Charles W' Andy Anderson

1
Approaching Ecological Literacy from the Bottom
Up

• Charles W. (Andy) Anderson
• Michigan State University
• Conference of the Ecological Society of America
• Milwaukee, August 6, 2008

2
Contributors

• People Brook Wilke, Joyce Parker, John Merrill,
  Merle Heideman, Tammy Long, Gail Richmond, Diane
  Ebert-May, Janet Batzli, Lindsey Mohan, Jing
  Chen, Beth Covitt, Kristin Gunckel, Hsin-Yuan
  Chen, Edna Tan, Josie Zesaguli, Blakely
  Tsurusaki, Ed Smith, Jim Gallagher from Michigan
  State University Janet Batzli from University of
  Wisconsin Chris Wilson from BSCS Laurel Hartley
  form University of Colorado, Denver and Mark
  Wilson, Karen Draney, Yong-Sang Lee, and Jinnie
  Choi from University of California-BerkeleyProje
  cts MSU Environmental Literacy Project, Center
  for Curriculum Materials in Science, NSF CCLI -
  Developing Diagnostic Question Clusters for
  Tracing Matter, NSF CCLI Diagnostic Question
  Clusters to Improve Student Reasoning and
  Understanding in General Biology Courses, NSF
  ROLE - Developing a research-based learning
  progression for the carbon cycle Transformations
  of matter and energy in biogeochemical systems

3
Parts of This Presentation

• Whats at stake? Looking at ecological literacy
  from the bottom up.
• Learning progressions Combining top down and
  bottom up approaches
• Research results on upper and lower anchors From
  forces to laws
• Research results on intermediate levels How do
  students get here from there?
• Reconsidering whats at stake Priorities for
  science education

4
1. Whats at stake?

• Looking at ecological literacy from the bottom up.

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Top Down vs. Bottom Up

• Top down approach to ecological literacy
  Consult experts to see what knowledge and
  practices are most important.
• Bottom up approach Study learners ideas and
  understanding to see what knowledge and practices
  are most attainable.

6
Literacy as Reading

• One measure of ecological literacy The ability
  to understand and critically evaluate
  scientifically-based arguments about
  socio-ecological issues, such as
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• Al Gores An Inconvenient Truth.
• ESA position statement on biofuels
• Opposing arguments

7
Excerpt from ESA Biofuels Position Statement

• Compared crops intensively managed to maximize
  yields Lower yields from an unfertilized native
  prairie, for example, may be acceptable in light
  of the other benefits provided by native plants
  in an agricultural landscape. These include
• Minimized flooding and increased groundwater
  recharge water
• Enhanced carbon sequestration in the soil because
  tilling would be unnecessary carbon
• Genetic diversity biodiversity.

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Question Are these publications just for the
experts, or do members of the general public need
to understand them?

9
What Do People Understand?

• Students Taking Pilot Test on Carbon-transforming
  processes
• Science majors taking initial cell biology course
  at Michigan State University
• College chemistry is prerequisite for course
• 23 students answered this question on first day
  of class

10
An Example Question

• Gasoline is mostly a mixture of hydrocarbons such
  as octane C8H18. Decide whether each of the
  following statements is true or false about what
  happens to the atoms in a molecule of octane when
  it burns.

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True or False

• Some of the atoms in the octane are incorporated
  into carbon dioxide in the air.
• True is correct answer
• How many students would you guess answered
  true?
• 20/23 answered true.

12
True or False

• Some of the atoms in the octane are incorporated
  into air pollutants such as ozone or nitric
  oxide.
• False is correct answer
• How many students would you guess answered
  true?
• 16/23 answered true.

13
True or False

• Some of the atoms in the octane are converted
  into energy that moves the car.
• False is correct answer
• How many students would you guess answered
  true?
• 15/23 answered true.

