AN INTRODUCTION TO
AN INTRODUCTION TO
SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY IN GRADE NINE
By Doug Jones with Cindy Kaplanis
[Draft – Copyright held by authors – Permission to copy and use given to Thames Valley District School Board and Lakehead Public Schools]
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Acknowledgements
• I am indebted to my great friend, mentor and former science chair Karen Walker for creating the M. K. Walker consulting material. She was a fantastic teacher and leader throughout her entire career. Her gift was an ability to inspire and motivate those around her … some of them in spite of themselves. Karen was also responsible for getting that first group of biology teachers to evening meetings to figure out how to tackle those “design and perform” curriculum expectations from the old document. I’m so glad our personal and private lives crossed paths.
• Wayne Bilbrough was my associate teacher when I began as a student teacher. Later he was my department head and mentor for many years and will always be a special friend. Wayne opened my eyes to alternative ways of teaching and taught me most of what I know about being a curriculum and people leader. Wayne’s work was the platform from which the rest of the generic scientific inquiry template evolved. Even in retirement, Wayne still finds time to judge our culminating performances. My one hope is that I will be as effective and sought after in my last semester as Wayne was in his.
• Bob Hartley is now retired but was an outstanding biology teacher at Sir Winston Churchill when I first started there. Bob is a past chairman of the Lakehead Conservation Authority and author of an applied biology textbook that was widely sold. I have never forgotten his adaptation of the “River Weir” into a teaching strategy and I thank him for passing it on to me.
• Thank you also to the members of the Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute Science Department. As colleagues I value and appreciate they are among the very best. Because of the work they take on I am freed up to pursue my work as a curriculum leader. Experts in their own right, this staff has made our inquiry vision possible. Action researchers all, their ongoing professional development drives the research, evaluation, and revision necessary to keep moving forward. Thank you to them for acting as reviewers and resource people as we tried to get this down on paper.
• Cindy and I would also like to extend a heartfelt thanks to Mike Newnham of the Thames Valley District School Board for his help in formatting and compiling this document and for inviting us and making it possible to share our experiences with their great board.
Table of Contents
AN INTRODUCTION TO i
SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY IN GRADE NINE i
Table of Contents iii
Foreword i
Senior Students ii
Teacher Growth ii
Assessment Criteria ii
Teacher Proficiency ii
Introduction iii
Scientific Literacy iii
Typical Teacher History iii
Trained as a Teacher iii
Scientific Priesthood iv
The Problem iv
Being Scientifically Literate iv
If it Ain’t Broke… v
Student Teaching v
Better Filter vi
The Knowledge Worker vi
Student Testimonial vii
Making Changes vii
Cookbook ix
Research Skills ix
Defining Inquiry ix
Scientific Inquiry x
Four Achievement Strategies xii
NSTA xii
Students and their First Attempts at Inquiry xiii
The Scientific Method xiii
Think Like Scientists xiv
Senior Science xiv
Scientific Literacy xv
Involve Every Student xv
The Observations of Joe Schwarcz xv
UNIT OVERVIEW 1
ABSTRACT 1
Michigan Science 1
Organization of the Unit 3
Scientific Notebooks 5
UNIT OVERVIEW 6
Day One 6
Day Two 6
Day Three 6
Day Four 6
Day Five 6
Day Six 6
Day Seven 6
Day Eight 7
Day Nine 7
Day Ten 7
Day Eleven 7
Day Twelve 7
Day Thirteen 7
Day Fourteen 7
Day Fifteen 7
Daily Teacher Notes 8
Day One 8
Administrative Tasks 8
The Grape Mash Machine 8
Lab Safety (Pt 1): Safety Do’s and Don’ts, Emergency Equipment Location, Fire Exits, Accident Reporting 9
Daily Teacher Notes 11
Day Two 11
What’s up with that?: Making Observations 11
Lab Safety (Pt 2): Safety Video – Accident at Jefferson High 12
Equipment Inventory 12
Observation Assignment 13
Elephants & Observations 14
Daily Teacher Notes 15
Day Three 15
Wrap up for: What’s up with that? & Debriefing 15
The 6 P’s of Scientific Discovery 15
The 6 P’s Facilitation Points 17
Lab Safety: Chemical Labels, WHMIS Symbols 18
Daily Teacher Notes 19
Day Four 19
The River Weir: Teaching about the Scientific Method 19
Assessment: Creating the Scientific Method Poster 23
Scientific Method Poster – Rubric 24
Daily Teacher Notes 26
Day Five 26
Making Alka Seltzer Rockets: 26
Firing the Rockets 27
Debriefing the experience 27
Gyrocopters: 28
Constructing a Paper Gyrocopter 30
Daily Teacher Notes 31
Day Six 31
Safety/Equipment Quiz: 31
Working with the M. K. Walker Consulting Firm: 31
Reinforcing the understanding: Walking on the Beach & Thinking like Scientists 33
M.K. Walker Consulting Company: EXPERIMENT #1 34
ANSWERS FOR EXPERIMENT #1 35
M.K. Walker Consulting Company: EXPERIMENT #2 36
ANSWERS FOR EXPERIMENT #2 37
The Scientific Method: Walking on the Beach 38
The Scientific Method: Walking on the Beach: Suggested Answers 39
Thinking like Scientists 40
Daily Teacher Notes 42
Day Seven and Eight 42
Systems of Measurement: The Metric System 42
Metric Conversion Exercises 47
PART A 47
PART B 47
PART C 48
Daily Teacher Notes 49
Day Nine 49
Graphing Lesson 49
Interpolation/Extrapolation 51
Graphing Practice 52
Experiment # 1: Determining the distance travelled by an army worm over the course of 20 minutes. 52
Follow up questions: 52
Daily Teacher Notes 55
Day Ten 55
Discussing Density 55
Finding out more: Getting a team and your material 56
The Task 57
Collecting Data, Doing Research 58
Daily Teacher Notes 59
Day Eleven 59
Material investigation continued 59
Density Problems 59
Density Problems 60
Density Problems - ANSWERS 62
Daily Teacher Notes 63
Day Twelve 63
Calculating the Density of Carbon Dioxide 63
Finding the Volume: 63
Finding the Mass: 64
Finding the Density: 64
Massing Method 67
Volume Method 69
Help with or take up of density problems 69
Assigning the Take Home Inquiry 69
Daily Teacher Notes 70
Day Thirteen 70
The International Density Conference! 70
Assessment 71
Producing a Master Graph 71
Daily Teacher Notes 73
Day Fourteen 73
Study List & Considerations for the Upcoming Test 73
First Unit Extension: Taking Inquiry Home 74
Dear Grade Nine Science Student & Parental Unit(s) 76
Daily Teacher Notes 77
Day Fifteen 77
UNIT 1 TEST: THE NATURE OF SCIENCE 77
STUDENT ANSWER SHEET - UNIT 1 TEST: THE NATURE OF SCIENCE 79
ANSWER SHEET - UNIT 1 TEST: THE NATURE OF SCIENCE 82
Appendix A 86
The Use of Portfolios 86
Appendix B 87
Joe Schwarcz – Observations on Science 87
Appendix C 88
Real World Problems 88
Observations by Rick Gordon 88
Appendix D 89
Assessment Tools 89
Individual Work Skills Rubric 90
Collaborative Work Skills Rubric 91
International Density Conference – Presentation Rubric - Individual 92
Scientific Method Poster – Rubric 93
Assessment Template for Scientific Inquiry Performances 94
Appendix E 95
Department Template for Inquiry Assessments 95
Discussion 98
Evaluation should include: 98
Summary 98
References Cited 98
Appendix F 99
The Cycle of Proof & Principles of Scientific Work 99
Cycle of Proof 99
The Ten Principles 100
Appendix G 101
NSTA Position Statement (Draft, 2004) 101
Appendix H 103
The National Science Education Standards (US) 103
GLOSSARY 104
Resources 105
References Cited 106
Index 108
Foreword
D
oug Jones and Cindy Kaplanis are both science teachers at Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate & Vocational Institute in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Ten years ago, Doug introduced inquiry to the department’s teachers and students. What had begun as an experiment of sorts with the old OAC biology curriculum and his students turned into a comprehensive program involving grades 9 & 10 science and grades 11 & 12 biology, chemistry, physics, and environmental studies classes. Doug has gone on to take a Masters of Applied Science Education from Michigan Technological University and has been published in various educational journals on the subject of scientific inquiry.
Cindy began at Churchill as a new teacher four years ago and has known no other way. Today she is an accomplished teacher of science and inquiry, a true curricular and pedagogical leader.
Doug is the department chair and is currently putting the finishing touches on a master’s degree in Applied Science Education from Michigan Technological University. Doug has addressed audiences on the nature and place of inquiry in science education at various assessment conferences, the 2003 Lakehead University graduate student conference on education, the 2003 NSTA regional conference on Inquiry in Minneapolis, and the science chairs association of the Thames Valley District School Board in London Ontario in 2004. He has also worked for both Nelson and McGraw-Hill publishing companies as a senior textbook reviewer primarily in the field of assessment tasks.
All of the department’s teachers practice inquiry and do so with a common philosophy and template. The vision of working together in order to empower student learning has produced students who enjoy their secondary science careers to a greater extent. That means students who are
more likely to obtain their grades nine/ten science credits, more likely to choose grade eleven/twelve science options and are more likely to select a post-secondary destination involving science.
The SWC graduating class of 2004 saw fifty of two hundred students do just that. Churchill’s science teachers have realized that scientific literacy, in the sense of being able to construct, communicate, and use knowledge, is a goal that students of all ability levels can meet to some extent.
Students who practice the ways and understandings of scientific inquiry are proud of their products because they have ownership of the process that created them; have deeper understanding of the conceptual nature of the curriculum; they are more likely to show transfer of that knowledge; and have a strategy that will continue to produce solutions to both science and other problem-based scenarios throughout their lives.
C
hurchill has not had a grade nine exam for eight years now. A culminating performance that requires students to demonstrate what they know and understand about scientific inquiry has taken its place. That trend has continued this year as all grade ten applied students also completed culminating performances.
Most other academic and senior science students count performance assessments as a part of their final evaluation in conjunction with an exam.
I
t should be evident then that Churchill’s approach to science education is a program and not an approach. It is not one teacher, it is all of them. It is not one course or grade, it is all of them. The scientific inquiry principles taught in grade nine are built on in grade ten. Here students further refine their inquiry skills and understandings. All students complete an inquiry that will be entered in the school and regional science fairs and two to three inquiries are completed during the course that apply directly to the curriculum expectations.
Senior Students
During their senior years, the students refine their technical report writing and research skills; develop a deeper understanding of data manipulation and analysis approaches; and become more proficient at communicating and defending their work to peers, teachers, and others. Generally, at least two scientific inquiries are completed during each senior level course. See the appendix for a more detailed look at this.
Teacher Growth
The department’s teachers have seen tremendous growth within themselves as well. As a group they are committed to keeping their learning community alive. That means continuing their conversations and action research efforts with each other. As new teachers and student teachers arrive, they are mentored and coached along the inquiry continuum. As a group, they know that their motivation to continue stems from observing students become more successful at doing and understanding science. In order to get to this point in their teaching practices these teachers have had to embrace a number of instructional and assessment strategies that support the use of inquiry in the classroom.
Assessment Criteria
Strategies like; the use of varied assessment tools that do more than simply provide a grade; providing assessment criteria up front; using exemplars to establish how assessment criteria will be applied; developing assessment criteria with students; using exemplars to develop self and peer assessment competency with the assessment tool; using exemplars to “set the bar”, to show students what quality work looks like; using assessment formatively to provide for improved performance; and using interviews and conferencing to provide assessment feedback.
Teacher Proficiency
Teachers have had to become proficient using instructional strategies like providing for collaborative learning (jigsaw, think pair share, academic controversy); having students use analogy to show they understand a concept; using conferencing as a small group instructional strategy; using authentic tasks, rich assessment tasks, and culminating performances to address curricular expectations; and ultimately, using scientific inquiry itself.
The introduction will attempt to set the stage in terms of the past, present, and future directions of science education. The focus will initially be on the need and demand for scientific literacy from our students and how using scientific inquiry can help meet that goal. The case will be made as to why constructivism is a paradigm whose time has come.
The unit plan will contain an overview listing activities and timeframe. A rationale for the design will be followed by lesson plans, instructional strategies and assessment suggestions, including the unit test we currently use. A glossary, appendices, and additional resources will complete the document.
•• ••
Introduction
A
t the heart of nearly all curriculum documents written for science today is a desire by the writers (and by default their political masters and taxpayers) that students achieve a modicum of scientific literacy by the time they graduate. While not receiving the public attention that English and math literacy has in recent years, it is clear that scientific literacy is also a significant priority of educational authorities everywhere. Hodson says that “a proper understanding of science and the scientific enterprise are a key component of critical scientific literacy and is just as essential as scientific knowledge in ensuring and maintaining a socially just and democratic society” (1999, p784).
Scientific Literacy
Our own Ontario Ministry of Education science curriculum defines scientific literacy as the “possession of the scientific knowledge, skills, and habits of mind required to thrive in the twenty first century (1999, p2). As utopist as that sounds it strikes a chord in all of us as science teachers. After all we enjoy science, practice science, and see its value and benefit in a virtually infinite number of scientific, technological, and quality of life applications.
