The Feb. 2 talk by Dr. Troy Sadler, professor of science education at the University of Missouri and director of the ReSTEM Institute: Reimagining & Researching STEM Education, was canceled due to weather.
His talk, "Socio-scientific Issues as a Central Element of Scientific Literacy: Toward a Framework for K-16 Teaching and Learning," is sponsored by IANR's Science Literacy program at UNL. As follows is his abstract:
Socio-scientific issues (SSI) are complex societal issues with conceptual, procedural and/or technological associations with science, and they serve as an ideal context for engaging learners in the development of scientific literacy. Research efforts have yielded extensive empirical evidence supporting the use of SSI for achieving ambitious goals for science and STEM education including science content knowledge (Klosterman & Sadler, 2010), discourse practices (Evagorou, 2011), complex reasoning (Dawson, 2011), and epistemology of science (Khishfe & Lederman, 2006). Despite the growing literature base supporting the use of SSI for effective teaching and learning, the field faces significant challenges in terms of translating the potential of SSI into practice. This presentation will offer a review of recent research efforts aimed at addressing some of these challenges and a new, empirically-based model for SSI teaching and learning.
For more information, email nebraskamath@unl.edu.