Courses

Learning Science by Inquiry in Digital Age

The course deals with the main trends in learning science by inquiry in contemporary education. The course includes the following topics: collaborative learning; advanced sensors in lab experiment based learning; inquiry based learning in the mixed-reality environment; learning through modeling and simulations. The course combines a hands-on lab practicum and a number of workshops. The course requirements include reading research papers, submitting the labs reports, and the submitting a final work.


Science Education in Digital Age

Our society is undergoing changes towards a new form - a digital society. The changes are accompanied by fundamental transformations of the society. Among such transformations: blurring of distinctions between real world and virtual world, between human, machine and nature; shift from information scarcity to information abundance, reversal from an entity's primacy to interactions' primacy. The course deals with fundamental issues of science education in digital era with an emphasis on the practical implications to science lesson. The course includes reading of research papers, participating in workshops, and various of collaborative learning activities.


Teaching science in networked learning environments

Contemporary educational environments provide students with opportunities to learn both in and out of the class. Such learning is supported by various web-based resources for extra-school activities during and after the school time. The course deals with the major trends in teaching science initiated by integrating the following emerging technologies: networking, advanced sensors, "mixed reality" and others. The course comprises labs and workshops in order to provide participants with practical experiences in teaching-learning-assessment activities of science learning within emerging learning environments.


Inquiry-based Science Teaching in both Formal & Informal Environments

Course description: In this increasingly science-based world, there is great interest in improving science education at all levels of the educational system. Over the last forty years, it has become widely recognized that the key to this effort is developing deep inquiry-based learning materials and educational strategies that teach students to think about problems and situations in a scientific manner. This course presents different models for inquiry-based learning and teaching in both formal and informal learning environments. As part of the course, the students will experience inquiry-based teaching methodologies through documentation, analysis and personal reflection.


Paradims in Science Education 

Course description: There were some revolutions in the scientific conception of the learning process during the 20-th century. This course examines the development of various learning theories, with an emphasis on their implementation in science education, and different approaches in class studying. The course is based on a reading of original articles of the theories’ developers, reviewing similarities and differences between them, and a discussion of the implications of different approaches to teaching, assessment and curriculum planning. Tasks of the course include reading of scientific articles, planning of the lesson using the practice of different learning theories, and also the writing a final work.


© Ilya Levin