国际学校科学篇

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这是“我们只谈K12"第二十六篇原创文章，欢迎转发分享，未经公众号授权请勿转载。

龚老师说：接上次两篇关于国际学校数学的文章，见《国际学校之数学篇-学生分享》《国际学校数学篇》（点击蓝色部分即可阅读），今天来和大家聊聊国际学校里科学这门课程。给大家邀请到的是与我一起共事过的曾任某帝都国际学校的科学主管Romy Friedman，她将和大家分享她在中国本土的国际学校教科学的一些体会。下面内容以访谈形式展开。

Note from Helen: Following the last two articles on Maths course at international school

《国际学校之数学篇-学生分享》《国际学校数学篇》(click the blue ones and you can read directly), today I've invited one of my previous colleagues Romy Friedman, who used to be the Head of Science at an international school at Beijing. Romy is going to share some of her thoughts and experience as a science teacher with all of us. The following content is conducted via Q&A format.

文章 Romy Friedman / 编辑&翻译  龚琴(Helen)

Q1: Introduce yourself a little bit (your academic background, teaching experience, etc)介绍一下你自己吧（学术背景，教学经验等）

Regarding academics, I first got a Bachelor of Science from McGill University. I was lucky to get a chance to carry out a lot of scientific research through working in a Biochemistry laboratory over one summer as well as completing my honours project in the Shriners Hospital for Sick Children. Through this project I got to work with a professor assisting in her research into the enzymes that break down cartilage leading to diseases like osteoarthritis. Having this experience in two different laboratories has really helped me be able to teach. I can talk about how science is done in the real world leading to improvements in our lives, but also better guide students through such this as their Extended Essay – an original research paper they complete in the Diplomma Programme.  I have taught the IBO in three different schools in three countries: Germany, Uganda and China. It has been amazing to see how different schools approach the same program given their different contexts. 

在学术方面，我毕业于McGill 大学，获得科学学士学位。在此期间的一次暑假，我很幸运得到了一个在生物化学实验室做很多科学研究的机会，同时我也完成了在Shriners医院针对某类患病儿童的荣誉项目。在此项目中，我是一位大学教授的助理，帮助其研究某类生化酶，这些酶能破坏人体软骨结构从而造成诸如骨关节炎之类的疾病。在两个不同的研究室里工作的经历，很好的帮助了我日后的教学。我得以与学生分享科学是如何在现实世界中改进与我们息息相关的生活的体会。除此，我也能更好的指导学生如何进行拓展论文(extended essay)的写作-这是学生为取得国际文凭必须完成的一项原创研究论文。我分别在三个不同国家的国际学校工作过，分别为德国，乌干达以及中国，这使得我能够对比不同学校鉴于自身情况的不同是如何应对相同国际教育体系的。

Once I decided to pursue teaching I attended Trent University for my Bachelor of Education. Most recently, after four years of teaching, I went back to complete my Masters of Arts in Science Education at the University of British Columbia. My thesis was titled: "Exploring the status of science outreach in science teaching". It looked at ways to bring scientists into the classroom or get involved in the teaching of science. 

后来，我决定从事教学。我为此在特伦特大学拿到了我的教育学位。近些年，经过四年的教学后，我又在英属哥伦比亚大学完成了我的文科硕士，主攻科学教育。我的研究论文是“探索科学研究在科学教育中的地位”，主要是研究将科学家带入日常教学课堂或让他们也参与到科学教学中来的不同方式。

Q2. How do you like the IB teaching philosophy? What do you think of the biggest differences between Canadian local education system and IB system? Can you give some more specific examples about this? (e.g some case studies in the subject area you teach) 你对IB教育理念如何看？你觉得IB教育体系与加拿大地方教育体系最大的不同是什么？能给我们一些具体的例子吗？

I very much like the IB teaching philosophy. So much so, that if I do have children I would definitely want them to be in this system, especially the Diplomma Programme (DP). There are two differences that I have noticed the most. The first is obviously the emphasis on internationalism and a global society. One example of this is the new element for the 2015 guide called The Nature of Science. It looks at contributions various scientists around the world have made, but also looks at how global cooperation is important in science; for example, the Human Genome Project and the International Space Station. I think the program emphasises the importance of living in a world where individual and country’s choices affect us all – for example, emissions leading to global warming. 

