Freezing Lake Phenomenon

Someone shares a peculiar story: While hiking in your region, they saw a pair of lakes separated by only one small ridge but with very different ice cover. One was covered completely in ice, while the other's surface was only liquid water, rippling from a breeze. They ask, "What could have caused this difference?" Using phenomena like this can help students generate questions, evaluate information, and construct explanations to make sense of local systems and consequently build deep, lasting, and relevant understandings. This type of learning simultaneously fosters scientific literacy in terms of skills, connections, and habits of mind that support meaningful and critical engagement with local and global communities. One professional development (PD) program modeled this approach for a community of learners from a rural Western state, using strategies that supported three dimensional science learning and then supporting teachers in translating the strategies into their own classrooms. Here, Harvey et al explore that PD program and one teacher's reflections on translating the experience into her own classroom.