YEARS 7–12 IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM
Year 7 Practical Skills for Inquiry Learning – Part 4
By Dr Jennifer Jones
7. Bubbles!
‘Bubbles!’ is the final activity following in a series of activities
previously featured in issues 1-3 of SEN 2019. It is here where we
can more formally link students’ ideas with the steps in ‘Scientific
Method’ and, if we think the students are ready, introduce some of
the relevant terminology. It is important when introducing students
to scientific terms, that we do not tell them the ‘word’ until they have
shown us that they need to know it. Giving students a vocabulary
list at the start of a topic for example, tends to encourage them
into a ‘rote learn and spew out’ approach to learning. However, if
students can describe/explain something to you then you can say
“science has a special word for this, which is .... .” There is then
a much greater chance that the student will understand the term
and they can then add it to their vocabulary list if you, and they,
wish.
Experimenting with blowing bubbles can be great fun and very
messy! It can also be a useful vehicle for further developing
students’ abilities and skills in carrying out scientific investigations.
It needs to be done inside, despite the potential for mess, since
there should be as little air movement as possible.
Essentially we are again going to set the students a question and
let them work out how to answer it by themselves. At the end we
will be asking each group to describe and explain how they set
about answering their question and hopefully we will be able to
start introducing some of the ‘scientific method’ terms: variables,
controls, etc. (you will need to judge whether the class is ready
for this).
We also need to help students learn to decide whether the scientific
method – i.e. a ‘fair test’ – needs to be used in an investigation.
Sometimes we just want to see what happens, for example, as in
the first parts of the Baggie Science, Sherbet Fizz and Pop goes
the Weazel activities. However, when we wanted to determine
what caused the various observations made, we needed to do a
fair test.
Try to use several different questions so groups are not all doing
the same one, Then there will be different examples with which
to illustrate the points you will be discussing. You may allocate
which questions to investigate, allow students to choose, or pull
them out of a hat. However, you may also decide to limit the
number of different questions depending on the class or the ease
of managing it all.
Our whole aim throughout this series of experiments has been
to help students build the skills which they need to work safely
and sensibly in the laboratory – practical skills, ‘safety skills’ and
thinking skills, as well as increasing confidence and competence
within the laboratory. Hopefully, doing practical work in this more
student-centred way will also increase true understanding, and
hence interest and fun. So it is important that your confidence in
their increasing abilities also grows and you do not ‘take them back
to first principles’ with how to do it and safety instructions each
time they do an experiment. We will, however, still need to keep
a lookout for instances where students need a gentle reminder
of what should have been skills learned previously. Having up in
the lab a developing list of skills learned and safety precautions
covered can also be helpful.
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 4