BSCS ViSTA Modules are online, videocase-based materials designed to support teacher learning. Teachers explore videos of science teaching, videos of teacher and student interviews, samples of student work, student pre-posttests, lesson plans, and supplementary materials used in the lessons. The modules scaffold teachers’ analysis of the videocases through a series of carefully sequenced tasks that challenge teachers to deepen their content understanding and to analyze the teaching through two lenses they do not typically use in looking at teaching: the Student Thinking Lens and the Science Content Storyline Lens. Each module accounts for 15 hours of face-to-face learning and 15 hours of independent work time.
BSCS ViSTA is easily accessible. Each module is a videocase-based lesson analysis package that is delivered online. The site is mobile-media friendly, so teachers can access the program virtually anywhere, at any time. Because it’s easy to access, BSCS ViSTA can be used by teacher-users both at school and away from the building. It lends itself to a hybrid model, with learning happening in both an online and face-to-face environment.
BSCS ViSTA allows for different delivery formats. The modules include forums to encourage participating teacher-users to communicate and collaborate online. This feature is especially useful in professional learning groups where teachers are spread across an entire school district and have little time set aside from face-to-face meetings. BSCS ViSTA is also designed to be used as a formal professional development course or as a resource in a methods course, where participating teacher-users submit their responses to questions to a course facilitator or instructor.
BSCS ViSTA allows for flexible scheduling. Each BSCS ViSTA module is designed to be completed in 30 hours, with approximately 15 hours of facilitated, face-to-face learning and 15 hours of independent work. Developers designed BSCS ViSTA to allow for flexibility in scheduling and content delivery so that a module can be completed over the course of one semester, one academic year, or in an intensive 2-week institute. You can choose a timeframe that fits your needs and goals.
BSCS ViSTA focuses on results. The designers of BSCS ViSTA understand the importance of demonstrating the success of a professional development program. The big question is, “What did teachers learn?” Pre-assessments and post-assessments are built into each BSCS ViSTA module. You can compare results from pre- and post-assessments to report teacher-learning resulting from the use of the BSCS ViSTA module.
BSCS ViSTA presents teaching strategies that transcend all subject areas. Although some of the teaching strategies in BSCS ViSTA are specific to science teaching, the majority of strategies can be used in all subject areas taught at the elementary and middle school grades. These strategies can be used in all discipline areas and each teaching strategy is based on existing education research and literature.
BSCS ViSTA is cost-effective. Currently the cost to use one module for one semester (16 weeks) is $15 per teacher-user. Since each module accounts for approximately 30 hours, the cost per learning hour is only $0. 50 (plus facilitator or instructor time)! BSCS ViSTA is an incredibly low-cost program to implement even if a school district hires highly qualified facilitators, an idea that BSCS strongly supports.
BSCS ViSTA works. Research has shown that the use of BSCS ViSTA improves teachers’ content knowledge and their abilities to analysis teaching and learning. Click here to read research study results presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST).
BSCS ViSTA - Plants
Objectives of the Plants Module
We hope that the three objectives of this ViSTA module will be useful to you in field experience activities, education courses, science courses, during student teaching or intern experiences, and throughout your teaching career. The module will support you in:
Learning to analyze science teaching and learning through two lenses: the Student Thinking Lens and the Science Content Storyline Lens
Learning about science teaching strategies that make student thinking visible and that help create a coherent science content storyline
Deepening your science content knowledge of plants
Organization of the Plants Module
The key ideas that are emphasized throughout this module are lesson analysis, the Student Thinking Lens, the Science Content Storyline Lens, and teaching strategies to support these two lenses. The study of videocases and science content are organized into four parts or folders. The first two folders focus on science content ideas about (a) food for plants and (b) seeds and growth. In these folders, you have opportunities to use the Student Thinking and Science Content Storyline Lenses to analyze videos of science teaching, to learn teaching strategies to challenge student thinking and improve the science content storyline, and to deepen your science content understanding. The third folder focuses on inquiry in science classrooms, and the final folder is a place to practice applying your new knowledge in a variety of ways, including thinking about standards and connecting the BSCS ViSTA teaching strategies to your own teaching ideas.
The Plants module features two classrooms:
a first-grade classroom in which students are learning about seeds and plant growth
a fifth-grade classroom in which students are learning about photosynthesis
BSCS ViSTA - Electricity
Objectives of the Electricity Module
We hope that the three objectives of this ViSTA module will be useful to you in field experience activities, education courses, science courses, during student teaching or intern experiences, and throughout your teaching career. The module will support you in:
Learning to analyze science teaching and learning through two lenses: the Student Thinking Lens and the Science Content StorylineLens,
Learning about science teaching strategies that make student thinking visible and that help create a coherent science content storyline, and
Deepening your science content knowledge of electricity.
