Nature of Science and Inquiry

MSP GRANT

MARTINSON CENTER FOR MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE

TRAINING MODULE 1

Nature of Science and Inquiry

This four day training will introduce teachers to the Nature of Science and In-quiry and applications in the K-5 class-room.

DAY 1

Materials are based on teachers working in groups of 5 participants.

• Fossil Find Materials. Download at

• http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/gr.fs.fd.html

• (4) popcorn kernels for each group

• Test tube

• Test tube holder

• Small votive candle

• 3-6 drops of oil

• Pipettes

• Chart paper

• AID sheet for each group

• Nature of Science Reading from Science for All Americans-pages: http://www.project2061.org/publications/sfaa/online/chap1.htm

• Essential Features of Inquiry from Natural Science Standards-http://www.nps.gov/goga/forteachers/upload/Inquiry%20Spectrum.pdf

• Workshop Packet for Participants

NATURE OF SCIENCE AND INQUIRY

Materials ListDAY 2

Materials are based on teachers working in groups of 5 participants.

• Ice balloons

• PTC paper

• Leaves for trait tree

• Large chart paper with tree outline

• Workshop packet for participants

DAY 3

• UV beads ordered from Discount School Supply.

Search for “magic color sunlight pony beads”.

• Dry ice- purchased from Harris Teeter or Kroger

• Tongs

• Cooler

• Tall, clear cups

• Water

• Dish soap

• Chart paper

• Workshop packets for participants

DAY 4

• Water gel crystals-can be ordered from:

• Pencils

• Markers

• Chart paper

• Workshop packet for participants

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DAY 1

Nature of Science and Inquiry Begin the workshop welcoming the teachers and explaining the purpose of the workshop (slide 2)

Icebreaker: Lead the group in a get-to-know you activity called Who Am I? (slide 3)

Who Am I?

Directions: Place a sticky note on each participants backs. They have to ask questions of other participants in order to find out what Disney character they have been assigned. Par-ticipants can only ask yes or no questions. When they figure out who they are, direct them to sit down.

The purpose of the first activity is for teachers to experience several of the features of the Nature of Science. In this activ-ity, teachers work as paleontologists trying to make sense of fossils (slide 4).

Engage/Explore:

Give each group an envelop that has the cut out bone pieces. Direct one person in the group to pull out five bone pieces. Working together, the group should try to make sense of the bones.

Begin the activity with slide 5. Ask teachers to pull out 4 fossil bones from the envelope. This will “represent” the bones they

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ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1. What is the Nature of Science?

2. What are the Essential Features of Inquiry?

3. How does an elementary teacher implement the nature of science and inquiry in the classroom?

Welcome and Introductions

Nature of Science

have dug up from their work in the field. Give participants 5 minutes to discuss what type of animal they think and why.

Continue with the activity going through the following days:

Slide 6 gives directions for day 2 of the dig.

Slide 7 gives directions for day 3 of the dig.

Slide 8 gives directions for day 4 of the dig. On this day, the ac-tivity calls for teachers to visit other groups to see how they are arranging the fossils. Groups need to see if they can learn anything from the other group’s work.

Sample layout a group developed based off their work.

Slide 9 gives directions for day 5 of the dig. For this part of the activity, give teachers the Skeleton Manual. This book has skeletons of various organisms the groups can use in making their final decisions.

Slide 10: Groups will now present their findings to all the other groups. Use slide 10 to provide teachers with the pa-rameters of the poster.

Here is a sample of a group’s poster:

Once posters have been put up, allow each group to do a gal-lery walk. In a gallery walk, groups go together to view work and compare their work to that of other groups.

Upon completion of the gallery walk, have the entire group dis-cuss the following questions:

• What does your data show?

• How does your data compare with other groups?

• Slide 12-go over the animal name and information- use this link for information on the animal: http://www.rae.org/pdf/egscphrv.pdf

Break: Give 20 minutes break

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Activity 2: Making Connections

Explain

Welcome the group back. Tell them the purpose of this next series of activities: to learn about the nature of science and make connections between the activity they just completed and how it represents the nature of science.