Typical Teacher History
As high school students we chose science credits, attended class, carried out experiments, learned how to produce a lab report, and passed the tests and exams. For reasons of interest, enjoyment, economics, peer/family pressure, or for lack of another career path we continued our science studies at a post secondary institution. Lessons became lectures, and assessments consisted of a few major papers and lab reports. Most of the final evaluation rested on lengthy, comprehensive, rigorous exams. Through all of this we persevered, graduated, and decided to pursue a teaching degree. Some of us may have been touched by that special teacher(s) who made such a significant difference to our learning and lives that we decided to pursue a teaching career. Others of us may have thought that we had a gift for teaching, while others were attracted by benefits like salary and time off. Some of you became teachers because you didn’t know what else to do with your science degree or because economic/market conditions did not allow you to enter a private/public sector career in your area of expertise.
Trained as a Teacher
Regardless, by the end of your post-secondary training, you all knew a little about a plethora of science related disciplines and a whole lot more about specific domain/concept knowledge from fields like biology, chemistry, physics, environmental science and so on. You were an “expert” and qualified to pass that knowledge on to generations of high school students who would pass through your classrooms.
How would you accomplish that? I would argue that most of us who have graduated during the past one hundred years have done so in a manner that emulates to a large degree the same teaching practices we were exposed to. We maintain the status quo and by doing so increase the inertia resisting change. You see; during our travels from elementary, to secondary, to post-secondary science it is clear that we “got it”.
We had learned to play the science game and our science/education degrees confirmed our membership in a fraternity rich in tradition, trappings, and practice.
Scientific Priesthood
We have our own language, systems of measurement, research practices, a comprehensive knowledge base, and dependence by society on the technological advancements such knowledge and research provides. More to the point, we understood many of the mathematical concepts that underpinned our science; we were able to internalize huge amounts of vocabulary, and curricular knowledge; and we were able to recall it all in enough detail to pass the tests and exams. We carried out the prescribed experiments and figured out how to write them up in a fashion that was acceptable to our teachers. And now you want to do the same for your students. That is an honorable goal and I applaud you but to do so in a behaviorist fashion (the way you were taught) would be a mistake. The only students you would reach are the ones like yourselves … the ones who get it … the ones who have been visible to you because you were one of them. That’s a pretty small sample. A very important group though I readily admit.
Society needs an ever increasing number of successful science graduates. I do not need to make the case for our need to graduate health, environmental, engineering, energy, and other such professionals.
The Problem
The problem is that we are sending fewer students on to those fields and fewer high school students seem to be selecting the advanced science credits that would get them into science related post secondary degrees. What’s more is that potential employers are finding that those who do graduate are short of competencies like critical thinking skills, collaborative work skills, the ability to apply concept knowledge creatively in novel situations and problem solving ability. Competencies like these are integral to success in both domestic and global competitive markets.
Isn’t that strange? Science is respected by mainstream society yet feared, abhorred and avoided as an appropriate career/vocation. Our communities and schools are full of past and present students who didn’t get it and they make up a much larger percentage than those who do. Many of these students drop out of science by the end of grade ten and in so doing eliminate science related college and apprenticeship programs as potential future employment opportunities.
Being Scientifically Literate
Even those students who legitimately love and are successful in other disciplines offered in the high school curriculum and are destined for a non-science career, will be more successful in their work and private lives by being scientifically literate. That means having the ability to understand an issue confronting society that has scientific ramifications like reproductive technologies, animal research, genetic engineering, sustainability, pesticide/herbicide use, energy alternatives, space travel, food and agricultural production and so on.
Not only to understand it but to have an informed opinion, provide support for that opinion and communicate/defend that position in broader social contexts. It means being able to apply appropriate problem solving strategies to issues that confront us in the world outside of school. Finally, it infers the ability to perceive the world around us and make decisions about the how we choose to interact with that world.
If it Ain’t Broke…
Faculties of education have played a role in maintaining behaviorist thinking in science teaching. It’s not hard to understand why. Professors too are products of the very same system that created us. They have been immersed in that system even longer, obtaining masters and PhD degrees. They have only had contact with that successful element of high school and university undergrads that got it.
Having said that, data produced by a significant number of educational science researchers, including many in faculties of education, since the early seventies has produced a body of knowledge that is finally having an impact on the behaviorist paradigm. Ever so slowly, constructivist theory and practice is replacing previous practices.
F
irst, let me comment on the situation as it was/is because it’s an important factor in why your teaching philosophy and practice ended up the way it did.
Do you remember your days at the faculty of education? I do and the many conversations I have had with teachers tend to reinforce my perception of the experience. More than any other description related to me was the one that described the work there as “busy work”. Papers and assignments were given out in an unending stream. A second comment I have heard was that the “real learning” happened during the student teaching sessions in the schools. Finally, there was/is virtually no contact between instructors at the faculties and teachers at the schools.
Student Teaching
When you did get into that student teaching placement there were additional problems although not so obvious to you at the time. You were placed with an associate who was charged with the responsibility to mentor and evaluate you. I’m sure that in most cases this was done with the utmost professionalism and to the best ability of that associate. The probability was very high however that your associate held to behaviorist educational theory and therefore little constructivist and virtually no scientific inquiry work, in an authentic sense, got done.
Be honest. Were you asked to employ any of those assessment and instructional strategies I mentioned in the Forward? A successful evaluation depended on learning and doing as your associate instructed and assessed. Since you would have recognized that this was the way you yourself were taught in high school and you had successfully completed your placement, there was no reason to look for another way and the cycle continued. As you began and then worked at your craft, those around you continued to mentor you in the only way they had known and the inertia in the way of recognizing, initiating or completing a change in instructional philosophy remained insurmountable for most.
We guard our traditions jealously. Don’t misunderstand me; I believe faculties of education to be of primary importance to the training of new teachers and the teaching of AQ courses to established teachers. While some courses may be dry, they are important to your understanding of the profession, learning and assessment theory, your obligations, and legal responsibilities.
Better Filter
I do advocate though for a better “filter” to select novice teachers to the faculties rather than depending on marks. I would also advocate for all faculties to adopt the constructivist paradigm for the instruction of new teachers since the research indicates it’s necessary and the market would seem to be asking for it. Everyone is demanding high school and university graduates who possess critical thinking skills, problem solving ability, and collaborative work skills.
All students, even those of differing abilities and destinations, would benefit from some degree of knowledge and proficiency at these skills. This has happened in many great education faculties around North America. It’s been a pleasure of mine to work with Doctors William Yarroch and Kedmon Hungwe from Michigan Tech and Doctors Tony Bartley and Mike Bowen at Lakehead University. These educators certainly get it. I have worked on several projects with all of them.
Tony brings all of the faculty science students for a tour of Churchill’s science department as they begin the inquiry process every September and Mike has created the first science website for publication of high school student work. See the resources section for the link to that site. Both have had me into their classes to speak about the use of inquiry in high school science.
Finally, I would encourage university education researchers to join more frequently with teachers in action research projects that could qualify as professional accreditation for the teacher.
Many university engineering and medical faculties now operate their programs with a constructivist philosophy incorporating problem based learning that has a significant authentic component to it. I mention the highly regarded engineering programs at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan and medical programs at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario as two such schools. They have designed much of their curriculums around inquiry of case study and performance assessment scenarios.
The Knowledge Worker
Let me give you another example of market demand. In a masters research paper written last year I mention some comments by Dr. Rick Lash who addressed the Ontario Hospital Association Convention in 2001. Lash suggests that we are seeing the rise of the “knowledge worker” but not in the sense of knowing reams and reams of concept knowledge learned and recalled in rote like fashion.
He calls for employees (our students) who participate in continuous learning; who know how to create, apply, and communicate knowledge; who can work well in situations where change is constant and rapid (Jones, 2003, p.7). These are science careers.
Coordinating the learning of these skills with the acquisition of curricular knowledge makes perfect sense. That’s what scientific inquiry is. It’s a state of mind, a way of thinking and acting, a process that students will carry with them into their adult lives. Get it out of your heads that such an approach trains scientists. It can only benefit them of course but for the vast majority, scientific inquiry is a formidable teaching strategy that meets the call for curriculum coverage and scientific literacy.
So it would seem that even students who do get it need to learn in different ways. Ways that develop those critical skills and enable students to take control of their own learning process.
Student Testimonial
One of our graduates came back to visit this past year and couldn’t wait to tell us what had happened. She said that the other girls on her residence floor had asked her to sit down and teach them how to conduct and write their research reports. Can you imagine the deeper understanding she had about inquiry? She must have impressed them simply with the process she was using and the product she was turning out for them to make that request. That depth of understanding and her ability to transfer was further demonstrated by her success at teaching her peers, no easy task for any of us. She was justifiably proud and we along with her.
Making Changes
If we are to embrace scientific inquiry as a way of bringing constructivism into the classroom how should we begin? One of the hardest changes to make is the need to let go of the “teacher as expert” paradigm. In this vision the teacher possesses the set of domain and curricular knowledge and that knowledge must be passed on to the students.
T
o do that means students must be attentive and sitting quietly while the teacher disseminates the required curricular knowledge in a didactic sense from the front of the classroom. At times, students might be required to complete an experiment but only by following a set of predetermined sequential steps in order to arrive at a knowledge set that has also been preordained. Frequent tests and a final exam determine how well the student has managed to internalize the knowledge provided. Much of this material is of a concept, vocabulary, and definition nature that is memorized and reproduced using rote recall.
Can there be deep understanding and transfer of such knowledge to novel scenarios in this way? We have taught science behaviorally for decades and continue to teach it that way because we know of no other way. Students who can’t keep up or don’t get it are left by the wayside. This cycle contracts and spirals upwards into the senior grades. Ever fewer will qualify for their “I get it badges”. We guard our traditions jealously. Teaching is our life, our career, our vocation. We learnt the rules in high school and as teachers we maintain the status quo.
On the next page I’m going to give you a series of short quotations from some well regarded and knowledgeable researchers commenting on teaching and learning in a behaviorist paradigm. It was hard for me to view myself in this light because I knew I was intelligent, knew my curriculum, worked really hard and had the student’s best interests at heart. As some of us like to say however, there are no marks for effort, only for product. I knew then that it was the way I was going about teaching that needed to improve. I could not be satisfied with graduating “X” number of students to university, college, and the workplace based on their ability to contain the knowledge I poured into them.
• In traditional classrooms, students get problems with known solutions and they get them after everything is known leading to an impression that everything needed to articulate the right answer is already at hand (Gallagher, 1995, p137)
• Many students and their teachers …treat the syllabus, textbook and examination as a closed system, working to pass without much concern for believing the science they learn (Malcom, 2003, p24)
• The teacher’s view is transmitted to the students, and the only negotiation centers on whether the students have received this view, regardless of whether it makes sense to them (Hewson, 1996, p139)
• Most teachers are still using traditional didactic methods and that many students are mastering disconnected facts in lieu of broader understandings, critical reasoning, and problem solving skills (NRC, 2000, p17)
• Do not treat the mind of a child as though it were a receptacle …classroom teaching would be a breeze if lucid explanation were sufficient to bring about a solid grasp of material …in reality, the teachers words alone amount to noise, not knowledge (Ackerman, 2003, p346-8)
• It is very easy for the teacher’s voice to be the most powerful one in class; in many classes, it is the only one (Hewson, 1996, p138)
• The accumulation of information in a relatively passive manner seems inadequate(Hewson, 1996, p131)
• Students do not see their role as being able to think or to question the source, relevance, validity, and reliability of the views and ideas presented to them…nor are they given opportunities to design, conduct and interpret scientific inquiries for themselves and by themselves…such students have not been acculturated into science; rather they have been acculturated into school (Hodson, 1999, p779)
Cookbook
The experiments I have described earlier illustrate the point I’m trying to make. I characterize these so called “hands on activities” as “cookbook” labs. I have no idea who first coined that phrase but it’s appropriate. In my first years of teaching I realized that having students copy out methods was a senseless waste of time and only served to use up the period and keep them busy. Having stud ents cite their textbook’s or my handout’s method was my first use of referencing.
I also had issues with having all students figure out the same answers to the same questions using virtually the same collected data and calculations. We told the students what graphs to create and the finished products were the same. The teacher either takes up the questions or marks the lab reports to make sure that the student’s answers are the same ones he/she has in their notes. While students are assigned certain roles in such experimentation, those roles are defined by the teacher and/or method to produce a known outcome.
That does not make this work collaborative in nature since students aren’t required to construct, use, and communicate their work in a true inquiry sense. As a result, the work becomes simply group work which has its own unique issues when it comes to assessment of such products and the contribution made by the members of the group. I’m pretty sure you have had conversations with parents and students who detest group work and the sharing of marks.
Research Skills
While we’re on the subject of experimentation, behaviorist theory says that research skills can be taught independently of each other and assessed as discrete skills as well. I’m talking about skills like observing, data collection, etc. I know that most of us have done that. Many of us have lessons about each skill that might include some practice and problems (with answers of course). Unless we teach these skills in an integrated fashion related to the context of scientific inquiry as it happens in the real world, then we’ve fallen into the same old trap.
It can’t be just knowledge. We haven’t done the job. We must model the ways and understandings of scientific inquiry; we must teach those ways and understandings; we must practice those ways and understandings; we must provide an opportunity to experience those ways and understandings in novel and authentic contexts; and finally we must provide quality assessment in order to improve performance of those ways and understandings.