Organization of the Electricity Module
The key ideas that are emphasized throughout this module are lesson analysis, the Student Thinking Lens, the Science Content Storyline Lens, and teaching strategies to support these two lenses. The remainder of the videocases and science content are organized into four parts, or "folders." The first two folders focus on science content ideas about (a) current electricity and simple circuits and (b) series and parallel circuits. In these folders, there are opportunities to use the student thinking and science content storyline lenses to analyze videos of science teaching, to learn teaching strategies to challenge student thinking and improve the science content storyline, and to deepen your science content understanding. The third folder focuses on inquiry in science classrooms, and the final folder is a place to practice applying your new knowledge in a variety of ways, including thinking about standards and connecting the BSCS ViSTA teaching strategies to your own teaching ideas.
The Electricity module features two classrooms:
two fourth-grade classrooms in which students are learning about simple, series, and parallel circuits
BSCS ViSTA - Water Cycle
Objectives of the Water Cycle Module
We hope that the three objectives of this ViSTA module will be useful to you in field experience activities, education courses, science courses, during student teaching or intern experiences, and throughout your teaching career. The module will support you in:
Learning to analyze science teaching and learning through two lenses: the Student Thinking Lens and the Science Content Storyline Lens,
Learning about science teaching strategies that make student thinking visible and that help create a coherent science content storyline, and
Deepening your science content knowledge of the water cycle.
Organization of the Water Cycle Module
The goals and key ideas emphasized throughout the module are lesson analysis, the Student Thinking Lens, the Science Content Storyline Lens, and teaching strategies to support these two lenses. The study of videocases and science content are organized into four parts, or folders. The first two folders focus on science content ideas about (a) evaporation and condensation and (b) the water cycle. In these folders, you have opportunities to use the Student Thinking and Science Content Storyline Lenses to analyze videos of science teaching, to learn teaching strategies to challenge student thinking and improve the science content storyline, and to deepen your science content understanding. The third folder focuses on inquiry in science classrooms, and the final folder is a place to practice applying your new knowledge in a variety of ways, including thinking about standards and connecting the BSCS ViSTA teaching strategies to your own teaching ideas.
The Water Cycle module features two classrooms:
a third-grade classroom in which students are learning to use the ideas of evaporation and condensation to explain cloud formation
a fifth-grade classroom in which students are learning to explain the water cycle using ideas about evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and molecules
BSCS ViSTA - Force & Motion
Objectives of the Force and Motion Module
We hope that the three objectives of this ViSTA module will be useful to you in field experience activities, education courses, science courses, during student teaching or intern experiences, and throughout your teaching career. The module will support you in
learning to analyze science teaching and learning through two lenses: the Student Thinking Lens and the Science Content Storyline Lens,
learning about science teaching strategies that make student thinking visible and that help create a coherent science content storyline, and
deepening your science content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge about force and motion.
Organization of the Force and Motion Module
The goals and key ideas emphasized throughout this module are lesson analysis, the Student Thinking Lens, the Science Content Storyline Lens, and teaching strategies to support these two lenses. The study of videocases and science content are organized into four sections. The first two sections focus on science content ideas about (a) motion and (b) force. In these sections, you have opportunities to use the Student Thinking and Science Content Storyline Lenses to analyze videos of science teaching, to learn teaching strategies to challenge student thinking and improve the science content storyline, and to deepen your science content understanding. The third section of the module focuses on inquiry in science classrooms, and the final section is a place to practice applying your new knowledge in a variety of ways, including thinking about standards and connecting the BSCS ViSTA teaching strategies to your own teaching ideas.
The Force and Motion module features two classrooms:
a first-grade classroom in which students are learning about force and motion
an eighth-grade classroom in which students are learning about Newton's Second and Third Laws
BSCS ViSTA - Inquiry
Objectives of the Inquiry Module
We hope that the three objectives of this ViSTA module will be useful to you in education courses, science courses, during student teaching or intern experiences, and throughout your teaching career. The module will support you in:
Learning to analyze science teaching and learning through two lenses: the Student Thinking Lens and the Science Content Storyline Lens,
Learning about science teaching strategies that make student thinking visible and that help create a coherent science content storyline, and
Deepening your knowledge about scientific inquiry.
