RESEARCH TRENDS IN SCIENCE TEACHING

1. Enumerate at least 3 latest research trends in science teaching today that you know. Explain how these trends affect
you as an educator. Elaborate your point.

a. From Textbooks to Modules: At every level, we see curriculum developer’s preference for modules. Modules offer flexibility
necessary to serve the widely varying needs of individual students, teachers and school systems.

b. Online/Virtual Teaching and Learning- The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered new ways of learning. All around the world,
educational institutions are looking toward online learning platforms to continue with the process of educating students. The new normal
now is a transformed concept of education with online learning at the core of this transformation. Today, digital learning has emerged
as a necessary resource for students and schools all over the world. For many educational institutes, this is an entirely new way of
education that they have had to adopt. Online learning is now applicable not just to learn academics but it also extends to learning
extracurricular activities for students as well. Online learning offers teachers an efficient way to deliver lessons to students. Online
learning has a number of tools such as videos, PDFs, podcasts, and teachers can use all these tools as part of their lesson plans. By
extending the lesson plan beyond traditional textbooks to include online resources, teachers are able to become more efficient
educators.

c. STEAM Curriculum we may be familiar with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) curriculum and how it prepares
students to enter the workforce with practical, high-demand skills. But adding the arts alongside these subjects (thus creating STEAM:
STEM plus arts) can improve our students’ academic performance.

For example, adding art assignments to science and math lessons can help low-achieving students understand STEM subjects better.
And it improves creativity—a useful skill for any academic subject. STEAM curriculum is shown to provide students with a more well-
rounded and practical education than STEM alone.

2. Enumerate at least 3 latest scientific discoveries that are relevant to your major or field of expertise and explain how
you can use the said discoveries in your profession.

a. The decade has seen numerous advances in understanding our complex origin story, including new dates on known fossils,
spectacularly complete fossil skulls, and the addition of multiple new branches. In 2010, National Geographic explorer-at-large Lee
Berger unveiled a distant ancestor named Australopithecus sediba. Five years later, he announced that South Africa’s Cradle of
Humankind cave system contained fossils of a new species: Homo naledi, a hominin whose “mosaic” anatomy resembles that of both
modern humans and far more ancient cousins. A follow-up study also showed that H. naledi is surprisingly young, living at least
between 236,000 and 335,000 years ago.

Other remarkable discoveries piled up in Asia. In 2010, a team announced that DNA pulled from an ancient Siberian pinky bone was
unlike any modern human’s, the first evidence of a shadowy lineage now called the Denisovans. In 2018, a site in China yielded 2.1-
million-year-old stone tools, confirming that toolmakers spread into Asia hundreds of thousands of years earlier than once thought. In
2019, researchers in the Philippines announced fossils of Homo luzonensis, a new type of hominin similar to Homo floresiensis, the
“hobbit” of Flores. And newfound stone tools on Sulawesi predate modern humans’ arrival, which suggests the presence of a third,
unidentified island hominin in Southeast Asia.

b. Revolutionizing the study of ancient DNA

As DNA sequencing technologies have improved exponentially, the past decade has seen huge leaps in understanding how our
genetic past shapes modern humans. In 2010, researchers published the first near-complete genome from an ancient Homo sapiens,
kicking off a revolutionary decade in the study of our ancestors’ DNA. Since then, more than 3,000 ancient genomes have been
sequenced, including the DNA of Naia, a girl who died in what is now Mexico 13,000 years ago. Her remains are among the oldest
intact human skeletons ever found in the Americas. Also in 2010, researchers announced the first draft of a Neanderthal genome,
providing the first solid genetic evidence that one to four percent of all modern non-Africans’ DNA comes from these close relatives.

c. In response to the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, public health officials and the pharmaceutical company Merck fast-
tracked rVSV-ZEBOV, an experimental Ebola vaccine. After a highly successful field trial in 2015, European officials approved the
vaccine in 2019—a milestone in the fight against the deadly disease. Several landmark studies also opened new avenues to prevent
the spread of HIV. A 2011 trial showed that preventatively taking antiretroviral drugs greatly reduced the spread of HIV among
heterosexual couples, a finding confirmed in follow-up studies that included same-sex couples.
Learning these major discoveries in science is very relevant in my teaching profession because I will be updated to the trends in
science. I will be able to share some of my knowledge to my students that is not found on their old books or references.

3. In what way do you think the knowledge that you will obtain in this course (Research Trends in Science Teaching)
become useful to your teaching career? Elaborate your answer.

è Research Trends in Science Teaching is a very useful course for us educators, especially on my part because I am a Science
Teacher. As a teacher, there is a need for us to remain updated and abreast of the ongoing trends in research globally and also
nationally. In order for us to be effective, we must keep up-to-date with constant changes in educational research. There are frequent
changes in Science teaching that affects the teaching and learning environment. We need to keep in pace with these new
developments or trends in order for us to promote quality education.

4. What are your expectations for this 2nd Semester’s Research Trend in Science Teaching class?

è My expectations for this 2nd Semester’s Research Trend in Science Teaching class are to gain knowledge about the new trends in
Science teaching that would be useful in my teaching career and to have an interesting and memorable online/virtual class along the
way.

5. How do you intend to learn Research Trends in Science Teaching this semester? Will you commit to focus your mind
and forget about other things for a while just for you to make this course a memorable and fruitful one? If yes, support your
claim. If No explain why.

è Despite this pandemic that we are facing, I still choose to enroll this course because I want to learn and apply my learnings on my
teaching career. I will commit myself to focus my mind and forget about other things for awhile just to make this course a memorable
and fruitful one because to be a great teacher, we must be a good student.