The Tipping Point

In this virtual workshop, we will review strategies for how to facilitate The Tipping Point Data Puzzle in your middle and high school science classrooms. Participants will engage with the teaching materials (teacher guide, slide deck, student worksheet, and answer key) from both the teacher and student perspective and upon completion, be prepared to implement the Data Puzzle in their classroom.

Participants seeking a 3-hour PD certificate from the University of Colorado Boulder for completing The Tipping Point virtual PD should submit their answers to the questions/tasks below using this Google Form. 

Please email jonathan.griffith@colorado.edu when you have submitted your Google Form.

The Data Puzzle includes three main components, it is important to understand the differences between the materials. BEFORE you dive into the virtual workshop, please complete the following tasks:

• Open the teacher guide. Note that the teacher provides some short facilitation tips and some additional materials you can use to differentiate the curriculum.
• Flip through the slide deck. Note that the opening scenario is only on the slides, not on the student worksheet. 
• Print the student worksheet. Note that the student worksheet has the background reading and space for students’ models.

Now that you understand the goal of the Eliciting Students’ Ideas practice and have heard some tips about how to facilitate the opening scenario, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by reflecting on the opening scenario and “Stop and Think” questions below.

After bringing out student resources about the opening scenario, it’s important to help students make connections between the opening scenario and the science investigation they are about to engage with in the Data Puzzle. Embedded in the slide deck are specific discussion prompts to help students make these connections and a slide (see below) that introduces the “plant doctors” featured in the Data Puzzle who have been measuring the vital signs of a tundra plant, moss campion, for more than 20 years.

It's time to learn more about the featured scientists’ research by engaging with the interactive reading as part of the next practice, “Identifying Important Science Ideas".

Now that you understand the goal of the Identifying Important Science Ideas practice and have heard some facilitation strategies, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by completing a series of tasks and reflecting on the “Stop and Think” questions below.

It's time to test your prediction for the investigative question by analyzing and interpreting a dataset collected by the featured scientist(s) as part of the “Supporting Ongoing Changes In Thinking" practice.

Now that you understand the goal of the Supporting Ongoing Changes in Thinking practice and have heard some facilitation strategies, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by completing a series of tasks and reflecting on the “Stop and Think” questions below.

Analyzing data is understandably a challenging task for many students, especially when they themselves have not collected the dataset.  What does a point on a graph represent? What do the axes mean? It’s important for students to be able to answer these and other questions BEFORE they are asked to identify patterns in a dataset.

Average reproduction rates of moss campion plants from four field sites across a temperature gradient. Average temperatures in July tend to be the hottest in Northern Hemisphere tundra ecosystems; thus, measuring moss campion vital rates in July can give scientists a good estimate of the hottest temperatures that these plants can survive and thrive in. The data shown in the graph below was collected by Dan, Megan, and Bill.

We recommend creating a list of Back Pocket Questions (BPQ) that you could use as you move from table to table to help students focus on the task, recall earlier class discussions about a particular science idea, or to challenge students to connect any patterns they’ve identified back to the investigative question. See this practice document (page #4) for example BPQs.

Now that you understand the goal of the Constructing Evidence-Based Explanations practice and have heard some facilitation strategies, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by completing a series of tasks and reflecting on the “Stop and Think” questions below.

After gathering evidence (interactive reading and moss campion data interpretation), it’s time for students to construct a final model to explain the investigative question, “How is moss campion reproduction affected by temperature?” But what even is a model? If your students have not constructed a model in your classroom, use the slide deck to introduce the concept of a scientific model and to facilitate a discussion around what should be included in a model and what a model should look like.

• Slide Deck link

After students construct their final models for the investigative question, we challenge students to apply these new science ideas to new situations (e.g., social justice issues, climate solutions, or related phenomena) through a “Digging Deeper” question(s). We encourage you, the facilitator, to use these questions as is or adapt them to connect to topics you’ve previously covered in class or other local phenomena.

Review the “Additional Teacher Materials and Extensions” section on the last page of the teacher guide for more information about the work presented in The Tipping Point Data Puzzle and extension materials related to other climate tipping points.

The Tipping Point Data Puzzle is NOT intended to be an activity that is distributed to the student to be completed as homework. Instead, it is meant to be a collaborative effort by the teacher and students to make sense of new science phenomena. Before implementing The Tipping Point Data Puzzle in your classroom it’s important to review all of the materials available to you (teacher guide, answer key, slide deck) and to be prepared to facilitate lots of small group and whole class discussions!