Defining Inquiry
So how do we do that? First let’s define Inquiry and then I’ll give you a series of quotations from the constructivist perspective. Then, we’ll take a look why you don’t have to give up conceptual/curricular knowledge to get the job done. The national research council defines inquiry as “the ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work …but it’s also…the activities of students during which they develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas (concept knowledge from the curriculum)” (NRC, 2000, p1). Of course students gain a thorough understanding of the ways of scientists but I rue the day we called this scientific inquiry because it gives all of those stuck in the behaviorist paradigm an excuse. “We are not cloning or raising scientists they say” …”we do a disservice to all those other students” they exclaim and in so doing claim the high ground.
Scientific Inquiry
Let’s make it very plain. Scientific Inquiry is a teaching strategy! It’s a strategy that reaches a huge audience of students with all manner of ability and a vast number of career destinations.
It’s a strategy whose payoff is in producing students with a better grasp of how to look at and potentially solve issues that will confront them during the rest of their lives.
It’s a strategy that promotes retention and transfer, not memorization and mediocrity. However, it’s also a strategy that requires teachers to change.
Teachers must use their concept knowledge and pedagogical expertise to: ask questions, solicit answers, coach critical thinking, problem solving, and collaborative work skills, facilitate the design/construct/use knowledge process, and most importantly to provide formative assessment of process and product. That’s asking a lot I admit. It’s no wonder I often hear that the use of inquiry won’t work in my classroom or department because “our budget is too small” or “there isn’t enough time” or “there’s not enough of us” or “I have to get through the curriculum” or “I’ve got a standardized test to get the students ready for” or “my top students don’t like it” or “I already do experiments” and so on.
Every teacher in my department could counter those roadblocks with evidence of visible, positive benefits to the student. It’s not harder work (how can anything be harder than the job we do currently as teachers) or more work, its teaching and assessing in a different way. Get there and you’ll reap the satisfaction of knowing you’re doing something that feels right to both you and your students. Our students have known nothing else for six years. When we describe how we used to teach science they look at us aghast and exclaim “how boring”.
Examine these statements made about constructivist theory and reflect on them in the context of your experience to date.
• The goal of science education should be for students to go beyond the understanding of concepts to an experiencing of the world by helping students lead lives rich in worthwhile (inquiry) experiences [Dewey] (Wong & Pugh, 2001, p319)
• Fundamentally, the job in reconstructing the curriculum is to make science instruction look and feel like science as it is conducted in the real world (Gallagher, 1995, p135)
• The constructivist approach seems enlightened especially as an alternative to approaches that expect students to understand and value ideas because they came from a book or teacher (Wong & Pugh, 2001, p323)
• Constructivist approaches are student centered…they use subject matter as a vehicle for interactive engagement with students. Ideas are embedded in student oriented challenges and the classroom climate supports and encourages active exchange, debate, and negotiation of ideas. They also give more emphasis to the applicability of science and mathematics knowledge in situations in which students are interested than do more traditional approaches (Duit & Confrey, 1996, p85,84)
• Humans by their nature are curious, sense making creatures. Learning is therefore prompted by disequilibrium or dissonance in our ways of thinking and acting…we are motivated by problems (Wong & Pugh, 2001, p333)
• You don’t want to cover a subject, you want to uncover it [Hawkings] (Duckworth, 1987, p6)
• Constructivist classrooms free students from the dreariness of fact driven curriculum and allow them to focus on large ideas; they place in student’s hands the exhilarating power to follow trails of interests, to make connections, to reformulate ideas, and to reach unique conclusions (Gordon, 1998, p390)
Okay, the most visceral reaction I get when advocating the use of scientific inquiry as a strategy is anger over being asked to give up teaching students important concept knowledge that the curriculum requires they cover. It is possible that such teachers missed the use of the word strategy. For all the reasons discussed previously it’s an important one but so are many other strategies. I still teach didactically. I still grade tests and I still use prescriptive tasks and activities when it serves me. I have found though, as time goes by, that many of the cookbook tasks and investigations I find valuable and want to include in my courses, I modify so that I am coaching in some way a component of the inquiry process or product.
I will probably only do two or three full inquiry assessments in a course. Regardless, inquiry is nothing without concept knowledge and concept knowledge cannot be created without inquiry. It’s a marriage not a divorce. It doesn’t matter if you introduce a concept with an inquiry and then fill in the details or set the stage with curricular knowledge and then pursue an inquiry. As you become proficient you will do both as the need suits you. At other times you will require or your students will find the need to generate their own background research of curricular and associated knowledge in order to complete the task.
Let’s look briefly at what the research says about the issue.
• Concepts provide a valuable starting point for instruction for they mark potentially important sites it visit in the terrain of the curriculum …legitimate knowledge and meaning always has a basis in our interactions with the world [Dewey](Wong & Pugh, 2001, p326, 322)
• If a person has some knowledge at his disposal, he can try to make sense of new experiences and new information related to it. He fits it into what he has…Intelligence cannot develop without matter to think about. Making new connections depends on knowing enough about something in the first place to provide a basis for thinking of other things to do, of other questions to ask…knowing enough about things is one prerequisite for wonderful ideas (Duckworkth, 1987, p12, 14)
• One cannot make connections without prior knowledge and that this combined with experience at inquiry gives the individual the ability to make connections and generate new ideas and understanding; ultimately perhaps, new knowledge…in most high school situations, this prior knowledge is that which is taught (Jones, 2003, p6, 8)
• Students must inquire with what they already know and the inquiry process must add to their knowledge. For both scientists and students, inquiry and subject matter were integral to the activity (NRC, 2000, p13)
In my senior photosynthesis unit I teach the biochemistry concept material involved in the process over five, one half period blocks. During the other half of those periods, students research what their text books and other sources have to say about the process. Then they put together an exemplar which illustrates their knowledge of leaf anatomy and photosynthetic chemistry. Now they have the required concept material to carry their understanding to the next level in an inquiry. I tell the class that the nature of the problem is to investigate some variable that affects the photosynthetic efficiency of aquatic plants. The rest is now up to them. If it doesn’t meet curricular expectations don’t use the strategy.
Teachers would have a tough time arguing that line I would think though, given that most curriculum frameworks take up considerable space with expectations requiring the use of scientific inquiry. Additionally, many communication, and societal connection expectations can be met by using inquiry. I’ll use one province and one state to make the case.
Four Achievement Strategies
In Ontario, there are four achievement categories. They are knowledge and understanding, inquiry, communication, and making connections.
They are to be used to assess knowledge and skills learnt from meeting expectations written for the strands: understanding basic concepts, developing skills of inquiry and communication, and relating science to technology, society, and the environment. So roughly thirty three percent of expectations and twenty five percent of the achievement charts deal directly with scientific inquiry. That total goes much higher when you look for expectations in the other categories, including concept knowledge, which could be met by doing inquiry assessments.
In Michigan, the content strands are based on three broad activities that are common in scientifically literate individuals. Those of: constructing new scientific knowledge, reflecting on scientific knowledge and using scientific knowledge (closely paraphrased from the Michigan Curriculum Framework). Again, it is clearly evident that fully one third of the document contains expectations based on inquiry (that of constructing). Also, by pursuing the constructing activities, teachers will meet many expectations from the reflecting and using activities as well.
The National Science Teachers of America feel so strongly about the need to bring the use of scientific inquiry and associated constructivist practices into the classrooms of elementary and high school students that they have recently written a draft position statement that reads as follows. The position is accompanied by declaration statements written about inquiries use as a teaching approach, teachers helping students to do it, and teachers helping students to understand it. I’ve included those declarations in the Appendix. They make for excellent reflection and conversation by teachers practicing or preparing to introduce scientific inquiry.
NSTA
The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) recommends that all K-12 teachers embrace scientific inquiry and is committed to helping educators make it the centerpiece of the science classroom. The use of scientific inquiry will help ensure that students develop a deep understanding of science. ()
[Authors Note: I am currently looking into the STAO position on scientific inquiry]
There is a need, I think, to examine the idea of student comfort using scientific inquiry briefly. It’s important because students too will experience a learning dip and struggle when being introduced too and trying to understand inquiry. Peculiarly, this affects high achievers to the greatest degree. Rest assured that this will pass and students will become active, engaged learners. I don’t mean active in terms of doing an experiment but active in terms of their ability to influence their own learning process. That is a very powerful understanding and will benefit them always.
Students and their First Attempts at Inquiry
So here’s the position students often find themselves going into scientific inquiry for the first time:
• There is considerable evidence that at first, students will be perplexed and will even resist such instruction, because they have become relatively complacent, disengaged, and pleased with methods that allow them to learn pieces of knowledge by heart …students must be weaned from their reliance on teachers’ assessment of progress and success, and this requires students to become more keenly aware of their own thinking processes (Duit & Confry, 1996, p85)
• Students must become learners who are convinced that the goal of learning should be to understand the topic being considered and in doing so make it their own. Thus students have to accept responsibility for their own learning, trust their own thinking, and justify their conclusions using sensible arguments…and should be prepared to change their view when another seems to be more viable (Hewson, 1996, p138)
• Problem based learning and inquiries often have a resolution and not a solution and that it’s important students understand that real problems are never completely solved, but the problematic situation can be made more acceptable …indeed, there may be several possible solutions to the problem and one may be the best fit (Gallagher, 1995, p144, 145)
Students, especially those going on to post secondary studies, have an agenda. They have been successful, when taught and judged using traditional teaching strategies and evaluation. They have no wish to change. “Just tell me what I need to know” is the comment I used to hear. One or two were heard to say “you’re not a good teacher … you don’t give me answers, you ask me questions” and/or “why can’t you just tell me”. Faced with this kind of pressure I can understand why some teachers don’t persevere or never start. Remember though, once through the dip students become excited about their science and are motivated to continue. They own the products in the sense that they created the knowledge and decided on the tools they needed to collect and interpret that data. Remember too that the skills and understandings they have used can be utilized for subsequent work. Improvement comes with practice, feedback, and understanding. For general level students the motivation seems to be there because they have a strategy/plan that can be used to produce a product that will produce success when held against the assessment criteria. They are capable; they can produce their own work. That confidence can sometimes make all the difference to success/failure in science.
The Scientific Method
We do a couple of introductory things to get this grade nine inquiry unit underway but the unit truly begins with the scientific method. “Oh” you say, “I do that”. Yes I know…we all have and it was one of those things I knew was wrong and it took me forever to figure out what it was and even more time to get it right. If you’re like me and many of my colleagues you teach the scientific method in about seven or so critical steps. It varies from teacher to teacher but the steps might include the following: curiosity – a question; background research; hypothesis formulation; experimental design; collection of data; manipulation/analysis of data; and summary/new questions. “It’s a cyclical research spiral” you tell the students. Researchers repeat the process until they have a solution that satisfies them. Sometimes a serendipitous event or intuitive hunch speeds the process but oftentimes it can get downright tedious. You give them some examples and then have them write a test.
[pic]Every so often during the rest of the course, you have them do an experiment and that’s where the train goes off the rails. Cookbook experiments, as I’ve discussed earlier do not emulate the scientific method at all. Hodson knew this too or he could never have written that “too many school curricula present scientific discovery as the inevitable outcome of the correct application of a rigorous, objective, disinterested, value free, and all powerful scientific method” (1999, p784).
Think Like Scientists
Don’t tell the students a scientist designs a method to gather data in order to answer their research question. Have the students go through that process …more than once. Teachers must spend time with each step and model, teach, coach, and practice them. They must be done in the context of actual inquiries, using exemplars and most importantly, the students need feedback from formative assessment or they will never improve. It is through carrying out these tasks with their students that teachers truly demonstrate their expertise and prove their worth. If you make the inquiries authentic and relevant to your curriculum then everyone (students and teachers) will begin to see success build on success.
You will need to take some steps to make sure that your students, and the teachers you practice with, maintain and increase their growth potential but you will have made a significant step forward. If you and I had been able to meet in the context of a visit to your school one day last year and I had asked the questions … “how do you tackle the issue of scientific literacy” and “what evidence can you show me other than a mark or test that could demonstrate literacy proficiency”? I would say that you would have been hard pressed to provide a comprehensive answer. Next year you may have no end of promising practice and student evidence to show me. Don’t leave the learning in grade nine. Revisit it, review it, extend it, and repeat it.
Senior Science
Take inquiry into your senior sciences and the students will respond with work that will simply blow you away. The depth of their research and the maturity of their writing will improve considerably as will their ability to manipulate their data and make interpretations from it. These spin offs will only happen though if all grade nine students get the training. Otherwise you will always be catching those new students in your classes up. It really helps if you form an inquiry learning support group with other grade nine teachers. The conversations between you will help you reflect on your learning and generate deeper understanding and support.
Scientific Literacy
Scientific literacy then should be a goal that all students to strive for. Literacy can mean many things but it is important to remember that it is a part of your curriculum documents vision or overall goals statement. Generally, scientific literacy can include: the grasping of meaning; the making of informed decisions; the communicating and defending of informed opinions; the ability to read and write in a science context; understanding the ways, abilities, and limitations of scientific inquiry; and the possession of and therefore the understanding of information necessary for survival and growth in the world we find ourselves in.