Organization of the Inquiry Module
The main goals and key ideas emphasized throughout this module are lesson analysis, the Student Thinking Lens, the Science Content Storyline Lens, teaching strategies to support these two lenses, and the question, What is Inquiry? You will also explore different aspects of inquiry science teaching as you examine video excerpts from various classrooms. Your observations will follow a group of second and third graders as they progress through a series of four lessons about decomposition taught by Ms. Roth. Each lesson highlights a different aspect of scientific inquiry and practice and is addressed in a separate folder. In each folder, you will encounter analysis tasks that challenge you to deepen your understanding of one aspect of scientific inquiry. Each folder also provides the opportunity to compare the inquiry teaching in Ms. Roth's classroom with other classrooms, ranging from first through eighth grade. A final folder challenges you to apply your growing understanding of inquiry science teaching as you consider how to plan inquiry science lessons.
The Inquiry module is unique among the BSCS ViSTA modules because it focuses on deepening teachers’ understanding about inquiry science teaching through examination of nine different K–8 classrooms:
second and third graders investigating decomposition
first graders studying about seeds and growth
first graders studying about force and motion
second graders exploring sound
third graders thinking about how clouds are formed
fourth graders studying about electricity
fifth graders learning about plants' making of food
fifth graders examining what happens when water evaporates and condenses
eighth graders learning about force and motion
BSCS ViSTA is an online, videocase based resource for teacher learning.
Each of the five available content-specific modules (Plants, Electricity, Water Cycle, Force and Motion, and Inquiry) features videocases that include student written work, student interview clips, and classroom video. Click the Program Tour link above to learn more about each of the modules.
BSCS ViSTA is designed to be facilitated and can be used in preservice teacher methods courses or inservice professional development programs.
BSCS ViSTA modules are online, videocase-based materials designed to support teacher learning in preservice teacher education courses or in-service professional development programs. Each module represents approximately 30 hours of learning time. Learn more about the five content-focused BSCS ViSTA modules (Plants, Electricity, Water Cycle, Force and Motion, and Inquiry) using the Program Tour link above.
Access to review one module for 14 days is free to instructors and professional development providers. To use a module, instructors and professional development providers need to register a course, and teacher-users pay $15 per semester for use of each module for one semester.
Why BSCS ViSTA?
Videocase-Based Modules
The BSCS ViSTA modules deepen teacher learning using videocases for structured analysis of and reflection on science content. Each of the five BSCS ViSTA content-specific modules features content-focused videocases that include student written work, student interview clips, and classroom video. By focusing on one content area, teachers develop rich content and pedagogical content knowledge about that content – the kind of deep understanding science teachers need in order to effectively teach science.
Program Conceptual Framework
BSCS ViSTA uses a conceptual framework that focuses on two lenses that teachers typically do not use to analyze their own teaching (the Student Thinking Lens and the Science Content Storyline Lens) and on a limited set of core science teaching practices that support these lenses. By focusing on the two lenses and carefully selected key teaching strategies, teachers develop a depth-of-understanding of effective teaching practice and teaching analysis.
Learning Teaching Analysis
Just as K-8 students need to be explicitly taught about the practices of scientists, BSCS ViSTA provides the learning teachers need in order to be more analytical about their practice. Using the lenses and a clearly defined and taught lesson analysis process and protocol, teachers analyze BSCS ViSTA videos with carefully structured discussion tasks.
Instructional Approach
Each BSCS ViSTA module is designed around situated cognition theory and features a coherent set of tasks that supports teacher learning across time. The structure of the modules scaffolds teacher learning and emphasize the importance of learning in the context of teaching. Teachers first learn about one of the teaching strategies simply by identifying it in a video clip, and then they analyze what student learning was made visible by use of the strategy.
Using BSCS ViSTA
BSCS ViSTA is an accessible, scalable, and cost-effective teacher-learning program that can be used in a variety of contexts:
as a resource in a teacher education methods course,
as a stand-alone professional development course,
as an online seminar with small groups of preservice or in-service teachers, or
as part of a professional development program supporting a large number of teachers across an entire school district.
BSCS ViSTA Research Study
A research study of the modules involving 30 universities compared preservice teachers’ learning in methods courses where a ViSTA module was used with courses at the same universities where no VISTA module was used. The results showed that, compared with control teachers, preservice teachers using a ViSTA module showed greater pre-post course improvement in their science content knowledge and in their ability to analyze science teaching in terms of student thinking and the science content storyline. Click here to read the research study results, presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST).
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL-0957996. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
BSCS is genuine and passionate in their quest to develop and help implement effective, inquiry-based materials. Additionally, BSCS provides authentic and continuous professional development that helps develop teachers as learners and facilitators in order to increase student learning in the science classroom.
Objectives of the Electricity Module
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