Article Review: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Researchers are always discovering new ways to enhance students' learning of science. They experiment their new ideas to see whether they are successful or not in helping students learn different science topics. The current issues in science education describe effective ways to strengthen students' understanding. For this assignment, we were to follow the research on the current issues and choose one article of interest. The article I chose for my Science Education Research Article Review is "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" written by Sarah Davison. I briefly glanced at all the articles and this article stood out to me the most. The best way to teach science and have students understand it is to engage them in real-world experiences. I tried to pick an engaging teaching strategy. I came across "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" and was very interested to read how taking pictures at a zoo can enhance students' learning. Field trips are a great way to increase students' learning about animals that are in the zoo. The article first explains that when visiting a zoo, students often miss many learning opportunities. This teacher created an inquiry project that includes digital cameras to enhance students' learning of animal classification and animal characteristics. The students followed the 5E's (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate/Extend, and Evaluate) for this project. Students will be questioning, investigating, and concluding and will also create one book per group of their questions and findings.

Engage:
In the classroom: The whole class shared their wonders about the zoo before the trip and then, created the wonders into questions using the words "how" or "why". Then, the whole class brainstormed two picture ideas for each question. Students were put into groups and each group chose one question they wanted to investigate.

Explore:
At the zoo: Each group got one digital camera for their investigation. Throughout the trip, the groups took pictures of anything they felt would be helpful to answer their question for the project.

Explain:
In the classroom: The students returned to school and shared their findings and explained the pictures they took. Their explanations would help them to create captions for the pictures they took that they would use in their books.

Elaborate/ Extend:
In the classroom: Using the pictures, students sorted the pictures into different animal classifications to strengthen students' understanding while providing their own experiences. They also used a few pictures to create an "I Spy" collage and wrote rhymes for different parts in the pictures.

Evaluate:
In the computer lab: Students created captions for their pictures of the book and made their question the title of the book. The students got to use computer softwares to type their text and made corrections if necessary. They printed their books and then completed a self-evaluation of their learning and their contribution to the project.

Using digital cameras to enhance learning is something I've never heard of before but after reading this article, I can say that it sounds successful. This gives students a hands-on experience and it also makes science meaningful to students. It's very important to give a variety of instruction and learning experiences to strengthen students' understanding. I would love to use this project for my class. When I use this project idea in my own classroom, I will use these handouts as they are effective in engaging the students and having the students self-evaluate themselves. For older grades, I would have students create their questions themselves instead of as a class. For lower grades, I would follow this exact strategy and assist them if needed. For lower grades, I would have the students create a class book that includes every students' questions and investigations. For upper grades, I would have the students individually create their own books and the students can present their books and their findings. I also enjoyed the fact that the students classified their pictures to elaborate. The level of complexity depends on the grade level but having the students elaborate will depend the students' understanding of the content taught. This is very exciting and engaging and also connects the material to real-world experiences at the zoo. I enjoyed reading this article and recommend it to teachers!