Slide 13: Jigsaw: Using a modified version of the Jigsaw Strategy, group members will become experts in one of the aspects of the Nature of Science and then will teach the larger group. Assign each group a section of the reading.

After reading and discussing their assigned aspect of the Na-ture of Science, groups must use Marzano’s Non-Linquistic representation to articulate what they have learned. Groups must create a picture that only uses pictures to represent what they have learned.

Have the groups share out. Then reinforcing the ideas using the power point slides taken from the VA State NOS Work-shop found at .

Go over slide 3 and make sure teachers are aware where the Nature of Science objectives reside in the curriculum frame-work (slide 16).

Activity 3: Making Meaning

Extend:

Give each person the magical fish object. Have the partici-pants put the fish on the table and make observations of the fish. Record the observations on a piece of chart paper.

Next, have each person pick up the fish and put in the palm of their hands. Have them make observations on what happens (the fish should begin to curl up).

Have the group make a list of the questions they have about their object based on their observations.

Work with the group to come up with a way to test out what they think may make the fish move. Teachers will often say the fish moves due to the heat of your hands, if this is the case, then ask them what they could do that might make their hands “warmer?” They could rub them together to create more friction. **note this is not why the fish moves!

The paper fish moves because it is made of a material that ab-sorbs the water from your hand. If you drop water on it, it will begin to curl. Lead teachers to put water on the fish and make observations.

Lead a discussion as to how what they just did represents the Nature of Science.

Break-20 minutes

Activity 4: Experiencing an Inquiry-Based Lesson

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The following activity begins on slide 20 in power point.

During this part of the workshop, teachers will switch gears and learn about the essential features that must be present in a lesson in order for the lesson to be considered inquiry-based.

Inform the group they will be engaged in a lesson that would be taught in the 3rd grade and connected to the water cycle. This lesson is a great example of extending content and apply-ing it to the real world.

Engage:

Begin by using the Circle Thinking Map to have teachers re-cord everything they think they know about popcorn. Have each person do this individually. Give only 3:45 seconds to complete this task.

Next, have the teams use the structure Round Table to share their ideas with their group members. Each person shares one idea and then the next person shares and so on until everyone has shared an idea. The process continues a second time, but this time, group members can only share an idea that has not been stated. Any new ideas that are not on each group mem-bers sheet should be recorded. At the conclusion of the Round Table, each member of the group should have a master record of what was shared.

Share out as a whole group-to do this, ask the person in the group with the shortest hair to stand up. This time do a Round

Class (going and sharing around the room) and post ideas on the board. Upon completion of everyone sharing all ideas, be sure to give a “round of applause” for all the hard work.

After using the circle map, have the groups make observations of popped and un-popped kernels. List these observations on a chart paper for the entire group to see.

Using a Double Bubble Thinking Map (slide 22), have groups compare and contrast the popped versus the un-popped ker-nels.

At this point, have teachers make a connection between their brainstorming activity and the observations of the kernels. Does any of the evidence from their observations perhaps sup-port any idea of how the popcorn kernels popped? Have the teachers share their ideas.

Explore:

In the explore portion of this lesson, teachers now get to make observations as they pop two kernels of popcorn.

Go over the safety precautions and directions on slide 27. Please note: All teachers must wear goggles for this activity!

Have the materials manager get all the materials for the group. The group leader should set up the activity and when the group is ready, call for the teacher to come and light the votive candle for the group. As soon as the popcorn is put over the flame, the timekeeper should begin to time. The recorder

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for the group should be encouraging each group member to make carefully observations.

At each point something is observed occurring to the popcorn, the timekeeper should indicate the time.

When the kernel pops, the group needs to blow out the candle.

Using the Thinking Routine Headline(Use this link for direc-tions: http://www.socrative.com/garden/?p=73) , each group should look over all the data and come up with a headline that explains what makes popcorn pop.