Involve Every Student
Of course, students will meet that goal with varying levels of success because, like much learning, it depends on age, developmental stage, intellectual health, life experiences and quality of science education. With respect to the last factor there are a few things to keep in mind. The first is that the type of literacy we are after is not functional literacy which some refer to as the rote memorization of vocabulary, lists, and facts. The second is that literacy should be inclusive. Involve all students in your efforts. The use of scientific inquiry, journaling, and collaborative learning strategies are a good way to do that. Third, using authentic tasks and problems in context with these strategies will go a long way to developing the kind of literacy we are after. They also allow philosophical, historical, technological, and social dimensions to be integrated in some fashion. (Some of the literacy material above has been paraphrased from Toward an Understanding of Scientific Literacy by Roger Bybee)
The Observations of Joe Schwarcz
Joe Schwarcz is a university teacher writing in the Montreal Gazette about a number of observations he has made concerning the nature and limitations of science and scientific literacy following a lifetime of science. Check out Appendix C for that list. I include it because you might use it as a discussion or journaling piece with your students that could generate debate about the importance of science education to scientific literacy.
Your Ontario Curriculum Document for Science has as its three overall goals:
1. To understand the basic concepts of science
2. To develop the skills, strategies, and habits of mind required for scientific inquiry
3. To relate science to technology, society, and the environment (1999, p4)
In addition, the teaching approaches notes call for “an active, experimental approach to learning … for students to design and research real scientific problems for which the results are not known …and where possible, concepts should be introduced in the context of real world problems and issues.
We wish you the very best in your efforts and commend you for meeting the challenge. See you down the inquiry continuum.
•• ••
UNIT OVERVIEW
ABSTRACT
We call this unit plan Grade Nine Science – An Introduction to Inquiry. It was created to deal with the second overall goal of the Ontario Ministry of Education Curriculum Document in Science that states students should be able to develop the skills, strategies, and habits of mind required for scientific inquiry in order to meet the overall aim of the curriculum; that every graduating high school student should be scientifically literate. Developing skills of Inquiry and Communication is an expectations strand in every science course and the units within those courses are loaded with expectations requiring just that: proficiency in the ways and understandings of scientific inquiry. The achievement charts at the ends of the grades nine/ten and senior curriculum documents provide separate evaluation details for inquiry and communication.
If we are to give the attention to scientific inquiry that these documents are requiring then science departments will need to make some decisions that will facilitate that happening. I would advocate that this intervention be a department approach and occur in grade nine because it will give all of the schools students that will be exposed to science the same basic introduction. Teachers will then be able to build on that introduction as the students move through their high school careers.
The key though is “build on”; if the skills and understandings of inquiry are dropped after grade nine then a limited number of students will carry them forward. Those would be the ones that “got it”, remember? Deep understanding comes from consistent opportunities to practice inquiry assessment and the associated feedback between peers and students/teachers that occur with it.
If we are going to take three weeks out to pursue an introduction to inquiry then a second department conversation should take place around what teachers’ value as essential curricular expectations from the four unit strands.
Michigan Science
It should be comforting to note that the Michigan curriculum framework states that in order to make inquiry happen education needs to emphasize understanding, not content coverage; to promote learning that is useful and relevant; emphasize scientific literacy for all students; and promote interdisciplinary learning. How refreshing is that!
In addition the US National Science Education Standards state there should be less emphasis on knowing scientific facts and information and more emphasis on understanding scientific concepts and developing abilities of inquiry. There are several other areas that apply but look to the appendix for the rest.
My point is that educational authorities are starting to listen to what the research is indicating. It will be interesting to see what kind of lead our own Ministry of Education takes and the position that STAO will adopt as well.
A third area that should be open to discussion is what will be the department approach to assessment and evaluation in grade nine?
As teachers’ expertise with inquiry develops and the students take more control over their own learning, the use of assessment should swing to more formative strategies like conferencing, interviews, coaching, and the use of rubrics, brainstorming, and peer assessment and so on.
We don’t want this to create a larger marking load. That defeats the intent. You do want to collect evidence though of what the students can do and understand and pick strategic times to do that. When I do mark or level an assessment task I try to keep the size of the work to a level that I can manage. That way I have the time to make coaching comments and have an impact on student understanding (see the section on using scientific notebooks at the end of this piece).
I will also want to take the opportunity to use some process rubrics to gauge individual and collaborative work skills throughout the course. The documentation of this evidence will provide justification for the final evaluation of work skills section of the report card. The report card software is loaded with good comments that you would now be able to pick out and use across a class with such evidence.
Abilities in inquiry would be an example. I use another of the comment codes to comment on students’ knowledge and understanding of concepts across the board. The last comment box I save for next steps, good news, or future directions.
Of course, you want to assess knowledge and understanding in a formal manner as well. We use our unit tests for that and so they tend to be fairly rigorous. Our opinion is that students are more able to recall and use conceptual material over the period of a unit rather than studying an entire semesters’ worth of work and writing a one to two hour exam.
The unit tests then, taken together, make up the knowledge and understanding component of our final evaluation (the term mark).
What do we do for that thirty percent that traditionally is available for final exams? We use a culminating performance that will give us a final evaluation of what students know and understand about scientific inquiry. The same performance allows us to evaluate their communication abilities as well. This arrangement shows both staff and students that we place a high priority on student abilities in scientific inquiry. The evaluation is rigorous in its own right and yet students much prefer its use over that of traditional exams.
When students see the value of producing such work, have deep understanding of that work, are motivated to demonstrate that understanding and are communicating it to an audience, then results usually confirm previous assessment data or the mark goes up. It also sends the message that these skills and understandings will be needed throughout their high school science careers. Traditional exams, in our experience, tend to maintain or lower final grades.
I mention these things because you want to plan with the end in mind when tackling a curricular shift that involves new teaching and assessment strategies. You cannot plan a culminating performance if you have not worked on the subject of the performance throughout the course. To do so sets everyone up for failure. Your performance becomes just that, a one time exhibition without much to recommend it. If you want administrative and parental support, then plan for success.
Organization of the Unit
The first thing to note is that this is our unit. It is not “the unit” but it is one way to go. I am sure that right away you and your colleagues will pull out material that would compliment the aim of the unit or that should/could replace some of the material. I look forward to those conversations. Together we will evolve to something we are comfortable with and believe has value to student learning.
We begin the unit with a few activities that get the students working together to do some of the things that scientists/researchers do without the vocabulary and without an emphasis on retaining facts and concepts. The tasks require students to work together collaboratively but the emphasis for the work will be to discuss the nature of that work, not assign a grade/level to it. We want to generate enthusiasm to learn more. You will need to debrief the class with conversations around specific items to set the stage for that new learning to come. That would be the general idea behind the Grape Smash, What’s Up With That, Seven P’s of Scientific Discovery, and Alka Seltzer Rockets.
During these early days of the course you will also want to talk about safe operating procedures, WHMIS, equipment, and so on. You may even want to assess their understanding of this material. We have scheduled time for this but you will want to use your own department material and focus for that. You are much better placed to make those decisions than we are.
The next few days will be used to have students place some vocabulary on the activities they have been doing. They will also discuss with the teacher and amongst themselves the ways in which scientists/researchers approach such activities. These lessons then will include the scientific method, understanding variables, and planning controlled experiments. Students will be asked to create an analogy, using a poster, to show what they know and understand about the scientific method. It will be assessed with a rubric given out ahead of time. Students will also be shown exemplars to illustrate what each level looks like.
Much of the data that is collected during scientific inquiry is quantitative in nature. This necessitates that students understand how to estimate and measure using the metric system and the equipment available to them. Even though they are metric babies, it is amazing how little is known about measurement. Students will need this skill as they move into the collection of their own data. Therefore, metric systems of length, mass, area, and volume (capacity and cubic) are looked at. Students should be able to convert between units on a measurement scale (grams and kilograms for example) and be able to carry out the skills of estimating and measuring for each of those systems (using double pan and electronic balances; using displacement or measurement to determine volume and so on).
Students need to be able to manipulate data in some way. You do not need to push this to ridiculous levels in grade nine. That will only serve to turn them off. Develop advanced manipulative skills as they become ready for it. For example, I don’t have students do correlation or t-test studies until grade twelve. They do need to collect data from multiple trials or organize it from class data and then do simple things like calculate the mean. They should also be able to graph data and understand when to use a histogram and when a line graph is more useful.
They should know what it means to extrapolate or interpolate from a graph and practice doing that. Producing lines of best fit from scatter plot data is also something they should be able to carry out.
The concept of density is of importance to all the sciences. It is also a concept that lends itself to inquiry type activities because material can be handled and measured. The measurements of mass and volume we have already covered of course and the relationship between them is a fairly simple mathematical operation that qualifies as data manipulation. Those mass and volume data points can easily be plotted on a graph which you have also spent classroom time teaching and practicing. Slopes can be calculated from the graphs which allow comparison amongst different materials.
Finally, the materials you use to study density lend themselves perfectly to student practice making qualitative and quantitative observations of them. The real bonus occurs though when you have students do some background research into those materials. Now you have an opportunity to teach them about citing such research in reports and about producing a references cited page with the bibliographic information. We have the students form teams and give each team a different material (wood, rubber, styrofoam, water, etc). Each group collects mass/volume data, produces a graph, calculates a slope, does background research and considers the experimental error inherent in their methods.
The groups then attend an international density conference to communicate their findings to the other countries (groups). Much is learnt about materials, the concept of density, measuring, graphing, interpolating/extrapolating, error analysis and most importantly, students begin developing collaborative work skills and communication/presentation skills. The student products become the tool students use for the presentation.
Finally, we pursue a messy problem with the students that requires the use of indirect observations to collect the data. Using Alka Seltzer tablets, the students collect mass and volume data of the carbon dioxide gas given off. In order to do this they must be proficient at using electronic balances and graduated cylinders. Great care must be taken in the handling of materials and in measurement. Densities are calculated by each group and the results posted on the board. Finally, the actual density of carbon dioxide gas is put up on the board and a debriefing session is held to discuss why the distance of group and class means would vary from the actual target.
Sometime during the last few days of the unit the take home inquiries are assigned. Students must pick one of three options and design an inquiry for it which they will carry out. That will be done at home. A final report will be turned in for assessment that will be written based on the department inquiry template but modified to include only those components taught and practiced in class.
A very interesting part of the task requires that students show their parents/guardians their work and explain the inquiry theory that it is based on (i.e. what their research question is, what their independent and dependent variables are, what variables had to be keep constant and what their control might be and so on). This task does wonders for both the students and our department.
We are fostering a discussion between student and parents; we are asking students to check their understanding by communicating with others; we are connecting the home to the school; and demonstrating to parents what we are up to. This report is due one week after the unit ends.
Scientific Notebooks
The use of scientific notebooks is not essential but it is useful. Scientists and researchers use such notebooks because they are sturdy, compact, notes can easily be made in them, and they store well. We have all of our students buy them and record any investigatory notes in them. The students will ask me “is this a hardcover or binder thing” but quickly get the hang of it. So they record all of their inquiry brainstorming, background research, important comments from me, experimental planning and design, and data collection.
If I want something handed in for assessment then they must take the notebook home, set it up beside the computer and word process the section I want. They hang on to their rough notes and they always stay in order. I only choose the part of an inquiry or modified cookbook I intend to coach or assess at that time. For example, I might say, “produce the display this data should be organized into” or “out of all these mini-experiments we did today I just want you to produce the five hypothesis statements for me”.
That’s how I manage to coach and at the same time keep my marking load reasonable. Remember, I only assess two full inquiries in a term but I do a lot of coaching. One more thing; I have started having students put their journaling and reflective pieces in the notebook too but from the back moving forward. That’s working pretty well.
Finishing Up
Well that’s it. A pretty busy three weeks. A day is taken to review and then the unit test is written. That test can be pushed a week hence though to allow for studying and questions. During the rest of the course, we attempt to modify as many cookbook activities as possible to further train certain aspects of scientific inquiry.
We call any evidence collected of the ways and understandings of inquiry, core evidence. That’s because it’s central to the doing and understanding of inquiry. Ideally, you should try to assess each of those skills and understanding two to three times (with a level) during the semester if you intend to evaluate it at the end. The student portfolio (see Appendix A) is a great place to store this assessment evidence/work. During the semester we will attempt to complete two full inquiries. Look to the appendix for a list of possible inquiries that you could try. You may think of some that we haven’t. Please take the time to share with us.
Don’t worry if it takes a day or two longer to finish the unit. Remember implementing the new curriculum? Keep yourself and your students comfortable. Figure out how you want it to look and then make timing/content adjustments.