我很喜欢IB教学的理念，以至于将来如果我自己有小孩了，我也绝对希望我的孩子能在这样一套体系下接受教育，尤其是十一、十二年级的国际文凭课程。就你提到的问题，我注意到有两个很明显的不同。第一是IB更强调国际化及全球视角。比如，就我的学科而言，2015年教学大纲里增加了一个新的部分，叫科学的本质。它不仅要求学生探索迄今为止全世界不同科学家所作出的贡献，而且需要理解在科学界，科学家们在全球范围内合作的重要性，例如人类基因组计划及国际空间站。我觉得这门课程强调个人及国家的选择是如何影响到我们每个人的，比如，汽车尾气排放会导致全球变暖。

The second difference is about how we learn or understand. I very much love the course, Theory of Knowledge for the DP where students engage in exploring how we learn or understand things. For science, this is about sense perception and collecting data. This links to students understanding how scientific data is collected, allowing them to better design experiments and process and analyze their data. I think I feel so strongly about this as I only moved to Canada at age six (immigrating from South Africa). However, I must say that I feel the public education system in Canada is great. I actually graduated from a public high school and thought it prepared me for university and life very well. It is interesting to see that many public schools in Canada are now offering the DP as an option for students in high school.

第二个不同是我们如何学习或理解事物。我很喜欢DP里的认识论这门课程，它就是帮助学生探索我们如何学习或理解事物的一门课。就科学课而言，有很大程度上与感官感知及数据收集有关。这个会帮助学生理解科学数据是如何被收集的，反过来会有助于学生自己更好设计实验，加工并分析相关数据。我对此感受尤其强烈，是从我六岁那年随家人一起从南非移民到加拿大开始。尽管这样，我仍然觉得加拿大的公立教育系统也是非常棒的。我自己就是从公立学校高中毕业，它对我后来在适应大学以及生活的方方面面都颇有帮助。有趣的是，加拿大越来越多的公立学校正开始开设国际文凭课程供高中生选择。

Q3. Having stayed in Beijing for a couple of years, what are some of the interesting things you find in students? (can be good things and bad things)在北京呆了好几年，在学生身上，你发现的有趣点？（好的？坏的？）

Taking lessons and trying to learn Chinese myself was actually one of the biggest helps to me in understanding my Chinese students. I realized why they struggle with things such as punctuation or capitalization. For example, science is very specific. For measurements, “Mm” and “mm” are two very different things. I often correct students for things like “pH”. At the same time, when trying to learn the characters, I realize how much memorization and work goes into it. I can appreciate why students have the patience and ability to work hard and memorize things. 

通过我自己学中文以后，我发现这是帮助我了解我的中国学生的最好方式之一。我开始明白为什么他们会比较挣扎于英文里的标点符号或者大小写。比如，科学这门课是一门非常严谨具体的课，尤其在测量方面，”Mm（亚甲霉素的简称）”和“mm（毫米）”是两个完全不同的概念。我经常需要更正学生诸如“pH”这样的问题。与此同时，我通过学汉字，了解到学生需要付出多少记忆和努力在其中，我开始理解并佩服我的学生们为什么会有如此大的耐心和能力去努力学习并记忆所学内容。

Another interesting thing, was experiencing how motivated and aware the students are.I was spoiled working in Beijing because my students are so respectful and grateful. This could be international schools in general or just China, but I felt that there was definitely an appreciation for learning. I am Jewish and the culture I am from is one that very much places a value on learning. I think this is true for the Chinese too. Students worked hard, putting in a lot of time and effort into their studies and always demonstrated an appreciation for the efforts I put into their learning too. 

另一个有趣点是亲历学生学习的主动性。我感觉自己在北京工作，像是被老天爷宠爱一样，因为我的学生非常尊敬并感激我所做的工作。我不知道是否因为这是在国际学校或者说是在整个中国，但是我确实感觉到人们是学习是怀有敬意的。我是犹太人，我们的文化里也非常重视学习的价值，我想中国人也是。学生们努力学习，花很多时间和精力在学习上，对于老师的工作他们也同样报以感激。

Q4. Do you know anything about the local education system in China? Especially the differences in terms of the subject you teach and the subject taught in China? 

你有机会了解中国当地的教育体系吗？尤其就你自己所教的学科而言？ 

I was lucky to meet and interact with some local science teachers in Beijing. In particular, we had a visiting scholar come to visit the school and my classroom and it was interesting to talk to her. I also met many expats teaching in international sections of local schools so I got to compare the systems. I personally found the biggest difference is in the laboratory or practical, hands-on experiments. Students coming into the international IB system from local schools very much struggled with this, especially when they had to design their own experiment. I found that they were excellent in theory but sometimes struggled to translate that into the real world. 

