Guidng questions:
- What do we prepare before doing experiment?
- What and How do you measure the experiment? What are variables?
- What do we need to do experiment ?
- How do we record the data/ result?
- How do we communicate the result?
- How can we conclude the experiment?
Scientific process is the inquiry itself. When students are engaged with their surroundings and has curiosity about how physical world works, they are experiencing scientific process, or natural inquiry learning. So in order to make it work we need to think Scientist.
TUNING IN
Building from the known/ Prior Knowledge
I started the lesson by asking them to put the steps of scintific process in order. I used smart notebook file which I adapt from smart exchange website. In this process of inquiry, it's important to know what students already know. When the teacher know their prior knowledge through pre-assessment, then we can set a plan where to go afterward. And based on this activity, I could conclude that, we will work hard to understand the whole scientific process.
The Power of Provocation
I opened the lesson with asking students to make observation, and told them that what we do when we begin scientific process. Students watched video - Hot Wheels: Wall track advertisement. I used this video or this particular topic for provocation because it's closed with students, it's real life context and it's well suited with the unit focus, which is about energy. However, because it's only video therefore students couldn't really feel and touch how it works. I still believe that stduents learn best with real life objects or primary resource. So it will be better if we can bring the real wall track to the class and let students experience it, rather than watching it from the video.
Asking good question
After the observation, I distributed a blank template of scientific method and later they can fill in the blank space to record the explanation of each step in the scientific method based on what they had learnt during the lesson. The next step, I encourage them to ask questions about things that they have observed. There were some good question came up from students including how can the track stuck on the wall, how can the car move faster?But still the question that fit with the criteria didn't come up. then I explained to students about how to write experimental question about Hot Wheels. I showed some example of experimental question: If we push the car harder, would the car still run straight? Which car runs down faster on the track? It's explained that experimental questions require a more in depth answer that requires testing. Experimental questions are what researchers use. Since then, students got the idea and is able to make good experiment question. In this case, I can see that the teacher's role to guide students and to scaffold their thinking, is still important. The way we scaffold the questions we used to guide them to their own question or understanding, is crucial in inquiry lesson.
FINDING INFO
Background Knowledge
After watching video, we had some discussion about the background knowledge of how the hot wheel track works. Furthermore, we tried to make connection with the energy used in the object. Most students understand about it and they could explain that the transformation energy goes from mechanical -> gravitational -> motion. I realize that checking their understanding and their prior knowledge it's an important part of the inquiry process.
After students got a bit background research about the experiment, students continued with constructing hypothesis. A hypothesis is an educated guess about how things work: "If _____[I do this] _____, then _____[this]_____ will happen, because ______”. your hypothesis should be constructed in a way to help you answer your original question.
The Experiment
The next big thing of the lesson, is to get student think about the process of testing the hypothesis, by doing an experiment. instead of the teachers telling the students what to do, we asked students to come up with idea about how to do the experiment. It is important for teachers to give the control of the learning to students, and hopefully students has more ownership of their own learning.
There are 3 main aspects they need to accomplish to do the experiment properly. Firstly, they needed to plan the experiment by looking at the variables. If we find it difficult, teachers might suggest to think from the equipment/ materials/ things they need for the experiment. After they got the things, they directly did the experiment, with the hope that they could think of the proper steps or procedure of doing it. To teach about variables, you can ask students to answer these three guiding question:
- What do you change during the experiment? - Independent variable
- What do you observe/ is the result? - Dependent variable
- What do you keep the same during the whole experiment? - Controlled variable
However, deciding variables could be at the very beginning of the experiment, especially when students were planning the experiment. They can describe their plan and could identify the experiment variables and control.
SORTING OUT
Record and analyze the data
At the first trial, students might not record the result of the experiment. I had discussion with them, how do we measure this, how to record our measurement? Then students might come up with idea of how to record the data. Let them think and discuss, come up with one suggestion to record on the table. Teachers could explain that data usually is recorded in form of table.
When the students come up with result and made conclusion, we discussed the idea to communicate their findings. Some ideas were recorded, including the idea to use simple pin board, display board or using power point to present their experiment. A correctly written conclusion must include all of the following:
a. Written in complete sentences.
b. Responded as to whether your hypothesis was right or wrong.
c. Answered the question written in the problem.
Presenting the findings is important step in inquiry. This give a feel for students to celebrate their learning. And there are lots of ways to do with presentation or publishing works with the consideration of the targeted audience whom they will present to.
REFLECTION AND ACTION
When all the learning process were done, students may come with a reflection on their own learning. They can asked questions about: what thing are succeed in the experiment? what things that need to improve? and most important is if they can use their reflection to plan for the next step and to know what to do later. In the context of scientific process, in the reflection, students could come up with new question based on the result of the experiment which later they can have modification of the experiment for their own project. Therefore, the inquiry doesn't stop even after students taking action.