•• ••
UNIT OVERVIEW
Day One
1. Administrative Tasks
2. The Grape Smash Machine
3. Lab Safety (Pt 1): Safety Do’s and Don’ts, Emergency Equipment Location, Fire Exits, Accident Reporting
Day Two
1. What’s up with that?: Making Observations
2. Lab Safety (Pt 2): Safety Video – Accident at Jefferson High
3. Equipment Inventory
4. Observation Assignment
Day Three
1. Wrap up for: What’s up with that? & Debriefing
2. The 6 p’s of Scientific Discovery
3. Lab Safety: Chemical Labels, WHMIS Symbols
Day Four
1. The River Weir: Teaching about the Scientific Method
2. Assessment: Creating the Scientific Method Poster
Day Five
1. Making Alka Seltzer Rockets
2. Firing the Rockets
3. Debriefing the experience
Day Six
1. Safety Quiz
2. Attaching Labels to Concepts – Looking at theVariables
3. Working with the M. K. Walker Consulting Firm
Day Seven
1. Systems of Measurement: The Metric System
- the basis for the system … why use it…based on what number
- names, prefixes, base units and symbols for each type of measurement
- converting amongst units
- what each unit might be used for
a) Length
a) Mass
b) Volume (capacity/displacement)
c) Area: formula
d) Volume (cubic)
e) Potential extension: areas and volumes of spheres and cylinders
Day Eight
1. Metric System Continued: Estimating and Measuring in each of the areas discussed (using: rules/tapes, double pan balances, electronic balances, graduated cylinders, displacement cans, formulas
2. Looking at water: a special case where 1ml = 1cm3 = 1g
Day Nine
1. Graphing Lesson: how do you want them done, conventions, histogram vs line graphs
2. Graphing Practice
3. Interpolation/Extrapolation
Day Ten
1. Discussing Density
2. Finding out more: Getting a team and your material
3. Collecting Data, Doing Research
Day Eleven
1. Material Teamwork continued
2. Preparing for the density conference: what’s expected
3. Density Problems
Day Twelve
1. Calculating the Density of Carbon Dioxide
2. Density problems continued
3. Assigning the Take Home Inquiry
Day Thirteen
1. The Density Conference
2. Creating a Master Graph of Slopes
Day Fourteen
1. Wrapping up loose ends with density
2. Unit Test Review
Day Fifteen
1. Unit Test
2. Reminder of the Take Home Inquiry Deadline
•• ••
Daily Teacher Notes
Day One
Administrative Tasks
Well the administrative tasks are up to you. I would imagine you will be taking attendance doing home room stuff (if it applies), talking about school procedures and policies, maybe handing out textbooks and creating a seating plan. I don’t generally hand out my textbooks for a couple of weeks since I won’t need them much. I keep them as a class set until its time to hand them out. You may wish to use them on this first day because you want to do a text book scavenger hunt, organizational assignment, journaling activity, and so on.
The Grape Mash Machine
You will need: safety glasses, a grape mash machine, grapes, olive toothpicks, and cut up pieces of paper the size of a file card
I want to get the students doing science as quickly as possible and the opening activity this year is going to be the Grape Smash Machine. This is something I picked up from the engineering faculty at Michigan Tech this past summer. They used it as an opening exercise in a civil engineering class I took for my Masters degree. As a way of breaking the ice, generating enthusiasm, having students work collaboratively, and assessing prior problem solving knowledge/strategies; this activity should do a good job.
Start by having the smashing machine built from the instructions provided. Set it up at the front of the room. Have students get together in teams of two or three. I find that four students in a team will allow someone to take on the role of saboteur reducing team effectiveness. I use the word “team” instead of group because of the implications it has for collaborative skills, quality work and time management. I tell the students that too … already I’m looking for data that will help me produce that final evaluation of a student’s work skills.
Ask them to examine the machine. It’s up to you but you might try to have them brainstorm what it could possibly be used for. This would give you an opportunity to inform the class about your rules for brainstorm work. Rules like one speaker at a time, no interruptions, no put downs, and every contribution is valid until the list is put through some kind of filter by the teacher or students.
Now give each team a grape, an olive toothpick, and a piece of paper the size of a small file card (once you’ve tried it yourself, you may want to use a small file card). Invent any story you want to add drama to the process but the aim is for each team to produce an innovation that will allow their grape to survive the masher intact using only the materials provided. Spend a few minutes talking to them about the importance of planning, sketching, and communicating before breaking their toothpicks and folding/modifying their paper. After all, there is only one chance to use the materials. You will have to decide how much time you want to give them for the planning and manipulation of the materials. I would start with ten minutes and modify that as you see them work. Have them put a sketch of their completed innovation in their inquiry notes.
When the deadline has arrived, decide on an order for testing and have teams come to the front, put on their safety glasses, set up their protective device, and release the mashing arm. Some teams will be successful and some won’t. That’s not integral to our definition of success. What is important is that each team spends some time talking about the features of their design that either allowed the grape to survive or not. What modifications would they suggest to provide for success? What features did they notice successful innovation generally had? Have them journal these thoughts/ideas in their notes. You may want to have teams report back to the class or do this as a class discussion. Conclude by talking about the group dynamics (without mentioning names or pointing out students) you noted as the project manager. What were the productive and successful types of collaborative work you saw? What were the destructive or inefficient behaviors? Have them journal what you want of this too. A final journal activity is to have students record what they thought the objectives of the lesson were today and reflect on their level of understanding.
Lab Safety (Pt 1): Safety Do’s and Don’ts, Emergency Equipment Location, Fire Exits, Accident Reporting
• You will need your own lab safety materials/instructions as required by your board, school, department, chair, and self to ensure student safety
• Eventually we will provide some materials you might find useful but they must fit the criteria above if you decide to use them. One thing they should definitely be able to do is locate and use the emergency equipment located around the classroom.
• Having been instructed on the necessity to operate in a safe manner, I inform the students that they have a shared responsibility to take care of themselves and the working environment. They also need to demonstrate what they know and understand of safe operating procedures. As such they should be assessed in some way, shape, or form by you. A poor assessment means potential danger and requires some form of remedial action.
Daily Teacher Notes
Day Two
What’s up with that?: Making Observations
You will need: very small beakers, copper chloride, Petri dishes, tap water, aluminum foil, and safety glasses
The idea here is to make as many observations as possible without any prior training. I tell the students that trained scientists were given the same task and managed fifty-four observations. I am not defining or categorizing observations at this point. I just want students to be curious, recognize a problem, and record observations.
The observations will be about the reactants, their reaction, and the final products I tell them. Therefore we will need to organize those headings in an appropriate data chart. For now that can be done in a rough but organized way in our hardcover notebooks.
Before we get started there are some safety concerns that need to be addressed. I show the students the container of copper chloride and read, or have one of them read, the significant safety data from the label as well as point out any hazard symbols we should be aware of. Under the heading of safety, I have the students jot down any concerns and how we will handle them. I’m sure you’re kilometers ahead of me but that would involve things like: reporting accidents, wearing our safety glasses, no freelancing, no tasting, no touching with hands/pencil and smelling (if allowed) in the correct manner.
I now have the students get together in teams (pairs if supplies allow) and to each group I give a small beaker (50ml) half full of water, a Petri dish with about half a teaspoon of copper chloride powder in it, and a strip of aluminum foil about .7 cm wide and 8 cm long. The students begin by making as many observations as they can about these materials under that first heading. When they feel the possibilities are exhausted they may pour the copper chloride into the water and stir gently with a glass rod or wooden splint. Under the original heading, they should now make observations of the solution of copper chloride.
Once this has been completed, a team member can drop the aluminum foil into the solution of copper chloride. During the next ten to fifteen minutes, team members need to watch carefully and record any evidence that a change of some sort is taking place. We are looking at a single displacement reaction where the aluminum metal goes into solution and the copper comes out as a metal element. I say that for your benefit not the students. I don’t tell them any of that. Therefore, comments like “it’s rusting” or “falling apart” or “disintegrating” are all valid. Have students draw on previous experience to try and describe what is happening. At this point I’m moving on to more lab safety but I have the students label their beakers and place them in a safe storage place so we can make a final check for observations tomorrow. At home tonight, I ask them to describe to their parents/siblings what happened and see if they can’t come up with an explanation to share in class the next day.
It does not matter whether the explanations are correct or not. It’s the inquisitiveness and the willingness to share that’s important. I value all the explanations the next day and may or may not share what really happened. Remember, it’s a fairly complicated reaction for them. You might want to revisit it when you get to the chemistry unit.
The next day we take out the beakers and make final observations of the products that remain and share those explanations. Clean up procedures I will leave up to your own disposal and cleanup policies. It’s up to you but depending on the class you might want to share a rudimentary explanation for physical and chemical change. I would however take this opportunity to explain to students what observations entail. In other words, you will need to teach and discuss with them the characteristics of qualitative and quantitative observations, how they are taken, and how they are reported.
For homework that night I will have them create a one page summary that contains the following. First, a brief description of the activity we carried out (what we were up to not the observations). Secondly, state what they thought the objectives were of the lesson. Third, to show me they understand the difference and to practice writing a summary, I have them tell me how many total observations they made and how many they made under the before, during, and after the reaction headings. They should tell me what they believe the difference is between quantitative and qualitative observations and state how many of each they were able to make. If your students are like mine, I am sure you will have very few quantitative observations for reasons you can guess. You might want to have students’ journal why that might be and, now they know what they are, what additional quantitative observations they might have taken. The summary will be handed in so I can check for understanding and give feedback in the form of coaching comments.
Lab Safety (Pt 2): Safety Video – Accident at Jefferson High
In all probability you will need more time to instruct lab safety. We show the video listed in the title and have a worksheet and discussion about the intent and material shown in the video. There are a couple of other good ones around I’m sure you are aware of and that your board has. Again, whatever you use must fit with your board, school, and department policy.
Equipment Inventory
You probably also do something about the naming and use of the standard scientific equipment you have in the lab. Equipment like graduated cylinders, Bunsen burners, balances, spot plates, etc. You may have assessed their understanding of this material with a quiz, matching sheet, or other device. Again, we’re going to leave this up to you but have provided lesson plan time for its inclusion.
Observation Assignment
A technique I have used in the past to address recognition of equipment used often in the lab is to teach it in the form of a show and tell. Students sketch or identify the piece of equipment from a handout and highlight it. The must also include a use for the equipment and any special instructions I give them regarding its use. Like reading a meniscus for the graduated cylinder or the safe use of a Bunsen burner/hot plate. Later, whenever I have down time, I’ll hold something up and ask for a student to remind us what we know about it. My assessment sometimes is to hold up some of the “show” equipment (only 8-10 important items) and have them fill in some of the important “tell” statements on a quiz.
Cindy has students select a piece of that equipment or another from around the lab and make observations of it. These are handed in/shared and given a mark (easy to get a good one) to generate a good start and get students off on the right foot.
Elephants & Observations
American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) based the following poem on a fable which was told in India many years ago.
(source being investigated)
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“ ‘Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
An d all were in the wrong!!
•• ••
Daily Teacher Notes
Day Three
Wrap up for: What’s up with that? & Debriefing
You should already know what to do here. Remember to get out the beakers and make observations of the final conditions within the beaker. Some settling of contents will have gone on but the sediment at the bottom is copper.
Use this experience as a starting point to teach them about qualitative and quantitative observations and the characteristics that make them such (your lesson plan). Have them come up with, or brainstorm with them, several examples of quantitative observations using different units since they will have had the experience identifying these as such. Make sure you distinguish between qualitative statements like “Tom is quite tall” and Tom is 190 cm tall.
Ask them to create the summary statement I described in the Day Two notes for homework tonight.
The 6 P’s of Scientific Discovery
• You will need: a couple of large bottles of a clear, carbonated beverage, a bag of raisins, paper towel, balance, hand lenses, and dissecting microscopes (other items – read on)
• Safety: no eating raisins or drinking pop. Desks, beakers, and fingers may be dirty and/or contaminated.
This constructivist activity has been modified from the original work of Dr. T. O’Brien at Binghamton University. I prefer to use my own postulate names and descriptions when I actually talk about the scientific method but the use of 6 P’s for this lesson is a good hook to generate student interest. I like to use the original instructions as the basis for my conversation with the students as I lead them through this guided inquiry. In my opinion, work sheets should be kept to a minimum and used only when there is good reason to do so. It is your voice, questioning skills, and insight that will guide the learning and develop understanding. Maintain control in the classroom environment by keeping them engaged …as an effective facilitator, not by doing endless work sheets. I will include some potential responses to help you facilitate on an answer sheet at the end of this discussion. You may want to try this activity yourself at home before debuting in the classroom.
Perceive: This first section is a great opportunity to practice observation making. Put the students in teams (you know how many) and give them a 150ml beaker (narrow if possible) and a raisin. All notes should be made in their hardcover inquiry books using the “P” headings. Encourage students to make as many observations as they can of the raisin by itself and the carbonated beverage itself. Encourage them to make use of their senses. Make sure you have additional scientific equipment available for some requests you might get (having taught that observations lesson) like hand lenses, dissecting microscopes, balances, and so on). Have the students reflect on the nature and origins of the raisins and pop. You might want to have students share some of their comments in this regard (you will be checking for prior understanding and valuing student background knowledge). Dr. O’Brien suggests as an alternative that you might want students to do some of this initial observing blindfolded and with peanuts, grapes and other objects thrown into the mix. Have students describe the objects they feel (the touch sense is one we often overlook) and sort them.
Ponder: This is a good title. Reflection using what you already know is a good description of ponder. At this stage the students can probably guess that you want them to put the raisin in the beverage and see what happens. That’s true but first I want them to ponder the possible range of outcomes that might occur if you did that. Each of these should be recorded. Do not be satisfied with one possibility. Get involved as a coach (“what if”, “have you considered”, and so on) if they bog down at one or two.
Predict: Now the team should come to a consensus on which one or more of their outcomes is likely to occur. Students should include their reasons for thinking this way. The reasons may not be extensive or knowledgeable but this is an important step we will need to practice for future use.
