Doing Science at Falk
“ Higher — a little higher .”
A student lifts his egg a few inches higher . Encased in a strip of cardboard , with popsicle sticks extending from the center , it resembles a spider . Now that it ’ s even with the strip of blue tape on the wall outside her middle school science classroom , Eileen Coughlin begins to count down . Conversations among the students waiting their turn slow and then stop in anticipation .
“ Go !”
The egg falls in a hurry to the plastic tarp protecting the hallway floor . There ’ s no noticeable cracking sound , and as the student crouches to check the egg , he dares to hope the egg has remained intact .
The egg drop exercise is simple : Using readily available tools like toilet paper rolls , tape , popsicle sticks , yarn , and bubble wrap , the goal is to prepare an egg to survive drops of increasing height . The activity may be familiar to many , but the way that Coughlin and her students are approaching the exercise has several key differences that illustrate the way science is taught at Falk Laboratory School .
“ No goo !” the student reports . The egg has not cracked . Coughlin reads off the time she ’ s recorded on a stopwatch — the amount of time it took for the egg to fall — and the student enters the information into a worksheet .
Doing Science
It ’ s late August , and Falk students have only been back in school a few days , but the students in Coughlin ’ s eighth-grade science class are already hard at work “ doing science ,” as she puts it .
“ Our philosophy is that we want the kids to do the science and figure things out on their own through experimentation and simulation so that we ’ re not just feeding them facts ,” says Coughlin , who in addition to teaching middle school science serves as cochair of Falk ’ s Science Curriculum Committee .
While the egg drop activity might be mistaken for a fun and easy start-of-the-school-year activity , it actually incorporates several important scientific practices and principles , such as engineering and design thinking , that are listed among the Next Generation Science Standards . These standards , which guide science instruction at all levels at Falk , emphasize three dimensions of science learning : practices , cross-cutting concepts , and disciplinary core ideas .
Coughlin and Alex Dragon , the other Falk middle school science teacher , adhere to these standards while also exercising flexibility and creativity to adapt lessons to students ’ interests , as is true of all teachers at Falk .
For example , both Coughlin and Dragon incorporate cross-cutting concepts into lessons whenever possible . These concepts , which have application across all domains of science , include cause and effect , energy and matter , and stability and change .
“ Regardless of the actual content we ’ re trying to convey ,” says Dragon , “ there ’ s always time to work in some of the cross-cutting concepts and big-picture ideas that show up in all types of science that you can tie back to , like structure and function , systems , or finding patterns .”
Iterative Design
In the case of the egg drop activity , one of the most important facets of the exercise is that it will be repeated twice more over the course of the year : in January and then again near the end of the school year . Students will improve on their designs and drop the eggs from ever-greater heights . In years past , eighth graders have tested their eggs by dropping them from second-story windows , a height of approximately 8.5 meters .
Iteration is another important standard , and repeating the experiment gives students hands-on familiarity with the important concept of iterative design . It ’ s one more way of letting students do science .
As is the case with many of the units and activities that Coughlin and Dragon present to students , there are important scientific skills hidden in the way the egg drop activity is being conducted . Take the worksheets students are filling out , for example : Today they ’ re just writing down numbers , but over the course of the year , those observations will add up to a valuable data set they can interpret .
Even before they assembled their egg-protecting devices , much less tried them out , Coughlin ’ s students were doing science when they tackled worksheets that included activities like brainstorming and diagramming their devices . After their contraptions were complete , Coughlin ’ s students wrote reflections on how well the devices matched their plans .
And when the last bits of shell and goo have been dumped in the trash today , there will be stimulating questions for them to consider , like “ What material ( s ) helped your device design the most ? Explain ” and “ What did you notice about the devices in your class period that survived the drops ? List at least three observations .”
When they return to the project three months from now , the students will have a significant body of data to reflect upon .
FALK LABORATORY SCHOOL | UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH 25