©
2003 Steve Spangler Inc. All Rights Reserved. Call (800) 223-9080. The
National Hands-on Science Institute is presented by
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Inquiry:
A Critical Learning Foundation Three third grade boys crowd shoulder to shoulder, bent over a smoking milk bottle where a fat water balloon is perched to fit snug on the milk bottle's mouth. The three hold their breath in silence. They exchange nervous glances. Just then, the water balloon starts to bounce and jiggle up and down on top of the bottle. The three exchange looks again. Wait - what now..... The water balloon slowly starts to suck itself into an elongated shape. With that, the young scientists jump under the science lab table, crouched together with their hands cupped, covering their ears. The boy's rash reaction caused them to miss the experiment's grand finale - the moment the water balloon would squeeze itself through the bottle's mouth and, with a thunk, land unbroken inside. Certain the balloon was going to explode, and then quickly realizing it did not, the three jumped out from under the table wanting to know exactly what did happen in their absence. The event raised more questions than gave answers. Why did the water balloon get sucked in the bottle? What sucked it in there, anyway? Can we do it again? Would it work with a pop bottle? Can we do it with an egg? What if the balloon had air in it instead of water? If we can just get more smoke into the bottle next time......... Then, a really big question emerges, requiring the concentrated focus of all three of them, "Now how do we get the water balloon back out of the bottle?" Such was the week for three elementary boys joining this year's Hands-on Summer Science Camp through the National Hands-on Science Institute in conjunction with Front Range Community College. On any given day at the camp, these three boys, of 144 total elementary age students attending, could be found in the lab making green slime, swirling a vortex of water, pressurizing marshmallows, blowing up windbags, building circuits to light bulbs or ring a buzzer and many more inquiry-based, hands-on experiments that kept them immersed in learning and sent them home tired at days end. The students' science coaches were a dynamic group of teachers from elementary and middle schools in Colorado and several other states. For most teachers arriving, they had barely finished taking down and packing away their regular classroom supplies for summer vacation before heading out of town for the week long Hands-on Summer Science training in Broomfield, Colorado. Each morning of the week, course instructors Steve Spangler and Doug Hodous demonstrated a multitude of inquiry driven, 'Big Idea,' unit theme experiments to the teachers, covering foundational knowledge in areas like air, water, electricity, magnetism, energy, polymers and mystery science. From simple, inexpensive activities that lead back to an important, core knowledge concept, to those demonstrations that went bang, pow, and whir, leaving a trail of smoke, the unit theme experiments encouraged exploration, critical thinking skills, and hands-on discovery. Equally important to educational methods, Spangler and Hodous wove critical, standards based components, such as problem solving, measurement, prediction, hypothesis, probability, basic statistics, and estimation into the inquiry-driven science tasks. All of it done with regular, spontaneous, intermittent "oohs and aahs" from the teachers. Following lunch, and armed with loads of new materials and ideas, this energized group of teachers-turned-science coaches then toted their materials to greet incoming student scientists signed up for the afternoon science camp. With an average of one coach for every three students, teachers solidified what they had just learned in the morning session by, what nearly all educators know is the most optimal path to learning -- doing. And doing was the dominant theme all week long. This group of science whiz kids developed their critical thinking skills as they learned about polymers from the inner contents of a simple baby's diaper. They thickened gels and observed a liquid move to solid without temperature change. Just when they thought the color black was truly black, it turned to rainbow hues. They learned about air and density by floating, and then sinking, a brightly colored, plastic squid in a 2- liter bottle of water. The students watched amazing egg tricks, like how to squeeze an egg without breaking it. They witnessed the air force from a plastic garbage can blow the hair from someone's face who was standing clear across the gymnasium. They found out how many drops of water can squeeze onto the head of a penny. And they discovered plastic bottles that were brimming with so much air, not even a wad of paper could squeeze in to them. Through it all, the lab science coaches helped students collaborate with one another in team efforts to discern exactly why the experiment worked or, more importantly, why it did not. Initial basic questions led to whole trails of more questions. In the process, science coach educators found they could also chalk off covering another important standard in instruction, that essential literacy component, as their young scientists logged significant steps of the experiment, its outcome, or connected emerging ideas into their journals through diagrams, pictures or sentences. (The Institute also carries information listing several childrens' literature books linked directly to the concept of the science unit being explored.) To include core knowledge for elementary mathematics in the process, add a minimal effort in creative thinking. By pausing the activity at significant junctures, students can be asked to consider and demonstrate the numeric expression tied to the experiment in a multitude of ways. For example, can we weigh it?, if so, how? Can we figure the volume?, What is the geometric shape expressed? Is knowing the diameter important to the outcome? What mathematical graph could be used to show our predictions before we run the experiment? Then, once we know the outcome of the experiment, what pie graph, line graph, bar graph, or any other graph, can we use to describe the results. Numbers and number sense can be easily linked in at key juncture points of the process. Additionally, any and all of the more than 200 simple science experiments from the National Hands-On Science Institute, give teachers another assessment method and opportunity to expand how we perceive 'intelligence' among our students. It's worth the effort to experience the shift in a formerly mind-wandering student, who suddenly connects to this language of discovery. You'll wonder where he's been all year. In the case of our three third grade boys with the milk bottle and water balloon that began this article, all three boys insisted on repeating that same experiment five different times to check their predicted outcome. Smart scientists! From this scenario, it's a simple bridge to cross on the instructional path to mathematical fractions. After all, how many times did the balloon successfully suck into the bottle, out of how many attempts? And, can we chart that with a pie graph too? Of course, we could skip all this completely and list some science facts with math fractions on the overhead projector. We could also take a look at energy from solar diagrams on a hand-out. How about a quick bubble test to wind up the assessment afterwards? Sound familiar? Well, don't anyone beat yourself up over it. We know, all too well, the tremendous load teachers work with every day in the classroom, often under limited time and funds. It's understandable that, at first blush, wading knee deep into materials-based, hands-on instruction can, initially scare us into thinking we could drowned. Yet, years of research from direct data and evidence indicates that kids learn best when they are immersed in rich, active environments which involve them physically and link them emotionally to the exercise. The idea is that the search for meaning comes through patterning. Emotions are critical to patterning. Instructional methods, such as hands-on science, evokes emotion. The activity becomes meaningful as it is linked to personal interaction and emotion. And, finally, tasks that are perceived as meaningful, become solidified in the learning process. Further, research also shows that despite this information, teachers still tend to teach similar to the way they themselves were taught. For many of us, that can peg a time line on the history chart 40 or more years past. Educational researchers have done a lot of work since then. So, if you should think you might just want to have a peak at some of this hands-on science, urge yourself on. You may find in the end, as many other instructors have, that the inquiry-based portion of your teaching day creates a vortex of exhilarating and inspiring energy, rejuvenating yourself and your students to higher ground the rest of the school day. Your students
are likely to come away from these experiences with that most critical
learning foundation in place: to wonder, question, seek, try, find - then
ask some more. In the end, isn't that really what we wanted to send home
with them all along?
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©
2003 Steve Spangler Inc. All Rights Reserved. Call (800) 223-9080. The
National Hands-on Science Institute is presented by
|