Plan & Perform: Poor planning results in the collection of unorganized and haphazard data. Emphasize to students that they need to plan and record each step they will take to introduce the raisin to the beverage. This is a very simple, short method of course but some students will amaze you with their thinking and this task also is going to become very important to future inquires. For example, can you have confidence in a result (that may confirm or reject your prediction), on the basis of one trial? If more trials (say two or three) are conducted, how will the team control the method (variables) so that each trial mimics the others? Do you see how you’re getting them to behave like young researchers without actually making them sit and memorize your lecture? Again, you will need to walk around the room and prod, stimulate, encourage, and guide teams to varying degrees. Once the plan is completed then have them carry it out and record results of a qualitative and quantitative nature.
Postulate A Theory: I think that the first time through a task like this I would deal with it as a class discussion. Using contributions from the floor, you should be able to collect enough points to build a theory that can be jotted down on the board and in their notebooks. See the answer sheet for some comments to help you.
Publicize the results: Remember the prediction the team came to consensus on? Students should write a very short summary statement reminding the reader what they predicted would happen and then stating what actually happened. You may want to share some of these if time allows.
This section can also be used to complete a task that is integral to scientific inquiry and is also a great exercise to generate some critical thinking. Ask the students to come up with new research questions for study using the same basic premise (some new materials may be involved). You may have class time remaining (doubtful) or can find some later on in the unit/course during which students could test some of these questions. See the answer sheet for examples of such questions. This task (and carrying it out) could be completed for homework as well. Sharing the new questions students come up with is a good strategy. We brainstorm independent variables all the time. Students get better and better at it. By the time the final performance rolls around, they don’t need any more help.
The 6 P’s Facilitation Points
Perceive: For your information: raisins are partially dehydrated grapes and have a fairly large surface area due to the numerous “nooks and crannies”. Use the hand lenses or microscopes to reveal more of this detail. If you have clean, disposable, cups and paper towel, you could add taste and smell to the senses of observation. Carbonated beverages consist of water with dissolved sugar, carbon dioxide, and flavoring in them. The gas is put under pressure and when the top is opened, some of the dissolved gas comes out of solution and bubbles rising to the top of the container. Cold temperatures help to keep the gas in solution while the opposite is true of warmer temperatures.
Ponder: The raisins might sink; the raisins might float; the raisins may suspend themselves in the container; the raisins may perform a combination of these possibilities; the raisins may dissolve in the beverage; the raisins may chemically react with the beverage; the raisins may absorb water and swell up, the raisins may shrink; the raisins may maintain their dry size; the raisins may cause more bubbling, less bubbling, or leave the rate of bubbling unchanged; the raisins will color the solution; ……….and so on.
Predict: Students might find the explaining part difficult but remember, answers don’t have to be well formed or complete at this point in their thinking. You’re using their prior knowledge. Depending on the statement chosen for study, answers may involve density of raisins and beverage; diffusion; osmosis; nucleation sites (they wouldn’t know anything about beer would they?); ………. and so on.
Plan & Perform: As described in the teacher notes.
Postulate: The raisins first sink (since they are denser than pop), collect gas bubbles on their surface, then rise (as the CO2 bubbles attach they increase the volume of the system much faster than they increase the mass). At the top the bubbles are released into the atmosphere (less pressure) and the raisins fall to the bottom again. The cycle continues but at a reduced rate as more and more dissolved CO2 is lost and the concentration decreases. Some swelling of raisins will occur due to the movement of water through its semi permeable membrane (osmosis) and the beverage will become somewhat colored as natural pigments diffuse into it from the raisins.
Publicize: Some future questions for study include: manipulating the temperature of either the beverage or raisins and measuring the speed/duration of the bobbing action; measure the effect of one, two, or three raisins in the container simultaneously on the bobbing or duration of effervescence; study the effect of different material against that of raisins (peanuts or small marshmallows, etc.); add other solutes to the beverage or change the concentration of sugar in it; change its density (using salt); try diet pop; cutting a raisin in half; …. and so on. Only your imagination restricts you.
Lab Safety: Chemical Labels, WHMIS Symbols
I put this title here to remind you that something needs to be done about this and the lab safety you’ve done so far is a good place to put it. You may not get time in this class to do an exercise/lesson. Doing an inventory of chemical products at home (think about safety requirements there) or with some products in the classroom (your own procedures apply) is a good way to tie the real world into the theory. Also, software is available that does a good job of introducing product labeling and workplace/household/school safety. Our co-op department makes that available to us.
Daily Teacher Notes
Day Four
The River Weir: Teaching about the Scientific Method
So, you might remember that I had something to say about the way the scientific method is taught in high school science classrooms. We need to have the scientific method come alive for students which means present it in an authentic context. We also need to practice inquiry which means we shouldn’t just teach the method per say, we must teach it in context. That means role playing, coaching, practicing, and using it just like researchers would.
Bob Hartley, a retired science teacher and mentor of mine, once explained the scientific method to me using a river weir as his vehicle. Bob was also the chair of the local Regional Conversation Authority at the time and took advantage of the fact that this weir sat in a river right across the street from the school. His entire lesson then was grounded firmly in a real world context. I’ve modified the original explanation to fit our use of inquiry but wanted to give credit to Bob and thank him for planting that teachable moment in my mind. I’ll include a picture of the weir following these notes that you can project in class and use. Alternatively, find something in your neighborhood that can adapted to this purpose. Under each of the following headings I have some teaching to do … the students write down the headings and the pertinent information I want them to record under each those headings.
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Curiosity – Recognition of a Problem: I use this as my first step in the scientific method because it suggests inquiry can be of an informal nature too. When students enter the work world they will enter from either workplace (high school), apprenticeship, college, or university educational programs. Although the context is to teach them the ways and understandings of researchers, you are also providing them with a problem solving strategy they can use in their own lives as a person who’s curious about something or as one who needs to be more rigorous in their approach.
If the weather is good, I’ll take the class down to the river and conduct my lesson there. If it’s not so good, I’ll project the picture, remind the students where the weir is and continue in class. The first thing I do is ask them why the weir is in the river, what job does it do? Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, they don’t know but now they’re curious and we have a problem to solve. I’m sure you can provide examples of the motivation behind various kinds of researchers in tackling the kinds of problems they solve as well.
Background Research – Adding to Our Knowledge Base: If you’re like most of the people I know, you don’t launch into a scientific study to solve a personal problem but you do use some of these steps in an informal way. Regardless, you want to know more about your problem or research question. You bring some prior knowledge with you and a part of that understanding should include knowing where to look for more. In some cases, that may be enough; you will find the answers you need during this research process. In other situations you will need to investigate further.
I have the students brainstorm with me all of the potential sources of information they could investigate to add to their body of knowledge about river weirs. I’ve included some below to give you the idea. I’m sure that you and your students could come up with some more. Knowing where to look is important information students will need during future inquiries.
• Family, friends, neighbors
• Teachers, text books, lessons
• Libraries, internet, CD ROMs, data bases
• University/college students, professors, researcher assistants, technicians
• Ontario & federal government departments: MOE, MNR, and so on
• Local special interest groups: conservation authority, fishing & boating associations, environmental awareness groups and so on
• Local municipal offices: recreation, tourism, city planning
• Private business and industry: ecotourism, landscaping, environmental engineering, and so on
Taken together there’s lots of places to look. That’s the point. Students need to know how to access, acquire, use and communicate information specific to their needs; now and in the future. This is an understanding, problem solving skill and not a memorizing function.
Depending on where I place an inquiry in my curriculum, I often inform students that the information I’m going to be teaching them over the next couple of days will be important background information for the inquiry we’re tackling next. It can be referenced as a class lesson or lead you to other potential sources of information.
Hypothesis, prediction, research question: These may or may not be synonymous to you. If I’m actually working with an inquiry assessment, I’ll give the students what I consider to be the nature of the problem. From this statement students develop a research question to answer. Using their background knowledge, they pose a hypothesis and then predict the outcome with explanation attached. This all goes in the introduction. I’m not advocating that here at this point in their experience, just putting the terms in the context of how I use them.
For now, I’m indicating that researchers phrase their prediction in the form of a hypothesis (educated guess base on prior knowledge). We ask that the hypothesis be concise and take the form of an If (this action is taken) … Then (this should occur) statement. Another day, you can have your student practice this kind of statement. Getting back to the river weir though, I now go through a second brainstorm activity where students pose as many answers to the original question (why is it there, what does it do?) as they can. I put all of their responses on the board and in their notes. I really work hard to pull out as many as I can. A few of them are found below:
• Erosion control
• Flood control, water level control
• Debris control
• Boating barrier
• Fish ladder, fish barrier, fish reservoir
• Aesthetics
• Lamprey control
• Water oxygenation
• Hydro turbine power generation
• Pollution monitoring
• And so on
Because it’s a brainstorm, all answers are valued and they cannot be debated. If time allows I sometimes allow students to speak for a selection after the list has been generated. Allowing students to cast votes for their top three uses can also be interesting. I’m not looking for a winner; I’m asking students to make a prediction based on background knowledge and what they’ve heard so far. In the end I tell them that the reason the weir was placed there was for control of lamprey spawning. An additional benefit (important to urban streams/rivers with large amounts of organic material dumped into them) though is oxygenation of the water in order to support the necessary food webs for a viable ecosystem (the organic material encourages algae growth which robs the system of oxygen). It is this benefit I will exploit in the next section.
Design an Experimental Method: Researchers, I tell the students, want to produce a method to test the hypothesis or research question at hand. They want to collect data in amounts that will be sufficient to manipulate, analyze, and use to support or refute their hypothesis. So let’s assume that we think the weir will increase oxygen levels in the river. How should we go about testing that? What kind of experiment should we carry out? A discussion will result that should be quite interesting as students offer suggestions. Eventually someone will suggest testing the river for its oxygen content. “Can you do that?” someone else asks. “Yes”, I reply, and show them our dissolved oxygen probe I had hidden in the desk until this point. Someone else will point out that “we should test the water below the weir”. “That’s good”, I reply, “but is that the only point?”.
“No”, a student answers, “we should also test the water above the weir”. Now we’re getting somewhere. With a little more prodding, I get the rest of the answer I’m looking for. “We should carry out the above and below testing of oxygen levels several times and look for a consistent result to eliminate a chance error that could occur from a human, equipment, calibration, or other anomalous error”. Now that’s a smart student … but you get the idea. Without putting large labels on it we’ve started the discussion and understanding around controlling variables and reducing experimental error.
Collecting the data: During these last three sections I keep it fairly brief. We want to collect sufficient, valid, relevant data (often of a quantitative nature) and display it in a manner that is clear to the reader (a table for example). Again, limiting the effect of error is of prime importance. Each trial should be carried out exactly as the instructions specify. If the data isn’t what we’re after then we must modify the method until it is. It’s not necessary but if you can, go and collect oxygen data from a weir or from the problems you’re using.
Manipulating and analyzing the data: Here we want to treat the data to gain further information or understanding from it. Keep it simple at this point. The researcher might average results, find the middle result, find the result that occurs most frequently, or create a graph. Researchers like to look for trends/patterns in the data and finding none present can be a valid result as well. Comparing the data and analysis to the background research we did (including pervious experiments done by other researchers) in order to look for congruency (agreement) is important as well.
Summary, new questions: Based on everything we’ve done so far, it’s now time to support or refute our hypothesis. Spend some time discussing the implications of a “non result” and how that will simply lead to a new question or a refined method. This kind of research spiral continually happens with difficult research questions like finding an effective treatment for cancer, or the correct way to remediate a contaminated beach and so on. In the case of the weir, the students could brainstorm new questions I’m sure. For instance:
• Does the number of weirs make a difference?
• Does weir height have an impact?
• Do the increased oxygen levels drop the farther from the weir you get?
• Would a bubbling system produce a similar result?
• And so on
Assessment: Creating the Scientific Method Poster
As you can see this lesson will end up taking much of the period. There should be just enough time to assign the poster you need to assess their understanding of the scientific method. Tell them you need them to create a poster that shows the teacher what they know and understand about the scientific method. They will need to do the following:
• Provide a main heading titled: The Scientific Method
• Organize their poster into seven different sections or areas
• Use the headings we have discussed in class somewhere in those areas
• Find a way to illustrate the intent or the meaning implied by the heading
• Use the rubric provided to self assess your readiness to hand in the product
• Hand in this assessment within one week from the date it has been assigned
Generally, if a student simply cut out pictures from a magazine and pasted them under the headings (a cat exemplifying curiosity for example), that might be level one. If the pictures are well chosen representations/drawings, portraying these types of activities we might have a level two. If the pictures/drawings follow a consistent theme from section to section, we are at level three thinking. For example, illustrating how Newton might have studied the apple falling. Level four would be exemplary science thinking as shown by the analogy. For example, thinking of a thing that makes you curious and designing a great analogy to illustrate how you might study it (your mother says you spend the most time on the phone in the whole family and you design your poster with an inquiry to study this in mind).
Ideally you should show students what level 1, 2, 3, 4 work looks like using exemplars. It’s amazing the quality of the product one gets back when the students are shown where the bar is (assessment criteria) and what quality work looks like. You will be hampered by not having exemplars this time around but there will be plenty for next time.