Gallery Walk-using the gallery walk strategy again, have the teams post their statements on chart paper. Groups should conduct a gallery walk to read and discuss other groups explanations.

Here is an example of a sample statement developed:

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Whole Group Discussion: Use the following questions to guide the discussion for the groups:

• What does your data show?

• How does your data compare with other groups?

Discuss the findings from the groups.

Explain:

In the explain portion of the lesson, the teachers will now read what scientists indicate is the reason popcorn pops (slide 28). Using the reading strategy, It Says, I Say, and So, group mem-bers should take what they learn from the reading (teachers record this information in the It Says side of the chart) (slide 29 in the power point) and what they have learned from the activity (I say side of the chart) to come up with an inference (and so part of the Chart) that will articulate why popcorn pops.

It Says, I Say, and So is a great reading strategy to scaffold the process of making an inference. Inferences are based on what you know and what you have read or seen. In this activity, do-ing the hands-on part helps children to experience something they can say they now know.

Discuss with the group the inferences they developed.

Explain to teachers how the popping of popcorn reflects the stages of water changing states. In nature, we see water chang-ing states in the water cycle. During the water cycle, liquid wa-

ter is heated and changed to a gas (water vapor). This process is called evaporation. The gas (water vapor) is cooled and changed back to a liquid. This process is called condensation. Water as a liquid or a solid falls to the ground as precipitation.

Ask the teachers to identify which parts of the water cycle are represented and where in the popcorn activity. As the kernel heats up, the small amount of water inside the kernel begins to change to a gas. As the pressure builds up, the gas finds it way out through the tip of the kernel. You know this because soon we see condensation on the top of the test tube. Eventu-ally the pressure inside the kernel becomes so great, it pops and literally turns the kernel inside out.

Extend

Have group members then work to use the scientific explana-tion frame to write up their explanation based on the data they collected. Groups should share out what they create.

Break-10 minutes

Essential Features of Inquiry-Features

Engage/Explore

During this part of the workshop, teachers will learn about the essential features of inquiry. For teachers to develop inquiry based science lessons, they need to understand there are fea-tures of inquiry that must be present in order for the lesson to be identified as an inquiry based lesson.

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Discuss the strategy of jigsaw. In this portion of the lesson, teachers will work together as expert groups to learn about one feature of inquiry. They will then create a poster using only pictures (non-linguistic representation) to explain what they learned.

Explain

Using slides 32-35, go over the 5 essential features of inquiry. Not all of these features have to be present in a lesson, but there should be at least one feature for the lesson to be identi-fied as an inquiry based lesson. Slide 34 shows a great graphic that can be used for planning purposes. The goal over the year is to move students from being dependent upon the teacher to being able to generate their own questions, identify the data they need to collect, analyze data, develop conclusions, and communicate findings. In your discussion, have teachers go back to the popcorn lesson and identify which features of in-quiry were present.

Extend

Give teachers the sample lesson and using the essential fea-tures of inquiry worksheet, have the teachers individually iden-tify how the lesson exhibits the essential features of inquiry. Then lead the group in a discussion.

Assessment: Give the teachers the exit ticket for the day. The data collected from this exit ticket will be used on Day 2.

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ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS FOR DAY

1. What are the types of research students can engage in?

2. How do you help students to learn how to develop questions on their own?

DAY 2

Inquiry Begins with Generating Questions

Activity 1: Generating Questions

The purpose of day 2 is to reinforce the concepts learned in day 1 and expand a teacher’s thinking as it pertains to equip-ping students to generate their own testable questions. A key feature of inquiry is the ability to answer questions.

To understand inquiry, teachers must understand the type of question student’s ask is related to the type of research they conduct. An experiment is simply research, but it is a specific type of research scientists conduct.

Engage

Post the exit ticket responses from the day 1. Go over any ques-tions or clarify and items needed. (slide 2)

Once you are done going over the exit tickets, review day 1’s activity using the group’s circle map posters. Have teachers re-share with their table-mates what they learned about what makes popcorn pop (slide 3).

