Science Talk Analysis

Yessica Lopez
SED 482
December 2,2014
Science Talk Analysis
Science Talk Overview
The big idea of the science talk I deliver in my placements was that human food choices
is always driven by a motive. The science talk I presented to my intern mentor teacher students
paid attention to the idea that human food choices have a reason by having students realize first
the trends in the food choices they ate. Then connecting students patterns or trends of the food
choices they made to the idea of why did they made that particular food choice that day. The
questions that students were asked for this science talk were design this way to help students not
just find the link between their food choice and food packaging, but to help them reason why
some items are present in food packaging like nutrition labels. The science talk questions also
began with students noticing the food they ate to help students participate in student-students
interaction during the science talk by having them share their food choices with their group then
to the whole class. The science talk also began with the question of students noticing the food
they ate to help students find the meaningfulness of the science talk because it connected their
diet life and the science talk topic of human food choices are driven by a motive. Furthermore,
the arrangement of the think, pair and share during the science talk was also very essential
because it allowed all students to share their thoughts and ideas of the questions being asked
during the science talk. Students for the science talk were also arranged and seated in groups of
four to make science talk more effective by not having big groups that could potentially limit
students to participating in the science talk. So, because the science talk started questioning
students food choices and then connecting it to the reason why they made certain food choices it
would help students come to understand that motives of human food choices are driven by
lifestyle, media, health and food packaging.
Analysis Section
Question Initiation
To start off, during the Science talk I rarely encourage students to ask questions. Students
were limited to ask question during the science talk because the science talk was teacher driven.
During the science talk I began the class discussion by asking students the question what were
some trend they and their group had in common about the food they ate? Then after receiving
students responses I moved onto the next question if they believe their food choices they and
their group made was driven by a motive? Then as a class we review the students motives
responses to categorized them according to the motive they fitted into for example lifestyle,
media, health or food packaging. So, because I was leading person that asked the question all the
time students were not given the time or opportunity to ask questions they had about the Science
talk topic of human food choices are driven by a motive. However encouraging students to ask
question during class discussion is very important to help student further their reasoning. This
can be done by having a students ask their peers for evidence they may have about their
conclusion to help the students clarity and confusion he or she may have. A method that could

be used to further promote students to ask question during class discussion is to provide sentence
frames of how they can ask their peers of the teacher questions to further understand a
misleading topic (Michels & OConnor, 2012).
At the time students were not stimulated to ask question during the science talk because a
good number questions were not really higher order thinking questions they were open-ended
question that were straight to the point. The question that were addressed during the science talk
were, what were some common food choices you and your group made? From a question like
this I had students answer from to ingredients found in the food choices they made to
categorizing the food choices they made as healthy or non-healthy food. So because students
were able to answer this question and other questions that were asked during the science talk
with more than a yes or no answer this made this question and other questions asked during the
science talk open ended question. The question given during the science talk were also not higher
order thinking because they were recall questions about the food choices they made and why
they made that food choice that day. Nevertheless, to encourage students to ask questions during
the science talk higher order thinking questions need to be present, because by having students
practice higher order thinking students will be able really comprehend what the science talk or
the lesson was about.
Question response
Similarly, during the science talk students were encourage to add on to their peers
response. In the science talk students were asked to include more information about a question
having another students answer the same question to see if she or he could add on something
new to the answer provided by their peer. This was done during the in the science talk I deliver at
my placement by having different students answer the question what are the kinds of motives
that force people to make certain food choices. For this question I had the students expand
specifically in the idea that human being might chose to eat a certain food over another because
it could be bad for them. The idea that individual might not eat a specific food because is bad for
them lead the discussion into why a certain kind of food can be bad for human being which the
class concluded that it could be due to allergies, or health related issues. Allowing students to
add on to students answer is important get students to understand what their peer may be also
thinking about the same question or to additionally clarify what one of their peers could of meant
with their answer. A way that I could of further improve students add for future science talks is
to provide proving questions that will lead the students to add different information to the
question or to expand more on a answer provided by a classmate. In addition to providing
proving question to better student add on responses I could of also asked students to draw
evidence form their own experiences to further expand on a peers answer. By doing this this
would of allowed students not only to practice using evidence to explain their answer but it
would of brought some significance to their answer by them including evidence from their own
experience. At the same time I could have also used authentic science literacy to help students
find and use evidence to support claim. Having students use authentic science literacy to support
an explanation is very important especially for ELL to help them develop their language literacy.
Student Ideas
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Likewise, the science talked reveal that my intern mentor teacher students had some knowledge
about what forces human being to make distinguishing food choices. For the reason that they had
a good deal of knowledge to what forces people to make food choices I would probably focused
the discussion more in the direction of what claims makes a specific food product to get students
to understand the different items found in the food packaging as well as what kind of people
would the food item would be marketing itself to. This would allow the students at my placement
to participate in higher order by analyzing the different components of the food product which
would of resulted in making the science talk less easier and more engaging to the students. On
top making the science talk less easy for the students the students, this would have also given the
students the opportunity to practice using evidence to support their claim. Students would have
been given the opportunity to support their claim by finding evidence in the food product that
supports of reject the claim the food product is making. Having students practice claim is
important not just because it increases their reasoning but because it helps them prove it the
statement they are making is true or false base on the evidence and justification they are using to
support their claim. The idea of having the students practice claims would have been great for
my placements the students are still learning how to effectively use evidence and justification to
make a claim
Relevance
Lastly, the science talk was made relevant and meaningful to students by making their
talk be guided by the food choices they made. This made their talk relevant to the students
because they were able to connect it to their diets choices to the big idea of the science talk that
was what are the motives that push individuals to make specific food choices. This was done by
the question in the science talk ask why did they make those specific food choices? For this
question students brought their home experiences to why some time they chose some food over
other and they came and the class came to the conclusion that it depended on the individual
lifestyle, media advertisement, health restrictions and the food packaging display. Still, the
science talk could have been made more relevant to the students by connecting it to why some
people chose to buy things in general and then connecting it how similar or different is it for
people making specific food choices. Providing relevance for students is important to keep
students engage during any class activity and to increase students desire to learn more about it.
Making the science talk relevant to the students will also decrease students off task behavior
because students will be interested in hearing or learning what you or their peers have to say
about the topic specially if affects them somehow.

References
Michaels S., & O'Connor C. (2012). Talk Science Primer. Talk Science Primer, 200-220.