Scientific Method Poster – Rubric
| |LEVEL |1 |2 |3 |4 |
| |Headings, steps and |Headings/sections are |All headings/sections are |All headings and sections |All headings and sections |
| |illustrations are neat |missing. |addressed but the work is |are addressed. The work is|are addressed. |
| |and organized | |un-organized and hard to |neat and organized |Presentation techniques |
| | | |follow | |are outstanding |
| |Original / Scientific |The nature of the |The nature of the |The nature of the |The nature of the |
| |Thinking |problem/inquiry is not |problem/inquiry is not |problem/inquiry is original|problem/inquiry is |
| | |clearly evident and does not|original and copies existing|in concept or modifies |addressed using |
| | |follow scientific thinking |scientific knowledge |existing scientific |commendable science |
| | | | |knowledge |thinking |
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Daily Teacher Notes
Day Five
Making Alka Seltzer Rockets:
I picked up and modified this activity from the NASA booth at an NSTA conference I attended in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My thanks go out to them for the resource. You are going to be very busy this period … you may have to push debriefing to the following day.
• You will need: 35mm film canisters (these should be the white plastic kind with the lids that snap inside the container … a film developer should be able to give you a big bag of these … hang on to them and pick up more since one day they won’t exist anymore), blank paper, scissors, tape, Alka Seltzer tablets, large wash bottle, control template and other construction materials.
• First show the rocket you built from the template (ahead of time) to the class and tell them that the Nature of the Problem for each team is to change one thing about the teacher’s rocket design and then build their own rockets that, in every other respect; model the teacher’s rocket!
• Inform them that the rockets will be flown and the flights compared to the standard which will be the teacher’s rocket. Let’s call the teacher’s rocket the control rocket. Explain what will make them lift off.
• A very important skill students will need to develop is to consider potential research questions for study (in another lesson we’ll assign the label independent variables to this). You might want to brainstorm these as a class or assign the work to the teams (three in a group right?). Here’s a short list:
❖ Modify the nose cone
❖ Modify the fins surface area or shape, or number, or placement
❖ Modify the length of the body tube
❖ Modify the material the rocket is made from
❖ Modify the amount of water or Alka Seltzer used
❖ And so on
• Each team should come to a consensus on the modification that will be made and state the decision in the form of a research question; “The team wondered what would happen to the resulting flight if the rockets fins were changed from a square to a triangular shape”. They should also state a hypothesis; “If the fins are changed from a square to a triangular shape, then the rocket will be able to fly higher than the control”.
• Each team should study a different research question! Have them check in with you prior to stating the question and hypothesis. Now Build! How many teams will take measurements from the control rocket I wonder?
Firing the Rockets
• Safety: Some of these rockets may fly up to four meters high. We take the rockets outside and set up our launch pad on a paved surface, next to a school wall. Launchers should wear safety glasses.
• By taping four meter sticks together and placing it against the school wall (have someone hold or secure it), you can measure the height that rockets attain. You may want to designate yourself as the height judge or assign that role to a student(s) or allow individual test fire teams to measure and record their own data. Regardless, all teams should record their own flight data in their inquiry hardcover notebooks.
• I have found that the best “control” conditions for launch fuel is half a canister of water and half an Alka Seltzer tablet. Remember that a team might have chosen to adjust either of these amounts as their research question. So, the rocket is held upside down with the lid off; the water is poured in (I use a large lab wash bottle for this); the tablet is dropped into the water; the lid is quickly snapped on tight; and the rocket is placed right side up on the launch pad. There is time to do this; you just need to be efficient. There will be a short delay as carbon dioxide volumes build up. The gas will exceed the volume of the film canister; it will force the lid off the canister and propel the rocket upwards.
• Don’t forget to test the “control” rocket as well! It is the “standard” that the modified rockets will be judged against.
• Sometimes the lid does not get put on correctly, the rocket falls over, things get soggy, or the design of the rocket just doesn’t allow for lift off. You will have to decide if you are going to record such attempts as a zero flight distance. I usually give each group a whole tablet which they snap it half to give them enough fuel for two attempts. If you do this, you will need to decide if you will average the two flights or take the best result.
Debriefing the experience
• Okay, well I did this activity to introduce the students to a few concepts without assigning a lot of vocabulary or definitions. The conversations I have had and will now have with the students are very important though. Very soon, we will have to review these experiences, conversations, and notes in order to create a deeper understanding of the process.
• You will find your own way to debrief this eventually but here is one way. One thing I do is have a team member record their data on the board in a class data chart. I don’t identify groups or use names. The only two headings are “Modification” and “Flight Height”.
It gives teams an opportunity to simply compare and reflect. It is very important that you stress that this activity was not a contest, nor was the goal to fly the highest. It doesn’t even matter if the modified rocket flew below the control rocket height or if a team’s rocket never got off the ground.
• What is important is that teams reflect on their rocket’s performance and state how their rocket flew relative to their hypothesis/prediction. They also need to try and explain why they think the performance was like this. This will be informal reflection since we don’t have the time to do in depth rocket design and flight performance research. Finally, I tell the class that as an actual research project the work was pretty messy in the sense that there was lots of opportunity for error to creep into the rocket construction (maybe you modified the fins but the nose cone also didn’t look like the control rocket’s nose cone); the launch method (did all students use exactly half an Alka Seltzer tablet?); and the data collection (how can Joe tell if the rocket flew 2.4 meters or 2.6 meters?). Teams should now reflect, and jot down considerations under each of these headings.
• Assessment: At home tonight I want each student to set up their hardcover beside the computer and word process the following single page.
✓ One paragraph that succinctly states the overall nature of the problem we tackled today
✓ State the teams research question and hypothesis
✓ State the actual modification (one paragraph)
✓ Support or refute the hypothesis (one paragraph)
✓ Discuss experimental error as it relates to the construction process, launch method, and data collection (three paragraphs)
I will be able to read/assess and give coaching comments to these single pages and get this feedback returned in short order.
Gyrocopters:
I have included a gyrocopter template (source unknown) in case you don’t have Alka Seltzer tablets, don’t have time, or love this stuff so much you want to do another. The theory is the same. The “control” gyrocopter is the one built from the template. Students decide on a structural modification and hypothesize. Try brainstorming your own list of potential modifications. Flight times are compared and the debriefing/assessment is of a similar nature as well. You will have to decide what a good height is for gyrocopter release and timing (standing on a desk is good but safety needs to be planned for!); and how many trial will be allowed. This activity really lends itself to multiple trials and averaging of results.
[pic]
Constructing a Paper Gyrocopter
Construct your gyrocopter from the following instructions:
■ Cut on the solid lines
■ Fold dotted lines A & B towards each other
■ Fold on dotted line C and paper clip the folder section to the body of the gyrocopter1.
■ Fold dotted line D towards you
■ Fold dotted line E away from you
■ Add a small paperclip to bottom of the stem
■ Hold at a predetermined distance from the ground and time the flight from start to finish
[pic]
Daily Teacher Notes
Day Six
Safety/Equipment Quiz:
In my class I schedule a small safety test around day six so I can assess the conceptual knowledge my students understand regarding safe operating procedures in the science classroom and my priority that students accept responsibility to take an active role in their own/classmates’ safety and use these procedures. The material is also of a nature that usually results in a positive assessment and gets students off on the right foot. As I mentioned earlier however, a weak result requires remedial action as safety cannot be compromised. Later we’ll include a copy of the test we use but for now we will leave this up to you.
Working with the M. K. Walker Consulting Firm:
This lesson is your opportunity to begin attaching formal labels to terms you may have used in earlier lessons. You’ve certainly introduced the students to the concepts those terms represent in the first week. Doing it this way helps students reach for that deeper understanding. The experiential learning that has gone on should now pay off because students have prior learning to attach to the understandings and ways of thinking that you want them to have.
Generally, we want students to be able to recall and apply the following terms during scientific inquiry assessments: nature of the problem; research question; independent variable; dependent variable; constants (controlled variables); control; hypothesis; and prediction. I present them in this order simply because that tends to be the sequence that we ask students to discuss them in when planning and writing scientific inquiry.
Students may get the nature of the problem and the research question confused so it is wise to go over these two whenever assigning a new inquiry. For us; the nature of the problem is the task posed to the whole class. As an example, there is a potential inquiry assessment in the Electricity Unit using wet cells. The nature of the problem I ask the class to consider is; what variables may affect the voltage across a wet cell and; can they design and perform an inquiry to study one such variable. The research question on the other hand describes the variable the student team is interested in studying. After brainstorming a list of potential variables for study the team might then write; “our research question asks what effect electrode surface area will have on the resulting voltage measured across it”.
Note also my reference to the term constants. This has become a part of our inquiry language because of the need to separate the concepts of controlling variables not under study from the need to use a control situation. Students confuse the two ideas, especially on tests. Whenever you brainstorm a list of potential research questions, you are also creating potential independent variables.
When a team picks an independent variable for study, all those variables not picked should be considered as constants. The use of a control remains; choosing the normal/standard situation that a system operates in and collecting data for that as well. By comparing the control situation to the manipulated one the team can try and determine if change has occurred.
You will find our definitions for the other variables and terms in the glossary and most show up in the M. K. Walker activity coming up next. Their use is also explained from a scientific inquiry - student report perspective in the formal technical report guideline published by the department and available on line to all the students. You will find a copy of that in the appendices. Do not use this template without teaching and practicing the skills and understandings of inquiry. There is no short cut. Students will not do inquiry with deep understanding and transfer just because you have given them a handout that tells them the kind of product you are looking for. Do not assign activities from this unit using the template in its entirety either. We want to motivate students and have them progress along the inquiry continuum. You may want to have them use parts of it for the student inquiry extension assigned at the end of this unit but be judicious in the selection and assessment of those components. The rigor and attention to detail will come.
Okay … so on to the lesson. I have found that any number of examples of scientific inquiry lend themselves to discussions about the inquiry terms you want to have today. Play with them in a messy way to generate a conversation about inquiry. Two that I often bring up are investigations senior students have often carried out. Asking students what variables they think would affect plant growth or alternatively heart rate would both produce large lists of research questions one of which might become the independent variable. Take the opportunity to define the term independent variable here.
Ask the students what we should measure to see if photoperiod affects plant growth or how body position affects heart rate to pick two examples at random. How should we measure that variable and in what units would come next. Identify these variables as the dependent ones and define them.
Ask the class what a normal or standard situation would be for these plants or humans. I’m guessing that you might get answers like “the normal amount of light in a day” for the plant example and “a person who is at rest” for the heart rate example. Build on these statements. Get to the idea that we will need to collect data from this control situation in order to see if extending the day with artificial light or if exercise will increase heart rate. Get in the habit of having students write down the reasons why they chose a certain situation as the control. The justification will be good practice and will be needed later. The data gained by using a control will allow us support or refute a hypothesis (you worked with them in the Alka Seltzer rocket experience). If time allows, you might try writing all the potential hypotheses for the independent variable examples you chose to use. I am sure a student might even question that photoperiod would improve plant growth. It is possible that extending the photoperiod would be detrimental or would not affect growth in a significant way. Try writing these hypotheses in the form of If/Then statements. Have them choose the one most likely to occur and then have them explain (predict) why the think the result will show that.
I’d probably wrap up this discussion with a quick look at some ideas for method design for the example(s) we were discussing in class. At this point I would hand out the blank M. K. Walker experiment number one worksheet and have students work through it as you feel comfortable (class discussion, small groups, pairs, alone). You might even use it as your lesson until you get more comfortable with your own examples. Experiment number two provides for additional practice and could be done in class or at home. Time is flying I’m sure. Can you see why fifteen days and maybe a few more are needed? We believe the investment is well worth the effort. You will find the worksheets on the pages that follow.
Reinforcing the understanding: Walking on the Beach & Thinking like Scientists
You may want to use these activities in your review at the end of the unit or you may feel that the conversations and the learning are going well enough that you want to use them to generate even deeper understanding. I usually opt to use them now and keep going. They can also be easily assigned as homework on another day but if that is the case, make sure to debrief them as the interaction of ideas and views is very important.
Walking on the Beach will generate great discussion amongst students and teachers for that matter. You may even disagree with my interpretation. That may be because of the way we approach inquiry at Churchill. Regardless, this activity shows why some messy answers have more than one possible solution.
I like doing the Thinking like Scientists in small teams. I don’t even use the work sheet. I assign each team a different problem from the worksheet and the task I want each of them to do with it (the worksheet blanks). Discussion ensues and information is written down. Next I’ll have a spokesperson for each group inform the class what their particular problem was and what they came up with for answers. For each presentation I mediate making sure students get both positive and constructive feedback from both peers and myself. Some of the tasks are messy (on purpose) and will generate additional discussion as to different ways to consider them.
M.K. Walker Consulting Company: EXPERIMENT #1
The M.K. Walker Consulting Company was studying various ways to recycle materials, including the use of compost as a fertilizer. The ‘Lizards and Lab Coats’ research team investigated the effectiveness of various materials in promoting plant growth. They decided to compare the effect of compost and commercial fertilizer on plant growth. Three flats of bean seeds (25 plants / flat) were grown for 5 days. The plants were fertilized as follows: Flat A received 10 grams of commercial fertilizer; Flat B received 10 grams of aged compost; Flat C received no fertilizer. The plants received the same amount of sunlight and water each day. At the end of 20 days, the ‘Lizards’ recorded the height of the plants in centimetres.
1. What is the Problem Statement?
2. What is the Independent Variable (IV)?
3. Were there Repeated Trials? Explain.
4. What is the Dependent Variable (DV)?
5. What are the Constant(s)?
6. What was the Control group?
7. In which ways could you improve this experiment?
8. What are other dependent variables that could be measured? Which of these are qualitative and which of these are quantitative?