Explore

Tell the teachers they are going to walk through the Four Ques-tion Strategy in order for you to model how they can guide their own students to develop a testable question. (slide 4 )

Begin the process by asking the group to respond to this question (slide 4)

1. What did the popcorn do when it was put in the test tube?10

they should respond by saying it popped.

Say that’s right. It popped. So let’s use that action to develop a testable question so we can research more about popping pop-corn.

Give the groups the second question in the process-

2. What materials do we need if we are going to come up with a testable question related to popping popcorn? (slide 5)

Have the group individually brainstorm for about 2 minutes. Then using the cooperative learning structure Numbered Heads Together, to have the groups share out their responses to question 2.

Thank the teachers for their work. Tell them if it is okay with them, you are going to pick the following materials to con-tinue with the brainstorming process- popcorn and oil.

Now, lead students through question three.

Question 3: How can we change these materials that might af-fect how popcorn pops? (slide 6) Post the following chart for

teachers and have them use it to brainstorm.

Here is a sample of items brainstormed for a previous work-shop:

POPCORN OIL

change the number of kernels

change the brand

change the temperature of

kernel (cold versus room temperature)

change the amount

change the brand

Use the Numbered Heads together strategy again.

After the teachers share out, go over the responses and lead teachers to pick changing the brand of popcorn.

Last, give teachers the 4th question in the process.

4. What could we observe or measure that would tell us chang-ing the brand of popcorn affects how the popcorn pops. (slide 7)

This question tends to be the more challenging for students. They need to think about what data could they collect.

Have teachers brainstorm what they could observe or meas-ure. Teachers should individually brainstorm and then share out with their group by taking turns sharing an idea. Everyone should generate a master list.

Then share out as a group.

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POPCORN OIL

Lead teachers to fill in this question stem. This question will be the testable question they research:

Investigate the affects of changing _______________ on

_______________________.

The first blank is from question #3 and the second blank is from question #4.

Explain

The goal of any K-12 science program should be the develop-ment of student skills to enable them to work like scientists. The four question strategy is a great tool to begin to help stu-dents think and work like scientists.

At this point, share slide 10 with the teachers. Being a sci-entist means students must learn to ask questions but more importantly, understand that asking questions means they will have to deal with ambiguity. We won’t know the answers until we are done and even then, we may end up with more questions, but that is part of the inquiry process. Tell the teachers they will be coming back to work more with the Four Question Strategy but at this point, they need to learn more about the types of questions students can research.

Generating questions (slide 11-12):

Give each group an ice balloon (do not tell them it is an ice bal-loon). Using the “object,” have the groups brainstorm as many questions individually they can about the object. They should put one question on an index card. The goal is to brainstorm as many questions as they can about their object.

Call time after 2 minutes. The group should now take all the index cards and put together in one pile. Have the group share out some questions (slide 13)

Card Sorting (slide 14):

Take about five minutes to quickly go through all your ques-tions and sort them into two piles. One pile should be for the questions you think are “investigable,” and the other pile should be for questions you think are “non-investigable.” Just to clarify our terms here. . . Investigable questions are the ones you think can be investigated by doing something con-crete with tools and materials. Some people call these kinds of questions “investigable.” Non-investigable questions—some-times called “non-investigable”—are the ones you think can-not be answered by investigating with tools and materials.

The idea here is to really do a quick sort. You’ll have more time later to analyze the differences between the two types of questions.

Card Sorting Step 2 (Slide 12):

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Examine the stacks of investigable and non-investigable ques-tions you generated earlier, think about what makes a ques-tion investigable, and come up with some criteria for identify-ing investigable questions. Have one person record your crite-ria on the paper that’s just been handed out. Take about 10 minutes.

Slide 17-19: Go over the three types of research questions can be categorized into.

Have student read the three readings and discuss the types of questions (found in the book Looking for Data in All the Right Places).

