Batteries, Bulbs, and Wires

Standards and Benchmarks:
Content Standard: B-Physical Science: Light, Heat, Electricity, and Magnetism

Benchmarks: Electricity in circuits can produce light, heat, sound, and magnetic effects;

Electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass.

Learning Goals:
Students will understand that a circuit is a complete loop where electric current can pass (so it can therefore be created with just one wire).

Formative Assessment:
"Kirsten has a battery and a small bulb. She wonders how many strips of wire she will need to connect the battery and the bulb so that the bulb will light. What is the SMALLEST NUMBER of wire strips Kirsten needs to make the bulb light up? Explain your answer."

Most of the students in our class thought the answer was 2 wires, but the real answer is actually 1 wire. Most of us know how to create a simple series circuit by attaching one wire to the positive side of the battery and another wire to the negative side of the battery and attaching both to the lighbulb.

Learning Performance:
The strengths of the learning performance used in the "Exploring Together" worksheet are that the students are making all the circuits and identifying the differences (see the 1st three pictures below). However, this lab is weak in its inquiry because students are told exactly what to do and don't get a chance to explore on their own.

The strength of the learning performance used in the "Exploring Independenly" worksheet is that it provides much more room for exploration. We had to figure out on our own how to create a circuit using just one wire (4th picture). However, this worksheet still does not meet all the requirements of inquiry. How to create this one wire circuit wasn't necessarily meaningful to the students because the question was provided by the teacher.

                                                            

                                                   Simple Circuit (Exploring Together lab)

                                                                  


                                                   Series Circuit (Exploring Together Lab)

                                                 Parallel Circuit (Exploring Together lab)

Circuit Using One Wire (Exloring Independently lab)

Reflection:
I thought that the description of Ms. Travis's classroom in the article was a very good example of inquiry. She did a great job starting the students off with an experiment to build their knowledge base. It was a more basic experiment, but she did not tell them exactly what to do like Ms. Stone did. She did a lot more scaffolding instead of outright telling the students the answer. Ms. Travis's lessons on electricity were closer to the "Exploring Independently" lab we did in class, and Ms. Stone's lessons were like the "Exploring Together" lab. However, neither lab from class was as inquiry-based as Ms. Travis' lessons. She moved more towards the student-centered side of inquiry by letting students ask their own questions about electricity. Each group was carrying out a separate experiment, and they were able to share their findings with the class. I especially liked how she tied environmental problems into the lesson through fluorescent bulbs. This would be a great way to make the communication of results much more meaningful.

I think it would also be beneficial to start this inquiry lesson with the idea of fluorescent bulbs using less energy because kids are often very interested in the environment. This would get students engaged because they could be guided to ask their own question: "how do we know that incandescent light bulbs use more energy?" They could collect their evidence through developing their own experiments with different variables, explain their data through charts and graphs, evaluate it by looking at other sources or hearing from an expert, and then finally communicate it by giving persuasive presentations to parents about why they should use fluorescent bulbs or sending letters to companies. Being able to develop their own experiments would require the students to be very comfortable with inquiry, however. Ms. Travis's method is helpful because it gives the students more structure.

Cool It!

Inquiry Criteria: Engage

Inquiry Specific Statement from Continuum: Learner engages in question provided by teacher, materials, or other source

Why it Fits: The lab tells students the exact question: "How does the temperature of a hot liquid change with stirring?" The students don't get to pick the topic or the variable.

How Could Improve: I don't think the students would ask this question on their own because "how to make a hot liquid cooler" isn't an extremely intriguing question on its own. Maybe if the teacher gave students some hot chocolate to drink but told them it was much too hot, this would make the experiment more relevant to their own lives. Another interesting avenue could be the McDonald's lawsuit about hot coffee. By discussing these ideas, the teacher would be more able to guide students towards the desired question.

Inquiry Criteria: Evidence

Inquiry Specific Statement from Continuum: Learner directed to collect certain data

Why it Fits: It isn't all the way to the right on the continuum because the students aren't given the data, but the students are told to gather a specific kind of data--the temperature every 3 minutes of the stirred and unstirred water.

How Could Improve: The teacher could have students decide on their own what would be a good variable to test.