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This is NOT a trick question

• Consistent with general patterns in student
  responses.
• Other examples with similar patterns
• Plant growth (mass comes from the soil)
• Weight loss in humans (mass converted to energy)
• Decay (mass is consumed or returned to the soil
• Key aspects of student reasoning
• Difficulty tracing matter through chemical
  changes involving gases and solids or liquids
• Energy as fudge factor

15
Excerpt from ESA Biofuels Position Statement

• Compared crops intensively managed to maximize
  yields Lower yields from an unfertilized native
  prairie, for example, may be acceptable in light
  of the other benefits provided by native plants
  in an agricultural landscape. These include
• Minimized flooding and increased groundwater
  recharge water
• Enhanced carbon sequestration in the soil because
  tilling would be unnecessary carbon
• Genetic diversity biodiversity.

Question What does enhanced carbon
sequestration in soil mean to these students?
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Why Should We Care?

• Tom Friedman on Egyptian regime spending
• Fuel subsidies 11 billion/year
• Education 6 billion/year
• the pain of removing the subsidies would be
  politically suicidal.
• John McCain on offshore drilling And with
  gasoline running at more than 4 a barrel ... a
  gallon ... I wish ... 4 a gallon, many do not
  have the luxury of waiting on the far-off plans
  of futurists and politicians

17
Conclusions

• People, and politicians, will ignore what the
  experts say if the message is painful and they
  dont understand it.
• This is a problem for science education

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2. Learning progressions

• Combining top down and bottom up approaches

19
Learning Progressions Combining Top Down and
Bottom Up

• Learning progressions are descriptions of the
  successively more sophisticated ways of thinking
  about a topic that can follow one another as
  students learn about and investigate a topic over
  a broad span of time. (NRC, Taking Science to
  School, 2007)

20
Learning Progressions Include

• Upper anchor Societal expectations and values
  (top down)
• Lower anchor Results of research on
  understanding of learners at the beginning of the
  age span (bottom up).
• Intermediate levels of understanding that link
  lower and upper anchors

21
Upper Anchor Processes in Socio-ecological
Systems(Loop Diagram based on LTER Decadal Plan)
22
Criteria for Validation of Learning Progressions

• Conceptual coherence a learning progression
  should make sense, in that it tells a
  comprehensible and reasonable story of how
  initially naïve students can develop mastery in a
  domain.
• Compatibility with current research a learning
  progression should build on findings or
  frameworks of the best current research about
  student learning.
• Empirical validation The assertions we make
  about student learning should be grounded in
  empirical data about real students.

23
Development and Validation An Iterative Process

• Develop initial framework (upper anchor, lower
  anchor, intermediate levels)
• Develop assessments (e.g. written tests,
  interviews) and/or teaching experiments based on
  the framework
• Use data from assessments and teaching
  experiments to revise framework
• Develop new assessments.

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3. Research results Upper and lower anchors

• From forces to laws

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Unit of Analysis Knowledge and Practice

• Practices of Ecologically Literate Citizens
• Inquiry developing accounts by learning from
  experience
• Accounts using scientific knowledge to explain
  and predict
• Citizenship making environmentally responsible
  decisions based on accounts
• Private roles learner, consumer, worker
• Public roles voter, volunteer, advocate

26
Strands Types of Accounts

• Carbon Processes that generate, transform, and
  oxidize organic carbon in socio-ecological
  systems
• Water Processes that move and transform water,
  and substances in water in socio-ecological
  systems
• Biodiversity Processes that affect survival,
  growth, reproduction, and selection of organisms
  in socio-ecological systems

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Processes We Ask About

• Carbon plant and animal growth, animal movement,
  decay, combustion
• Water rain and snow, water soaking into the
  ground, springs, wells, lakes and streams, water
  pollution and purification
• Biodiversity organisms living their life cycles,
  evolution, succession

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Lower Anchor Balance of Forces

• Force-dynamic causation Things happen because of
  the interplay of forces
• Natural tendencies of organisms (plants,
  animals), materials (water), or other agents
  (flames)
• Enablers that help agents to express their
  natural tendencies (e.g., food, air, water, warm
  conditions
• Antagonists that work against expression of
  natural tendencies
• Strongest force wins!