There are three types of research questions-descriptive, his-torical, and experimental. While experimental is what most scientists engage in, some do engage in descriptive research. Often this type of research is done when conditions are al-ready manipulated-many educational research studies fall in this category as variables such as age, family background, so-cial economic status are all outside of a researcher’s control.

Extend

Get the Gist! Types of Research Questions

Have each group read their assigned types of research ques-tion.

Give groups time to read. Next have groups do a Stand-Up, Hand-Up, Pair-Up ( a cooperative learning struc-ture) to find someone who read the same sections.

Working together with your new partner, you and your part-ner will come up with a 20 word paragraph that explains what you read.

You will then have a meeting of the minds of other people who had your same section and what you read.

Break: 20 minutes

Activity 2: Making Meaning

Engage

In this next part of day 2, teachers will experience a classroom lesson and will have to identify the type of research the lesson exemplifies.

Show slide 21 and ask teachers to work as a group to come up with an answer and an explanation to the question: Are all peo-ple the same?

Have teams share out their answers and explanations.

Explore

Using slides 21-31, have teachers record their answers to the questions on the sample leaf pattern you provide (leaf has the information recorded on it). Once done, teachers will then put the leaf on the “Trait Tree.” (slide 27)

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Have the groups stand back from the tree once it is all done and make observations of what they see when they look at the tree and the leaves. Groups should generate a statement to share out.

Explain

Using slides 19 and 20, lead a discussion on the data. What does it tell us? What is the most common combination of traits in the class? What is the least common combination of traits in the class?

Working with the group, use slides 31 to define the term popu-lation. Groups will use the vocabulary strategy Concept Defi-nition Mapping in order to define the characteristics, exam-ples, as well as come up with a definition to use. A population is a group of organisms of the same kind that lives in the same place. Examples of a population are a flock of swans in a pond, a school of fish in a river, and a herd of cattle in the grassland. Humans are all in the same population, key here to point out is we look different and have different features based on the combination of genes that we have inherited.

Extend

Ask the group the following question-do they think other work-shops participants would have similar results to ours? How could we find out. Have the groups share how they would an-swer this question.

Activity 3: Transferring Knowledge

Tell the teachers this is the end of the classroom lesson. Now they will transfer what they have learned to see if they can identify the type of research this lesson exemplifies. Using slide , engage workshop participants in the cooperative learning structure Placemat Consensus to work to identify what type of research they feel the lesson exemplifies.

Next, have the group decide which type of research they con-ducted and why.

What teaches just experienced was an example of descriptive research. The factors of being able to taste the PTC paper, roll your tongue, or whether or not your earlobes are free or at-tached are all factors controlled by genes. You are born with these traits and they are not something that can be taught. They are inherited. Thus, all this study did was examine the conditions as they appeared in the population. As researchers, we could not manipulate the variables (PTC tasting, rolling tongue, or earlobes) as nature manipulated them for us. We used the data to simply describe. We could have used statis-tics in later grades to analyze the data to see if girls have cer-tain characteristics that appear more frequently than boys.

If we wanted to turn this into an experimental research study, we would have to actually do something to the group to see if it made a difference. In this case, that would be really hard to do!

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Assessment: Penny for Your Thoughts

Give each group a penny and explain how to use this feedback loop. The data collected will be used during the next day.

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ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1. How can the Four Question Strategy be used to help students develop the ability to generate questions?

2. How can you assess a student’s ability to design an experiment?

DAY 3

Supporting Students while they Inquire

Welcome the group back to the workshop.

Begin the day by going over the Penny for your Thoughts from the previous day. Answer any lingering questions.

Activity 1: Morning Wake-up! Making Connections-Day 1-3.

Engage

Engage the participants in the morning wake-up. Tell the teachers that when the music comes on they are going to do a stand-up, hand-up and find a different friend to work with for this activity.

Once groups are in position, have the groups discuss slide 3. Then move the teachers by playing music again. Teachers should thank their friends.