Inquiry Criteria: Explain

Inquiry Specific Statement from Continuum: Learner given possible ways to use evidence to formulate explanation

Why it Fits: This isn't all the way to the right on the continuum because the students aren't given the evidence and a description of how to explain it. However, they are given several questions which guide their explanation. 

How Could Improve: The teacher could simply tell students to collect data and give an explanation for this data, without including any guiding questions.

Inquiry Criteria: Evaluate

Inquiry Specific Statement from Continuum: Not included

Why it Fits: Evaluating means that students go to other sources to see if their explanations are supported, and this step is not included. The lab ends when students explain their data.

How Could Improve: The students could explain their evidence and then go to other resources (such as books, the internet, pamphlets, or expert scientists) to see if their explanation matches up with other explanations.

Inquiry Critera: Communicate

Inquiry Specific Statement from Continuum: Not included

Why it Fits: The lab doesn't say anything about telling others about the results. There is graphing included, but the instructions say this is for data analysis and don't mention anything about display ing or justifying the evidence.

How Could Improve: As an easy improvement, the students could present their findings to the rest of the class. Another more interesting idea could be to write letters/give a presentation to McDonald's or other businesses with hot beverages in order to persuade them to adopt certain practices to prevent customers from getting burned.

Weather

Standards and Benchmarks:

Content Standard: K-4 Earth and Space Science
Content Standard: D-Changes in Earth and Sky

Benchmark: Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons

Learning Goals:

Students will understand that the underlying element of higher temperatures is the increase in directness of the sun's rays based on geographic location.

Formative Assessment:

The results of this formative assessment show that most of the students already know that there are several factors associated with high temperatures--they answered that two or more of the weather conditions would be present. The next most popular answer was that it would be sunny, which makes a lot of sense. Most students have a lifetime of personal experience telling them that when it's sunnier, it gets hotter.  The next most popular answer was that it would be humid. Some of the students also may have used personal experience to know that humidity can be associated with higher temperatures. The least popular answer was that there would be no wind, but from this, we see that some students have made this general association as well. I think students struggled with this formative assessment because they didn't understand the difference between causation and correlation. The three factors do not cause higher temperatures; they are simply often correlated with higher temperatures. When someone says that it's 90 degrees, one can make assumptions about the weather conditions, but weather is too complex for 100 percent confidence in those assumptions.

Learning Performance:

The question we are trying to answer as a class is "How are high temperatures created?" (The how question is evidence of an engaging activity). I will ask the class again what they think causes high temperatures in case there are other answers besides those offered in the probe. Based on their answers, students will be put into different groups according to what each student thinks (unless groups need to be rearranged based on ability level or the need to even out numbers). Each group will collect data about weather patterns in 5 or 6 different cities (which the class will decide on in order to have a good survey of all areas of the U.S.). These observations will lead us to a fuller picture of America's weather. Each day for about 1 school week, the students will split into their groups and go to the computer lab to visit www.weather.com. Here, they will record their group's variable and temperature in each city. (This is the evidence collection portion of the 5 step inquiry.) The data will be from approximately the same time in each location since everyone will be accessing the computers together. Directly after this, we will also take the temperature and measure the variables for our own area as a class by stepping outside. If some variables can't be physically assessed by the class, we can check those on www.weather.com as well. (If possible, the students could also have a correspondence with students from a different state to see what the data is like where  they live). The students will record their data, and the class will create charts so the data can be compared and some ideas can be formed. (Here is where the students will be explaining their evidence). After some tentative conclusions have been developed, it would be really interesting to have a weather man come into the classroom to discuss weather patterns in different parts of the United States. Along with this, students can look to other sources (books, Internet, etc.) to evaluate their explanations. Finally, the students could communicate their knowledge by giving a weather report to the school during the morning announcements. They could explain their learning about how high temperatures are created during this weather report. In order to make sure students achieve the original learning goal, I will scaffold them along the way to see that the differences between location of the cities plays a major role in temperature.