29
Scientific Explanations Hierarchy of Systems and
the Rule of Law

• Hierarchy of systems at different scales. From
  macroscopic, visible processes and systems to
• Explanations of mechanisms based on hidden
  subsystems and
• Explanations of contexts that connect accounts in
  space and time.
• Principles or laws that always apply in their
  domains. From strongest force wins to all parts
  of the system are constrained by principles
• Conservation of matter (mass and atoms)
• Conservation of energy
• Fixed genetic resources for every organism

30
Competing Views of Science of Global Climate
Change

• NASA scientists (e.g., James Hanson) Scientific
  research is governed by principles--replicability
  of data, falsifiability of models, etc. Bush
  administration is breaking the rules.
• Bush administration These scientists are all
  Democrats. They are our antagonists, so they
  shouldnt be expecting us to act as their
  enablers.

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Lower AnchorExplanations of Events

• Eating and growth (carbon) Food goes to your
  stomach, then it helps you to grow (food enables
  your natural tendency to grow)
• Puddle soaking into the ground (water) Water is
  soaked up by the ground (natural tendency of
  water to run downhill and ground to soak it up)
• Development of dog breeds (biodiversity) dogs
  adapt to living with humans (natural tendency of
  animals to adapt humans enable adaptation)

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Scientific Explanations of Events

• Carbon We explain growth by tracing food
  molecules through digestion, transport in blood,
  biosynthesis in cells
• Water We trace water and dissolved/suspended
  substances as they enter groundwater.
• Biodiversity humans breed dogs selectively.
  Thus dogs with genetic traits that we like
  survive and reproduce.

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4. Research results Intermediate levels

• How do students get here from there?

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Linking Processes Grouping and Explaining
Carbon-transforming Processes
Black Linking processes that students at all
levels can tell us about Red Lower anchor
accounts based on informal cultural models Green
Upper anchor accounts based on scientific models
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Linking Principles Comparing Elements of Accounts

• Life What is the difference between living and
  non-living systems?
• Lower anchor Vital force or natural tendency
  of living things
• Upper anchor Tracing matter (cellular metabolic
  processes) and tracing information (homeostasis
  and genetics)
• Matter Whats the stuff in processes
• Lower anchor Visible parts of systems, including
  flames, excluding gases
• Upper anchor Chemical substances, made of atoms
  and molecules that can be transformed according
  to chemical principles

36
Linking Principles Comparing Elements of Accounts

• Cause/agency What makes things happen?
• Lower anchor Balance of forces natural
  tendencies, enablers, antagonists
• Upper anchor Second Law of Thermodynamics
  Degradable energy
• Energy What is energy?
• Lower anchor All purpose enabler, fudge factor
• Upper anchor Constraint on processes
• Scale Mechanisms and contexts
• Lower anchor Forces change visible things
• Upper anchor Hidden atomic-molecular mechanisms,
  connections through large-scale systems and
  processes

37
Intermediate LevelsUpper Elementary through
College

• Level 4 Successful principled, model-based
  reasoning about processes in socio-ecological
  systems (high school standards).
• Level 3 School science narratives of processes
  in systems (middle school standards).
• Level 2 Events driven by hidden mechanisms
  (elementary standards).
• Level 1 Macroscopic accounts based on
  force-dynamic causation (natural tendencies with
  enablers or antagonists) and linked by informal
  cultural models

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Level 4 Reasoning about the Carbon Cycle
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Level 1 Reasoning about the Carbon Cycle

• Plants grow Natural tendency enabled by
  sunlight, water, air, soil nutrients
• Animals eat and grow Natural tendency enabled by
  food, air, water, exercise
• Plants and animals die Natural tendency enabled
  by age, disease, etc.
• Dead things decay and enrich the soil Natural
  tendency enabled by moisture, soil, warmth

40
Level 2 Reasoning about the Carbon Cycle
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Carbon Examples

• Where does the weight of an oak tree come from?
• Level 1 example I think its leaves. Leaves comes
  from trees the weight comes from when a plant
  grows the weight also grows bigger
• Level 2 example I think the plant's increase
  comes from the minerals in the soil help it
  increase weight.
• Level 4 example The plants increase in weight
  comes from CO2 in the air. The carbon in that
  molecule is used to create glucose, and several
  polysaccharides which are used for support.