Now, discuss slide 4. Repeat the process to discuss slide 5.

Have the teachers come back to their seats and do a group share out out the the three slides and slide 6.

Key points to make: science activities should allow children to grow in their ability to do things independently. Activities should also model the key idea we learn from what we con-sider are failures. Lastly, when we do activities that go counter to what children believe, we foster curiosity and hook them into learning.

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Use slide 6 to do a review of the activities from the previous day.

Activity 2: Supporting Inquiry

Explore

Conducting inquiry is a cycle and requires support in order to become an expert. This activity will engage teachers in an ac-tivity and allow them to use the 4 question to design a testable question.

Begin the activity by engaging teachers in the activity What is Black? In this activity, teachers will use water to separate out black into the colors that make up the ink. Do not tell teach-ers this before they begin. Just have them draw 2 colored cir-cles on the filter paper. Drop water and observe.

Then have the teachers share out their wonderings (slide 12)

At this point. Remind the teachers they have just done a sim-ple activity to observe something (water can separate colors that make up ink).

This was not an experiment. In order to do an experiment we have to change something. Tell the teachers they are going to now go through the 4 Question Strategy in order to design a testable question based on the activity we just completed.

Lead the teachers through the following questions:

Question 1: What did the water do when we added it to the dots on the page? (we began to see colors)

** list everything the teachers say. Once the brainstorming process is over, lead teachers to pick the action of separating colors from ink.

Question2: What materials will we need if we are going to de-sign a testable question on separating ink colors?

(filter paper, pen, water)

**teachers may say a specific type of pen or they may say a dif-ferent colored pen. Keep the responses here general. It will help the brainstorming process as you go to step 3. Lead teach-ers to select filter paper, pen, and water for the next question.

Question 3: How can we change these materials to see if they have an affect on separating ink?

** a great way to scaffold this for students is to use a chart like the one below:

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FILTER PAPER

WATER PEN

change the type of paper

used

change the color

change the size

change the

amount

change the color

change the type of pen

change the color

The key with question 3 is to allow as many ideas as possible. Essentially anything brainstormed in question 3 can become the independent variable that is changed. For this process, lead the teachers to pick the color of the pen. Highlight that choice.

Question 4: If we change the color of the pen, what will we ob-serve or measure to see if the ink separates differently?

**this is the hardest question in the process. Because this ques-tion is based on making observations or collecting numerical data, students may struggle if they have not had time with measuring. Lead the teachers to select they will measure the colors they see.

To come up with your testable question, lead the teachers to fill out this scaffold:

Investigate the effect of changing the color of a visa vis pen on the colors produced.

Allow the teachers to do this activity to see if changing the col-ors of the pen makes a difference on the colors produced.

Explain

Go over slide 13 -14 with the teachers. The four question strat-egy, which first appeared in the book Students and Research, was used to help students come up with science fair experi-ments. But if you alter it slightly, you can use it in everyday curriculum experiences. It is a tool to help students come up with a testable questions. Some students may not need to use it.

Go over the content behind the activity. This is a great exam-ple of chromatography. Chromatography is a set of tech-niques that is used to separate mixtures. There are a number of different types (gas, liquid, paper, and even gel permeata-tion). Used in a variety of fields such as forensics. This is a great connection to grade 5 Mixtures. A mixture is a combina-tion of two or more substances that do not lose their identify-ing characteristics when combined. A solution is a mixture in which one substance dissolves in another. With water soluble pens, there are multiple colors that make up the pen’s signa-ture. Adding water simply separates out the solution.

Extend

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Have teachers practice the strategy again by engaging in the Gobstoppers Activity. Use Slides 16-18. In this activity, teach-ers will ultimately choose one thing to change in order to see what affects the dissolving rate of gobstoppers. Work with teachers to set up the experiment and allow them to run the experiment.

Once teachers are done, discuss with the group the results. Come back to the question they were trying to find the answer to-Does temperature affect the time it takes a Gobstopper to dissolve? Make sure teams focus on whether or not their data supports or does not support the question.