Inquiry in Science Classrooms

I thought this reading was very helpful because it explicitly demonstrated the connection between real science in practice and inquiry in a science classroom. Humans are innately curious, so if students discover they have unanswered questions, they will be more involved in searching for the answers. However, I have to admit that I found myself wondering why the geologist cared so much about some dead trees along a coastline. I feel like it's the same for many students, especially in traditional science classrooms that don't include an inquiry aspect. They wonder, "What is the point behind learning all this information?" I was very happy to see that there was, in fact, a point behind the geologist's work. Similarly, the students saw a solution to their tree problem. Showing students that science has practicality makes it even less removed from their everyday lives. As a teacher, I want my students to experience this connection to real world problems.

Secondly, this text addressed some of the concerns I've been having about constructivism. After reading our other articles, I felt a little lost about exactly how to set up a constructivist classroom. I liked that this reading talked about Mrs. Graham's class because this discussion included specific details of her instruction--making a list of hypotheses, splitting the students up into groups based on their ideas, scaffolding while the students designed experiments, showcasing the findings to the entire group at the end, deciding on the best answer, and "publishing" their work in a letter to the custodian. This organization made sense to me, and it could also help with differentiation based on students' ability levels if I adjusted the groups a little.

Finally, the myths section of this reading answered so many of my questions about inquiry in the science classroom. The distinction between "guided" (teacher-led) and "open" (student-led) inquiry helped me realize that not all inquiry lessons have to be centered on the students' questions. I think it would be best to have instruction on how to ask questions by starting the year out with more structured inquiry lessons. Also, it's important that students have background knowledge before they can ask questions, so every topic does not need to be taught through inquiry. These ideas made an inquiry-based classroom seem more realistic to me.

Shifting from Activitymania to Inquiry

This article was useful because it pointed out the difference between isolated activites and true inquiry-based instruction. Using activities is a step in the right direction because it's a departure from the teacher-centered approach and gets the students more involved in their learning. However, the author stresses that it's important to "clearly define conceptual goals and the relationships to students' lives and interests prior to selecting classroom activities" (16). If the activity is relatable and helps answer a question that students have in their day-to-day lives, the learning achieved from that activity will be more relevant and meaningful (and therefore, stronger). Another important aspect of this type of learning is that it places science in the hands of everyone--not just those who are "highly intelligent"--because science is less isolated from everyday life.

Along with being relevant, the activity must also be stimulating for the students. I like the idea of providing an activity which will summon up a lot of questions and spark inquiry. Our class did this when we confronted our misconceptions about the solar system and magnets, and for that reason, people seemed much more invested in the learning process. By choosing activities carefully so they spark interest, teachers can encourage a long term inquiry project. However, I do still have concerns about this method. It seems like it woud be difficult to plan out your days, and you would have to make a lot of last minute changes. Maybe it wouldn't bother me to have a flexible classroom, though, because I'm a last minute type of person.

The article also mentioned that the students should create their own rubrics, and I thought this was a very interesting idea. At first, I was unsure because students don't necessarily know the criteria. However, if they had seen one of my rubrics from a previous project, I feel like this could be helpful. I could also create my own rubric to use along with theirs. In my Social Studies Methods class we discussed the concept of "backward design," which involves creating assessments before deciding on the instructional activities. That way, the instruction is more likely to line up with your learning goals. Therefore, students should create their rubrics before they begin their investigation. I think this would give them a sense of direction and even more ownership of their project.

Planning a Benchmark Lesson

One of the most important points of this reading was that teachers should make it clear how students will demonstrate learning while they are writing their objectives. The article even went as far as to say that the term "objectives" should be changed to "learning performances," but I don't think the terminology really matters as long as the perfomance outcome is specified. This is important because if objectives require students to show their learning in a more concrete way, they will be more likely to learn and put their learning to practical use.

Another important point of this reading was that there are different kinds of knowledge and levels of cognitive processes. Factual knowledge is basic details, conceptual knowledge focuses more on interpretations and theories, procedural knowledge involves knowing how to do something, and metacognitive knowledge is knowledge of one's own cognition. I will use all of these in my classroom at different times. Metacognitive is important to focus on because otherwise I think it might not have enough attention, whereas the others happen more naturally. Science notebooks are a great place to write about your own learning. The different cognitive processes start with simply remembering facts and progress all the way up to creating something. It's important to include this highest level of cognitive processing to make the learning experience more meaningful for students.