42
Water Accounts

• Types of processes movement of water, substances
  in water
• Level 1 accounts surface water running downhill,
  underground ponds pollution as quality of
  water rather than materials in water
• Level 4 accounts flow of water (visible and
  invisible) through watersheds other materials
  going in and out of solution and suspension

43
Water Example Question

• If a water pollutant is put into the river at
  town C, which towns (if any) would be affected by
  the pollution?

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Water Example Responses

• Level 1 example B,C - cause they are closer .
• Level 2 example A, B - These towns would be
  affected is that towns A and B are connected to C
  so that the pollutant would spread through C to A
  and B rivers causing a problem.
• Level 4 example A - Since the river will run
  downhill to a large body of water, it can't go
  upstream to B and it is not connected to D. On
  the way to the lake it crosses by A.

45
Biodiversity Accounts

• Types of processes Individual life cycles in
  niche and habitat, evolution, succession
• Level 1 accounts Individuals adapt to
  environment, undifferentiated landscapes
• Level 4 accounts
• Individuals live or die with fixed genetic
  resources
• Evolution as change in populations caused by
  reproduction and selection
• Succession as change in ecosystems caused by
  selection of populations

46
Biodiversity Example Question

• Farmers often use pesticides to help prevent
  insects from eating their crops. Over time, the
  insects slowly become resistant to these
  pesticides, and so the farmers have to use
  different pesticides to protect their crops. Tell
  a story about how the insects become resistant to
  the pesticides.

47
Biodiversity Example Responses

• Level 1 example Their bodies try to fight off
  the pesticides. Once they figure out how to fight
  them it's easy for them to fight so the
  pesticides no longer work.
• Level 2 example The insects eventually become
  immune to the pesticides because when one insect
  takes it in, then they reproduce there is already
  pesticides in the offspring so they are used to
  it and the pesticide doesn't really affect them.
• Level 4 example When the crops are sprayed some
  bugs are killed but some may live and when the
  living mate they will give their kids genes to
  help them survive through the pesticides so the
  bugs adapt to the pesticides and because the bugs
  reproduce fast and dont live long it doesn't
  take long for them to adapt to the pesticides.

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5. Reconsidering whats at stake

• Priorities for science education

49
Excerpt from ESA Biofuels Position Statement

• Lower yields from an unfertilized native prairie,
  for example, may be acceptable in light of the
  other benefits provided by native plants in an
  agricultural landscape. These include
• Minimized flooding and increased groundwater
  recharge water
• Enhanced carbon sequestration in the soil because
  tilling would be unnecessary carbon
• Genetic diversity biodiversity.

50
Accomplishments and Challenges

• These simple statements come from a world view
  shared by ecologists who have come to take its
  complexities for granted
• For students, developing the knowledge it takes
  to understand and evaluate these statements is an
  immense intellectual challenge
• As science educators we must understand and
  respond to our students and the science

51
Thank You
Major Contributors Lindsey Mohan, Hui Jin,
Kristin Gunckel, Beth Covitt, Edna Tan, Blakely
Tsurusaki, Jing Chen, Hasan Abdel-Kareem, Rebecca
Dudek, Josephine Zesaguli, Hsin-Yuan Chen, Brook
Wilke, Laurel Hartley, Hamin Baek, Kennedy
Onyancha, Chris Wilson, Ed Smith, and Jim
Gallagher at Michigan State University Mark
Wilson, Karen Draney, Jinnie Choi, and Yong-Sang
Lee at the University of California,
Berkeley. This research is supported in part by
three grants from the National Science
Foundation Developing a Research-based Learning
Progression for the Role of Carbon in
Environmental Systems (REC 0529636), the Center
for Curriculum Materials in Science (ESI-0227557)
and Long-term Ecological Research in Row-crop
Agriculture (DEB 0423627. Any opinions, findings,
and conclusions or recommendations expressed in
this material are those of the author(s) and do
not necessarily reflect the views of the National
Science Foundation.
Website http//edr1.educ.msu.edu/EnvironmentalLit
/index.htm