我在北京教课的时候，很幸运能见到当地的一些教科学的老师，并与他们互动。特别值得一提的是，我们有时会有一些访问学者来我们学校参观，进到老师们的课堂里。我的课堂也迎来了一些老师，和他们交谈是一件很有趣的事。除此之外，我在这个圈子里也遇见了一些在本地学校的国际部教科学的外国老师，通过他们，我也得以比较一些其中的不同。就我个人而言，我觉得科学这门课最大的不同点还是体现在实验室里，或者说实际操作，要亲手做的实验。有相当一些学生从本地学校转过来后，试图融入IB这个体系时，会觉得这点会比较有难度，尤其是当他们需要自己设计实验时，这种挑战就更大。他们绝大多数在理论上非常优秀，但是有时会受困于如何将理论应用到现实世界中去。

They often needed help with problem solving or trouble shooting when things didn’t go as expected or planned.  Actually, most students find designing their own experiments the most challenging part of the course. As a teacher, I find that sitting down with the student and getting them to talk through their thoughts and ideas, helps us to put it down and organize their thinking. Once they have gotten started, it is less overwhelming and they are able to proceed. As a teacher, I have to always see a first draft of the design to ensure it is safe and appropriate. Students have told me that getting feedback on this first draft really helps them to improve, both their actual experiment, but also the written laboratory report itself. Though very time consuming for both studnets and teachers, the process of going through this design cycle, including reflecting on the lab in the evaluation,  is extremely beneficial. I think it is a strength to the IB programme. 

当实验没有像预期/计划的发生而出现问题时，他们往往会需要帮助。实际上，很多学生觉得设计他们自己的实验是课程中最为挑战的部分。作为老师，我发现坐下来与学生讨论他们的想法，有助于将观点罗列出来，从而助其对自己的观点做出整理。一旦学生们开始了这个过程，后面的就不会显得那么令人生畏了，从而得以继续前进。作为老师，我每次都需要阅读学生设计方案的第一稿，以确保试验的安全及合适度。学生们也往往会反馈给我，这样的做法能真的帮助他们进步，不仅是实验本身，而且也有助于实验报告的撰写。这样做，对于师生双方来讲，都是一件很耗时间的事情，但走过这样的一个过程，包括对实验评估本身的反思，都是极为有益的，我想这也是IB项目的一个优势。

Q5. Do you have any advice/suggestion to both teachers and students in China in order to be better prepared for our current world?对于中国学生/老师，就如何准备好迎接我们现在的世界，你有什么想说的吗？

Actually I think just living in Beijing is good preparation for the current world. It’s a fast-paced life, and Beijing, China in general, is undergoing a lot of change at the moment. I think it prepares you for the good, but also the bad. With technology and other regards, our world is changing at a fast pace and that is clear in Beijing. It is a big city and you have access to so much; so many people of various nationalities, different food and available experiences. I also think it makes you realize what life is like with the world’s population increasing so much. Both the good, but also what that means in respect to resources, such as housing (land) and pollution. My advice is just to get involved in as many things as possible - take advantages of opportunities and talk to as many different people as you can. I think making connection and understanding people from various backgrounds, in my opinion, is what best prepares you for the future in a time when change is happening so fast.   

我觉得住在北京本身就是一种很好的准备。这是一个节奏非常快的城市，或者说整个中国都如此，它正经历很多变化。它给人们带来好的东西，也有不好的。随着科技的发展，我们的世界在不断改变，这点在北京感受尤其颇深。这是一个如此大的城市，资源如此丰富，不同国籍，不同民族，不同食物以及等待人们去体验的各种机会。我想这同时也使人们意识到随着世界人口的迅速增长，生活又会呈现出一种什么样的状态。这些都是好的方面，但同时也要意识到资源丰富的同时，又有其有限性，比如因此带来的住房及污染问题。我的建议是尽可能多的投入到各种事情当中去，抓住多样的机会并尽可能与更多的人交流。我认为在一个变化如此快速的时代，为未来做的最好准备就是学会与这个世界连接，理解不同背景下的人们。

Q6. I know you've established your own website for students' learning interest. Can you introduce a bit more about that? How does it go so far? What's your plan next?我知道为了方便学生的学习，你建立了一个自己的网站。能否介绍一下？现在进展如何？下一步的计划是什么？

It has been great so far. I have been surprised by how many teachers and even some students around the world contact me, having found me through my website; I love receiving emails unexpectedly. It also led to a job preparing resources for Kerboodle, an IB online platform by Oxford University Press. I had no idea the positive responses I would get when I created my website so I am very happy with how it has gone. 

这个网站目前为止很不错，事实上，我惊讶于会有如此多来自世界不同角落的老师及学生们通过我的网站联系我。我喜欢收到意外的邮件，而且通过这个，我开始为一个叫Kerboodle的IB网上平台提供资源，这个平台由牛津大学出版社运营。

The idea was to post my own resources, and others (or links) so that there could be one place to go to for many resources for the 2015 guide. Right now, I have only posted resources for a few units. The plan is to continue to post and update the site. I also want to make the presentations into videos so I can upload these to YouTube. This is definitely the plan. 

我最初的想法是将我所有的资料以及其他一些教学链接都放在一个地方，这样好为2015教学大纲作准备。现在，我只上传了几个单元的资料。计划当然是持续上传其他资料并不断更新网站。同时，我也想将一些上课的情景录制成视频并上传到youtube，这绝对是计划之一。

好吧，今天的采访结束。大家有什么想法或问题，欢迎在下面留言喔。