Brain-Powered Science: Teaching and Learning With Discrepant Events

How can a long metal needle pass through a balloon without popping it?How can water flow at very different rates through two identical funnels?How can a stick, placed on a table under several sheets of newspaper and extended over the edge of a table, snap when quickly struck— without lifting or tearing the paper?Author Thomas O’ Brien takes these and 30 more science inquiry activities to a higher level in this book for educators who love to surprise and challenge their students with unanticipated results. Using experiments based on the science of a “ discrepant event” — an experiment or demonstration in which the outcome is not what students expect— O’ Brien shows how learners can be motivated to reconsider their preconceived notions and think more closely about what has actually occurred and the underlying scientific explanations.What makes this volume more valuable than a mere activity book is the addition of a science education component to the extensive science content found in each activity. Each discrepant event is shown to be analogous to a pedagogical principle. Speaking directly to teachers, O’ Brien writes: Your participation as teacher-as-learner-experimenter (rather than simply passive reader) in these minds-on activities will lead you to question, and help you to revise, your implicit assumptions about the nature of science, teaching, and learning. At the same time, you will develop expertise with activities that you can use with your own students. The dual-purpose activities thus allow you to unlock two doors with one key— the doors to your own learning and to your students’ learning. The detailed analogies between the activities and science learning make the book an ideal resource for middle and high school teachers, science teacher educators and their preservice students, and professional development specialists alike.This thorough and thought-provoking text includes more than 200 up-to-date internet resources, as well as extensions to each of the physical science, biology, and chemistry activities— bringing the total number of inquiry activities to nearly 120. Most important, the author reminds teachers that the study of science is full of surprises and should be both meaningful and fun for students.

Dr. Thomas O’ Brien’ s 33 years in science education began in K– 12 schools,where he taught general, environmental, and physical sciences and highschool chemistry. For the past 23 years, he has directed the preservice andinservice graduate-level science teacher– education programs of the Schoolof Education at Binghamton University (State University of New York[SUNY]). His master’ s-level courses include Philosophical and TheoreticalFoundations of Science Teaching, Curriculum and Teaching in Science,and Elementary Science Content and Methods. He also supervises the student teaching practica. In addition, he teaches a cross-listed doctoral/postmaster’ s educational leadership course.Concurrent with and subsequent to earning a master’ s degree and doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction/Science Education at the Universityof Maryland– College Park, Dr. O’ Brien served as a curriculum development specialist and Teacher’ s Guide editor on the first edition of theAmerican Chemical Society’ s Chemistry in the Community (1988) textbookand as the coauthor of the New York Science, Technology & Society EducationProject Teacher Guide (1996).As a science teacher professional development specialist, he has cotaught more than 25 summer institutes, including national programs of theInstitute for Chemical Education and state and regional programs funded bygrants from the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes MedicalInstitute, and the New York State Education Department, among others.He has received awards for excellence in teaching and/or service from theAmerican Chemical Society (for National Chemistry Week programs), theNew York State Association of Teacher Educators, the SUNY chancellor,and the New York State Science Education Leadership Association. Thesegrants and awards are a reflection of collaborations with university-basedcolleagues and what he has learned with and from the large number ofK– 12 teachers he has had the privilege to serve. The Brain-Powered Sciencebook series owes a debt of gratitude to these friends and funding agenciesfor the insights and opportunities they offered the author.

Dr. Thomas O’Brien’s 33 years in science education began in K–12 schools,where he taught general, environmental, and physical sciences and highschool chemistry. For the past 23 years, he has directed the preservice andinservice graduate-level science teacher–education programs of the Schoolof Education at Binghamton University (State University of New York[SUNY]). His master’s-level courses include Philosophical and TheoreticalFoundations of Science Teaching, Curriculum and Teaching in Science,and Elementary Science Content and Methods. He also supervises the student teaching practica. In addition, he teaches a cross-listed doctoral/postmaster’s educational leadership course.Concurrent with and subsequent to earning a master’s degree and doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction/Science Education at the Universityof Maryland–College Park, Dr. O’Brien served as a curriculum development specialist and Teacher’s Guide editor on the first edition of theAmerican Chemical Society’s Chemistry in the Community (1988) textbookand as the coauthor of the New York Science, Technology & Society EducationProject Teacher Guide (1996).As a science teacher professional development specialist, he has cotaught more than 25 summer institutes, including national programs of theInstitute for Chemical Education and state and regional programs funded bygrants from the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes MedicalInstitute, and the New York State Education Department, among others.He has received awards for excellence in teaching and/or service from theAmerican Chemical Society (for National Chemistry Week programs), theNew York State Association of Teacher Educators, the SUNY chancellor,and the New York State Science Education Leadership Association. Thesegrants and awards are a reflection of collaborations with university-basedcolleagues and what he has learned with and from the large number ofK–12 teachers he has had the privilege to serve. The Brain-Powered Sciencebook series owes a debt of gratitude to these friends and funding agenciesfor the insights and opportunities they offered the author.