Teaching Science Thinking: Using Scientific Reasoning in the Classroom

• Recognizing patterns,
• Inventing new hypotheses based on observations,
• Separating causes from correlations,
• Determining relevant variables and isolating them,
• Testing hypotheses, and
• Thinking about their own thinking and the relative value of evidence.

Christopher Moore is the Dr. George F. Haddix Community Chair in Physical Science and associate professor of physics education at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Holding a M.S. in applied physics and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr. Moore has worked as a physical science teacher at several secondary schools in Virginia, as a professional materials scientist, and as a scholar of and consultant on science education. His education research focuses on the development of scientific reasoning and expert-like science practice abilities, with emphasis on practices that cross disciplines. He is author of the book Creating Scientists: Teaching and Assessing Science Practice for the NGSS, as well as dozens of articles for scholarly and practitioner journals. He has developed pre- and in-service teacher training workshops on scientific reasoning for school districts across the USA and internationally.