Collins- Scientific Thinking

What stood out to me the most from the reading by Collins, "What's Worth Learning: That School Won't Teach You", was the overall theme that everyone needs to understand scientific reasoning. The reading delves into the goals of science and the hallmark ideas that all scientists use. The scientific method is explained and the concepts of objectivity, reproducibility and sharing raw data are introduced as norms for progress in science. Having spent the last 6 years working in a lab I can completely understand the importance of the scientific method as well as the norms mentioned. Without these concepts, I don't think research would have progressed as well as it has. Even more important though, the purpose of this chapter is to relay the importance of these concepts in scientific teaching. These concepts can be applied to any problem and really do set up a foundation for efficiently and effectively answering any question.
This chapter also discussed different types of scientific models that are used by all different professions. The three main types of models (structural, causal and behavioral) can be further broken down and these models are wonderful teaching tools for students. Getting students to decide which model is appropriate and then implementing it would be a key teaching method for my students. As a scientist myself, I have used many of the modeling types mentioned in the reading. I can see using them in my classroom and look forward to using them to engage my students to think critically. Integrating models into the classroom is a lot easier than I think most teachers know. I also think students learn so much more from building models than they would otherwise. This article talks about integrating models in a different way than I would have thought. Instead of talking about models individually, this article talks about how to combine models, linking models together to form even larger models is what scientist do every day. It is easy to find a linear relationship, it is not always easy to understand how a web of proteins interact and regulate each other. I like that this article discusses this aspect of model building. It emphasizes the importance of drawing connections and I think that is one of the most important things for a teacher to look for in their students. If students are able to connect different concepts then they must understand them. As teachers, that is what we are looking for.