After they discuss the results of the experiment, have the teachers connect to the content-does temperature make a dif-ference on dissolving? How could this lesson be helpful for 1st graders as they are learning how to make observations and learn that temperature does speed up dissolving rates? How could they connect it to the motion of molecules (as molecules are heated, they move faster and thus they end up breaking down the gobstopper faster).

Break-2o minutes. Have teams clean up during this time

Activity 3: Types of Inquiry

In this part of the workshop, teachers will build a sound sand-wich. The activity will be used to model structured inquiry.

Then teachers will use the four question strategy to design a testable question and experiment using the sound sandwich. This part will modeled guided inquiry. The teachers will read about the types of inquiry.

Engage

Give teachers the materials to make a sound sandwich.

Explore

Work with the teachers to use the 4 question strategy to de-sign a testable question related to pitch and sound.

Explain

Use the strategy Jigsaw (slide 23), have the teachers read the article. Lead teachers through a discussion of the types of in-quiry that can be done in the classroom. Ask the teachers to identify, out of the activities we have done so far in the work-shop, which ones they would label as structured and guide in-quiry.

Go over the content behind the sound sandwich. As you move the location of the smaller straws, the pitch changes. Pitch is determined by the frequency of a vibrating object. Objects vi-brating faster have a higher pitch than objects vibrating slower. A change in frequency of sound waves causes an audi-ble sensation—a difference in pitch.

This is also a good time to explain the concept of musical in-struments. Musical instruments vibrate to produce sound.

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There are many different types of musical instruments and each instrument causes the vibrations in different ways. The most widely accepted way to classify musical instruments is to classify them by the way in which the sound is produced by the instrument. The four basic classifications are percussion instruments (e.g., drums, cymbals), stringed instruments (e.g., violin, piano, guitar), wind instruments (e.g., flute, clari-net, trumpet, trombone), and electronic instruments (e.g., electronic organ, electric guitar).

Elaborate

Show teachers slide 33-37. Go over the research regarding how students learn science. This is very important as students need a context for activities in order to learn.

Be sure to point out that the content related to pitch is easier to teach because we provide context for the students. Because they have built the sound sandwich and have manipulated the design, they can see how changing the length of the rubber band that is able to vibrate directly affects the pitch of the sound produced.

To close the workshop, have the group do a 3-2-1 before they leave. Each person should write 3 things they learned today, 2 ah’s they had during the time, and 1 question rolling around in their head.

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ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS FOR DAY

1. How do we change our practice to do things differently?

DAY 4

Making Changes to Prac-tice

During this day, teachers will work on developing ways to in-corporate what they have learned into their classroom prac-tice. Activity 1: Morning Wake-up! Making Connections-Day 1-3.

Begin the day with the warm-up, have teachers get up and meet their peers until the music stops. Then they should pair up with a partner to discuss the picture on slide 3-how are chil-dren natural investigators?

When the pairs are finished sharing, have the entire group share out. Then allow teachers to thank their partners for working with each other. Use slide 4 to review from the previ-ous day’s workshop.

Children are natural investigators. From the time they are born, they are trying things out. What happens if I drop this cup? What happens if I do this. As science teachers, we can tap into this.

Activity 2: Putting it together

Engage

Give each group a cup that has the water gel crystals in it. Do not tell the teachers what the name of the objects. Ask them to use their senses to generate words that would describe the ob-jects (slide 6). Report these out on chart paper. Ask the teach-

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ers next to tell you what they think about when they look at the objects? Lastly, ask them to tell you what they wonder about when they look at them. Using slide 8, ask the teachers to make some personal connections. It reminds them of and why.

Explore

Using slide 9, tell the group you are curious to see what hap-pens when you put them in water. Are they okay to investigate this descriptive question?

allow the teachers to put the objects in water and observe. Give the groups a good 20 minutes to observe.

Have them write down words to describe how the objects are changing.

