YEARS 7–12 IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM
Year 7 Practical Skills for Inquiry Learning – Part 4 (continued)
• Carry out your plan remembering that each member of the
group needs to take part in the experiments, so work out how
best to do this. Record your results and observations and
discuss if you have answered your question and what your
conclusion is.
over which they had no control?
f) whether a ‘fair test’ was used?
g) whether it would be a good idea to repeat the experiment
to check results? (if each member of the group had a turn in
doing the experiment then they will have already done this.)
• If you have not already done so you will also need to write
down the steps you took in your experiments to lead to your
answer. Each group’s reporter will be describing the group’s
efforts and results to the class during the class discussion.
• Start with a Q1 group (perhaps a volunteer?) and be a scribe
so you can record the important details on the whiteboard. You
may need to ask careful questions to elicit all the important
information. You are especially after information on points a-d
above. Points e-g can be discussed by the whole class after
the reports from all groups have been given (assuming they
have not come up before). Can the students notice patterns
about the way in which all the experiments were conducted?
What the teacher does:
• You may decide that this is all too ‘open’ for your class or that
it may seem too chaotic or too much to organise? If so there
are various alternatives:
For Example – for Q1:
a) All students could do Q1 – all the equipment could all be
out on each bench except perhaps for a ruler or timing
device etc. which students can select once they decide on
the criterion for ‘best’.
How will we decide on ‘best’: e.g. students may decide on
ease of getting a bubble (recording the number of successful
attempts) or the longest lasting bubble (by timing each one) or
the biggest bubble (which they will measure).
b) Half the class could do Q1 while half do Q2. Having two
different questions answered is useful as it gives two sets
of criteria and results. This can help students identify
similarities and differences.
What will we change: the type of frame: e.g. thick wire; thin wire;
thick wire with wool wrapped round it, etc.
What will we keep the same: the shape of the frame (circle);
the size of that circle; the bubble solution (e.g. the same volume
in the same container?); the same person blowing bubbles, and
trying to blow the same way each time (I have had students ask
for a fan!)
c) All could do Q1 and, after having shared and discussed
what they did and what happened with the class, they
could all go back to their benches to do Q2 – without any
further discussion as to how.
d) If you decide there are problems with the groups working
out what to do, after giving them time to decide their
approach, let them join with another group to share ideas
and come up with the ‘best ideas’ from both groups. These
could even be brought to the class so a ‘class best effort’ is
agreed upon, which then decides the experimental method.
However, this plan does remove much of the autonomy
from each group and comes closer to ‘giving recipes’. I
would prefer to let each group work their own way through
the question, while keeping an eye out for those who need
a ‘prod’ via a relevant question or two.
Things we couldn’t keep the same: air currents (in which case
it is best to do it indoors), the actual blowing of the bubbles,
though the student experimenters would do their best to keep it
the same ...
What changes are caused intentionally: how long the bubble
lasted? a description of the bubble? the ease of blowing it up, or
its size ...
Do we need to repeat the experiment? Probably yes – 3 times
is easily achievable if each student in the group to take a turn at
blowing – bubbles can be a bit fickle!
• Once all groups have completed their experiments (fast
finishers can be given another question to consider), gather
the class together for the reporters from each group to report
to the class. You are looking at collecting each group's ideas
on :-
c) what they deliberately changed? Your students may come up with some of these and more; the
main thing is that we need to find them thinking along these lines.
Other groups who have done the same question, and the class
as a whole, may add other ideas. The same types of things will
have been considered in answering Q2-Q4, as well as by other
groups who have also done Q1, so hopefully the patterns we are
after will emerge.
e) what other things may have affected the experiment but The discussion of whether these experiments were truly ‘fair
tests’, and what this means, can lead into a discussion of the
a) the criterion they used to determine ‘best’ (for Q1 and Q2);
b) what they kept the same – and why?
d) what the effects of those changes were?
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 4