ANSWERS FOR EXPERIMENT #1
Before you discuss the questions, you may want to write the results on the board, or have students predict what the trends may be.
Results (observations or data)
| | | | |
| |Compost |Fertilizer |Control |
| | | | |
|Height (cm) | | | |
|Range |16 - 22 |19 - 28 |8 - 16 |
|Average |19 |24 |11 |
ANSWERS
1. What is the effect of using different fertilizers on plant growth.
2. Independent Variable = Type / addition of fertilizer
|Compost |Commercial |Control (no fertilizer) |
|25 plants |25 plants |25 plants |
3. There were Repeated Trials, 75 plants used in trial, 25 for each group
4. Dependent Variable (DV): height of plants measured in centimetres
5. Constant (s): amount of light, water and fertilizer
6. Control group: no fertilizer
7. Ways to improve the experiment: Constants (same plant species, same soil, planting positioning and depth)
8. Other dependent variables...
Do fertilizers affect plants in ways other than height?
-colour of leaves (qualitative)
-number of flowers or fruit (quantitative)
-size (length, width) of leaves (quantitative)
-sturdiness of stems (could use both types of observations)
M.K. Walker Consulting Company: EXPERIMENT #2
Several weeks after the recycling inquiry, the ‘Lizards in Lab Coats’ research group was given another job by the M.K. Walker Consulting Firm. An experiment was envisioned that would look at the effectiveness of various metals in releasing hydrogen gas from hydrochloric acid; they read that the gas company was burying sheets of magnesium next to iron pipelines in order to prevent rusting. Soon after, M.K. Walker was offered a contract by the gas company to see if other active metals would also be effective in preventing rust. The Lizards were assigned the task.
To investigate, they placed each of the following into a separate test tube containing water: one nail; one iron nail wrapped with aluminum strip; one iron nail wrapped with a lead strip. They used the same amounts of water from the same source, equal amount (mass) of the metal wraps, and the same type of iron nail. At the end of 5 days, they described the amount of rusting as small, moderate or large. They also recorded the colour of the water.
1. What is the Problem Statement?
2. What is the Independent Variable (IV)?
3. Were there Repeated Trials? Explain.
4. What is the Dependent Variable (DV)?
5. What are the Constant(s)?
6. What was the Control group?
7. In which ways could you improve this experiment?
8. What are other dependent variables that could be studied? Which of these are qualitative and which are quantitative?
ANSWERS FOR EXPERIMENT #2
Before you discuss the questions, you may want to write the results on the board, or have students predict what the trends may be.
Results (observations or data)
|Iron nail with no metal |Iron nail with magnesium |Iron nail with aluminum |Iron nail with lead |
|large |small |moderate |small |
ANSWERS
1. What active metals are effective in preventing rusting of iron.
2. Independent Variable = Type / addition of metallic wrapping strip
|Iron nail with no metal |Iron nail with magnesium |Iron nail with aluminum |Iron nail with lead |
|1 nail |1 nail |1 nail |1 nail |
3. There were NO Repeated Trials, 1 nail used for each experimental group
4. Dependent Variable (DV) = amount of rusting (small, moderate, large)
5. Constant (s): amount of water, mass of metallic wrapper, type of iron nail
6. Control group: no metallic wrapper
7. Ways to improve the experiment:
-increase the number of trials
-quantify the dependent variable (amount of rusting) either by measuring the mass of the combined residues from scrapping the nail clean and filtering the water; or measure the mass of the nail before and after the experiment
-controlling the mass of the metallic wrapper might introduce other undetected variables into the experiment (varying the amount of surface area each nail was exposed to water). The amount of surface exposed should be equal because chemical reactions occur there.
8. Other dependent variables...
-the difference in mass before and after the experiment
-the strength of the nail before and after the experiment
The Scientific Method: Walking on the Beach
(Source unknown)
Read the following statements. Put them in the correct order according to the scientific method. Use the letters assigned to each statement.
|_____ |A |The scientist goes back to the laboratory and does the following: |
| | |Fills two beakers with 1L of fresh water. |
| | |Dissolves 35g of salt in one of the beakers. |
| | |Places both beakers in a freezer whose temperature is -5º C. |
| | |Leaves both beakers in the freezer for 24 hours. |
|_____ |B |The scientist also reads about the composition of sea water. |
|_____ |C |The scientist then writes, “I suggest that the reason sea water freezes at a lower temperature is that sea |
| | |water contains dissolved salts while fresh water does not”. |
|_____ |D |The scientist goes to a library and reads a number of articles about the physical properties of solutions. |
|_____ |E |A scientist walking along a beach in Alaska notices that there are icicles hanging from a nearby building, yet |
| | |pools of sea water remain unfrozen. He asks himself, “Why does sea water freeze at a lower temperature than |
| | |fresh water?” |
| | |unfrozen, that there are icicles hangng from a nearby solutions. |
| | |ts while fresh water |
|_____ |F |The scientist travels to a nearby beach and observes the conditions there. The scientist notes the taste of |
| | |the sea water and other factors such as waves, wind, humidity, temperature, and air pressure. |
|_____ |G |After 24 hours, the scientist examines both beakers and finds the fresh water to be frozen. The salt water is |
| | |still liquid. He notes this in his notebook. |
|_____ |H |After considering all this information, the scientist sits at a desk and writes, “My guess is that sea water |
| | |freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water because sea water has salt in it”. |
Questions:
1. Which statement(s) contain conclusions?
2. Which statement(s) refer to research?
3. Which statement(s) contain a hypothesis?
4. Which statement(s) contain observations?
5. Which statement(s) describe an experiment?
6. In which statement is the problem defined?
The Scientific Method: Walking on the Beach: Suggested Answers
| |A |The scientist goes back to the laboratory and does the following: |
| | |Fills two beakers with 1L of fresh water. |
| | |Dissolves 35g of salt in one of the beakers. |
|6th | |Places both beakers in a freezer whose temperature is -5º C. |
| | |Leaves both beakers in the freezer for 24 hours. |
| |B |The scientist also reads about the composition of sea water. |
|3rd | | |
| |C |The scientist then writes, “I suggest that the reason sea water freezes at a lower temperature is that sea |
|8th | |water contains dissolved salts while fresh water does not”. |
| |D |The scientist goes to a library and reads a number of articles about the physical properties of solutions. |
|2nd | | |
| |E |A scientist walking along a beach in Alaska notices that there are icicles hanging from a nearby building, yet |
| | |pools of sea water remain unfrozen. He asks himself, “Why does sea water freeze at a lower temperature than |
|1st | |fresh water?” |
| | |unfrozen, that there are icicles hangng from a nearby solutions. |
| | |ts while fresh water |
| |F |The scientist travels to a nearby beach and observes the conditions there. The scientist notes the taste of |
| | |the sea water and other factors such as waves, wind, humidity, temperature, and air pressure. |
|4th | | |
| |G |After 24 hours, the scientist examines both beakers and finds the fresh water to be frozen. The salt water is |
| | |still liquid. He notes this in his notebook. |
|7th | | |
| |H |After considering all this information, the scientist sits at a desk and writes, “My guess is that sea water |
|5th | |freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water because sea water has salt in it”. |
Questions:
1. Which statement(s) contain conclusions? C
2. Which statement(s) refer to research? B, D, E, F
3. Which statement(s) contain a hypothesis? H
Is this a correct hypothesis statement? What might a better one sound like?
4. Which statement(s) contain observations? G
5. Which statement(s) describe an experiment? A
6. In which statement is the problem defined? E
Thinking like Scientists
(Source Unknown)
Given the experimental situations below, complete the chart:
| | | | | |
|Experiment |Independent Variable (IV) |Dependent Variable (DV) |Variables that must be kept|What would most likely |
| | | |constant |serve as a control group |
|1. Determining the effects| | | | |
|of antifreeze on the | | | | |
|boiling point of water. | | | | |
|2. Determining how storage| | | | |
|temperature affects the | | | | |
|rate at which milk spoils. | | | | |
|3. Determining the effects| | | | |
|of music on the milk | | | | |
|producing ability of cows. | | | | |
|4. Testing the | | | | |
|effectiveness of a new pain| | | | |
|killer such as Advil. | | | | |
| | | | | |
|5. Determining the effects| | | | |
|of hydrochloric acid on | | | | |
|various fabrics. | | | | |
Thinking like Scientists
(Source Unknown)
Given the experimental situations below, complete the chart:
| | | | | |
|Experiment |Independent Variable (IV) |Dependent Variable (DV) |Variables that must be kept|What would most likely |
| | | |constant |serve as a control group |
| | | |Amount of water, initial | |
|1. Determining the effects | | |temp of water, size of pot,| |
|of antifreeze on the | | |type of water… | |
|boiling point of water. |Addition of antifreeze |The boiling point of water | |Water that contains no |
| | |(temp or time) | |antifreeze |
| | | |Amount of milk, initial | |
|2. Determining how storage | | |temp of milk, size of | |
|temperature affects the | | |container, type of milk… |Milk that is kept in |
|rate at which milk spoils. | | | |refrigerator temperature |
| |Manipulation of the storage|The rate at which milk | | |
| |temperature |spoils | | |
| | | |Age, size, species of cow, | |
|3. Determining the effects | | |diet, exercise, | |
|of music on the milk | | |environment, time of | |
|producing ability of cows. | | |milking… | |
| |Addition music to the lives|The quantity of milk cows | |Cows that do not listen to |
| |of cows |can produce | |music |
| | | | | |
|4. Testing the |Dosage of Advil available |The degree or intensity of |Type of pain, amount of |No Advil or perhaps a |
|effectiveness of a new pain|if at all |headache pain present |water taken with dosage, |normal or average dosage of|
|killer such as Advil. | | |general health, etc. |pain killer |
| | | |Amount of acid put onto | |
|5. Determining the effects | | |fabric, the method in which| |
|of hydrochloric acid on |The type of fabric which | |it is applied, size of |A fabric that is often |
|various fabrics. |the acid is being added |The effects the acid has on|fabric, length of time |exposed to the acid |
| | |the fabric |before observing | |
Daily Teacher Notes
Day Seven and Eight
Systems of Measurement: The Metric System
We all know that the metric system forms the basis of measurement for scientists and researchers the world over. As a language that forms the backbone of quantitative data collection and analysis its use ensures a level playing field in terms of clarity of communication between science professionals. The system is essentially based on the number ten (10) which makes converting between units of a system of measurement a relatively simple task. The prefixes used to differentiate between units don’t change as one moves from one system of measurement to the next and so helps with retention. If you do all of the following, you will need 1.5 to 2 days.
Try to involve your students in actual measuring tasks to gain experience with each system of measurement and incorporate the skill of estimating into that work. I’ll tell you what I do a bit later. Where possible, teachers should mention the kinds of experimental error that creep into measurement work. Discuss cases where the last digit must be estimated as one would when using a ruler marked out in only centimetres (20.5 cm); or when reading a graduated cylinder marked out in millilitres (18.5 ml). On your Pyrex, laboratory beakers and flasks there is a plus or minus 5% error message. Do your students trust what the double pan or electronic balances tell them? Objects of known mass should be used to check a double pan balance and electronic balances should be calibrated. If ten students timed an event (a gyrocopter spinning to the floor) would they all get the same time? How could the degree of this error be reduced? Remind the students of the error discussions related to the river weir and the Alka seltzer rockets. This conversation should produce some great comments and encourage students to look for, account for, and reduce, measurement errors wherever they can.
I begin with length. I use the length chart that follows to point out the base unit and the prefixes that identify each of the other units. I use the term distance between adjacent units to help students visualize conversion between units. So there are ten millimetres in a centimetre, ten centimetres in a decimetre, and so on. Some units get used rarely and I tell the students that. Consider what kinds of objects get measured with the rest. Practice with the units they will use most often. Converting between units is difficult for some students so they need a system to clarify their thinking. The nice thing about the number ten is that it really represents a decimal place shift. Each ten you go by means another shift. The actual digits in the number don’t change, only the decimal place.
Length
|prefix |ending |symbol |Distance from adjacent unit |
|Mega * |metre |Mm |1000 |
|kilo |metre |km |10 |
|hecto |metre |hm |10 |
|deca |metre |dam |10 |
| |Metre |m |10 |
|deci |metre |dm |10 |
|centi |metre |cm |10 |
|milli |metre |mm |10 |
|micro * |metre |µm |1000 |
|nano ** |metre |nm |1000 |
* These two units are sometimes used in science; the megametre for vast distances and the micorometre for small ones. It is possible that students will bump into these during their high school careers; especially the micrometre during microscope and cellular anatomy work. The distance number shows as a 1000 and not 10 because there are two other units found between the micrometre and millimetre and the Megametre and kilometer but they are rarely used and not included here.
** The nanometre will also be used and discussed in senior science classes to describe very small dimensions like the distance across a cell membrane, wave lengths of light and other objects that can only be seen with an electron microscope.
Let’s assume the length we are working with is 5186.0 cm. How many metres is that?
The first question a student should ask is; will the resulting number get smaller or bigger? That will determine if I move the decimal to the right or left. The metre is a bigger unit than the centimetre. If centimetres can fit into metres than the answer we are looking for should be smaller. Check out the easy tool below:
Mm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- µm
Converting in this direction? >>>>>>>>need a bigger #, move the decimal right.
Converting in this direction? ................
................
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