Once the objects seem to have finished changing (they will ab-sorbed the water in the cup), use slide 10 to have the teachers write about the changes.

Explain

Discuss with teachers what just occurred. At this point you can tell the teachers the objects are called water jells and they absorb water and grow larger. They are the same substance that is found in diapers. Have have the teachers cut one of them to observe the insides. This is a great lesson to use with matter in grade three. Point out the teachers the physical prop-erties of the object before and after putting them in water. Al-

though the size and texture of the objects have changed, the object is still a water jell.

Physical properties (e.g., color, texture, phase, temperature, ability to dissolve in water) remain the same even if the visible material (e.g., plastic, paper, metal, ice) is reduced in size.

Have the teachers do a compare and contrast using a box and T Chart here to compare properties before and after putting in the water (slide 11)

Extend

Next, have the teachers use the 4 Question strategy to design their own testable questions. If a group gets stuck, work with those teachers to come up with ideas using slides 12-14.

Teachers should fill out the experimental design diagram and have you approve it before they begin.

Have the teachers share out their findings once they finish with their experiments (slide 15).

Once the groups have finished, have them work together to complete a compare/contrast of the hot versus the cold water. How did the temperature change the object again (slide 16).

Use slide 17 to have teachers write up their conclusions using the writing frame.

Break-15 minutes Have groups clean up their work area

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Activity 3: Changing Practice

In this last part of the workshop, teachers will work to shift an activity they have brought from structured to more guided (slide 19).

Begin by providing teachers with a copy of a structured in-quiry activity.

Go over the 5 E format of lesson planning. Use slides 23 to show teachers the value and purpose of the 5 E model.

Then, have them take the activity apart and put the sections they feel would work well in the 5 E format. Use this website as a resource-http://faculty.mwsu.edu/west/maryann.coe/coe/inquire/inquiry.htm

In order to show teachers the power of developing lessons that build context, engage teachers in the activity on slides 24-29. Begin with the directions on slide 24. Teachers will only have about 20 seconds to try to remember as many statements as possible. Use slide 26 to have them try to identify the people with the actions. Then do the activity again, this time using slide 27. Use slide 28 to have the teachers identify who was associated with what actions.

Discussion: why was it easier the second time. Because we have context. The purpose of the 5 E model of lesson planning is to provide students with context. If we start with an activity,

then students get to see or do something. When we add a vo-cabulary word to the experience, it sticks with them loner.

Have the teachers take their sample lessons they brought and put them into the 5 E format. Work with the teachers to iden-tify different activities they can use for the engage/explore por-tion of the lesson.

After putting the lesson in the five E format, work with the teachers to either use the 4 Question Strategy in the lesson or modifying it. Share the sample “plants” lesson so teachers see how to do this.

Give participants time to work on the lessons and then share them out with the rest of the group using the strategy Critical Friends. You can use the following for organizing the feedback session:

Presentation 8 min

Big Ideas/Goal, Inquiry connection

Clarifying questions 2 min

I like statements 4 min

I wonder statements 4 min

Presenter response 2 min

I have/I need 5 min

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To begin, give each participant the planning template sheet to organize what information they will share out about their les-son. This should not take longer than 10 minutes.

The designer of the lesson should spend 10 minutes sharing about the lesson and they should include the type of inquiry they put in the lesson and explain why they included it. They should also share what essential features of inquiry the lesson meets.

After the designer shares his/her lesson, the group members are given time to ask clarifying questions. They they move on to share what they like and then what they wonder.

Next, the presenter gets to go back over what the team mem-bers have shared and add to the discussion. Again, the goal here is not to make the presenter feel as if his/her work is not correct, valuable, or good; but rather to allow them to think about things maybe they have not thought of or to push them to think outside the box.

The final discussion centers on I have/I need. This is where presenter and team members share what they need and what they have that they could offer. For example, maybe one team member has a copy of a reading strategy that would work great in the lesson. They could share that strategy and a sam-ple of the strategy with everyone.

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