. In particular it presents results from a study
that compares the outcomes of the course to those obtained
from the more traditional general education science offerings
that teachers would take in the absence of Phys/Chem 102.
The research fi ndings include:- Students entering Phys/Chem 102 often have dif fi culty
with written conceptual questions focusing on the physical
science content that is included in K-12 content standards.
Topics for which data are presented include density, sinking
and fl oating, energy, and the particulate model of matter. - Students entering Phys/Chem 102 seem to have a weaker
level of science preparation than their peers in traditional gen-
eral education physical science courses. Before instruction,
students in the traditional courses were more likely to answer
written problems correctly than students in Phys/Chem 102. - Instruction in Phys/Chem 102 signi fi cantly improves stu-
dent performance on written questions on the target topics.
However, work on sinking and fl oating in particular illus-
trates that attention to the details of the activities is essen-
tial; early versions of the curriculum made little difference
in student responses, but revisions based on research on
student understanding led to better results.
These fi ndings illustrate the importance of Phys/Chem 102
for this student population. The prospective teachers enter-
ing the course have relatively weak science preparation, even
compared to other non-science majors at the same university.
In the absence of Phys/Chem 102, many would be among the
weaker students in a large survey lecture course, and in such a
course they would have little opportunity to refl ect upon their
learning or discuss the content with other students. The evi-
dence suggests that for these students, taking Phys/Chem 102
makes a signifi cant impact on their learning.(^1) R. diStefano, “Preliminary IUPP results: Student reactions to in-class dem-
onstrations and to the presentation of coherent themes,” Am. J. Phys. 64 (1),
58–68 (1996).
(^2) L. Pryde Eubanks, C. H. Middlecamp, C. E. Heitzel, and S. W. Keller,
Chemistry in Context, Sixth Edition (American Chemical Society, 2009).
APS-AJP-11-1001-Book.indb 19APS-AJP-11-1001-Book.indb 19 27/12/11 2:56 PM27/12/11 2:56 PM