Finally, this reading provided a lesson plan format that is useful for a project-based science classroom. I like the idea of everything relating back to a central question. Then there is a sense of continuity and also relevance because that broad question is more easily relatable to everyday life. I also liked the fact that this lesson plan format included the idea of safety. I've never seen that in a lesson plan format before, and I think it's very important to think about--especially in a science classroom.

Iowa Core Science Curriculum

The Iowa Core Curriculum in science includes standards about Science as Inquiry, Earth and Space, Life Science, and Physical Science. I looked at the standards for 3rd-5th grade classrooms, and I saw a lot of connections to what we've been discussing in class. The fact that there is an entire section dedicated to Science as Inquiry shows the importance of the constructivist method of instruction. Students are expected to ask questions on their own and design experiments, not just accept what the teacher tells them is scientific truth. I also noticed that this section mentioned the use of computers in investigations. As we've been discussing in class, technology is very important in today's classrooms. I like the idea of using Google Documents like we've been doing to record data in our class. Finally, this section discussed critiquing and analyzing their own work. I think it's very important to make students comfortable with self-evaluation because it's a great method of formative assessment that increases independence. I always hated evaluating my own work, but I think if I had been exposed to it more, I would have had less trouble. Science notebooks would be a good place for monitoring their own progress.

In the other three sections of standards, I found some other areas of interest. The Earth and Space section discussed changes of earth's land and oceans (which can result in earthquakes, floods, etc.) and weather patterns. I thought that it would be very meaningful to integrate social studies and science together by discussing the science behind natural disasters, discussing a recent natural disaster, and raising money or doing a food/clothing drive to help the victims. Another focus area in this section was ideas about the solar system. As we've learned in class, this is a topic that is shrouded in many misconceptions, so I will make sure to address those misconceptions in my future classroom. In the Life Science section, there was a standard about environmental stewardship, and I was reminded of the School of the Wild. I think going to a camp like this, or even just doing a one-day field trip to a nature center, is a good way to make lessons about the environment more meaningful. Also, one could incorporate this subject with social studies by teaching environmental history or talking more indepth about policy. Developing a project to help alleviate an environmental problem in the community would be a very relevant learning experience as well. The standard about sound, light, electricty, etc. in the Physical Science section made me think of another cross-curricular idea--learning about sound through the musical instruments. The standards also mentions the use of math, so this is another area that should be integrated. I think that integrating the content areas like this would be a very meaningful way to learn (even though it might be a little tricky to implement) because real life isn't compartmentalized like school subjects.

Mosart

I can definitely see myself using the Mosart assessments with my students in the future. They seem to be a great way to uncover misconceptions before starting science units. However, I may consider changing the format a little. The tutorial mentioned that the multiple choice questions helped teachers save time and were actually sufficient for understanding students' misconceptions, but I'm not convinced. I liked the format that Keeley used in her book of probes--multiple choice along with an explanation for why you chose your answer. I think this would help with the problem of students randomly choosing answers. I could even tell students that they should write "I guessed a random answer" as their reasoning if they have no understanding of the question at all. They could also explain their "ruling out" strategies in this explanation portion. If I don't include this, I think it would be a good idea to interview some of the students after they took the test to find out more information.

Overall, though, I think that these Mosart assessments would be very helpful for understanding the misconceptions of the entire class and also of individuals. There might be a misconception that basically every student has, and then I would know to address this with the entire class. However, one student could have a good understanding of some standards and have misconceptions in other standards, while another student is the exact opposite. Analyzing these tests would help me see how to differentiate my science classroom to address that problem. I'm not sure if it would be too chaotic, but perhaps different group experiments could be going on at once in order to address different students' misconceptions. The students could share their results to the entire class by a certain due date.

Another interesting point brought up by the tutorial was that misconceptions can actually be a sign of learning. Sometimes more advanced students are the ones who have the most complex personal theories. This is because they actually took time to consider how the world works. A student may have randomly chosen an answer in the pre-test, but if he specifically chooses a misconception answer in the post-test, this shows he has grown intellectually. For that reason, I will make sure to examine the pre-tests and post-tests carefully to look for those hidden improvements. I also like the idea of giving the pre-test again after the post-test to see if the learning has been retained, but I wasn't sure when this should happen. In my opinion, it may be best to do this towards the end of the school year but still allow enough time to reteach some concepts if necessary.