SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY LESSON
Colorado Science Standard 1: Students understand the process of scientific investigation and design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such investigations.
Rationale: Students will develop the scientific skills of observation and infering to develop a hypothesis. Students will need to also develop cooperative group skills and communication skills in the two inquiry group activities.
Materials: 1 large cube with numbers
6 small cubes with names
12 black boxes
1 transparency of footprints
Time: 2-3 periods
Procedure:
Day 1:
1. Write the words science,
observing, infering, hypothesis, and technology on the board.
2. Show the entire class five
sides of the number cube. Tell the class to observe the 5 sides of the
cube
and list their observations on the board. After listing the observations
ask the students :
How
many think they know what is on the bottom of the cube? After asking for
students'
responses
show the bottom of the cube. Show the bottom of the cube. Ask: Why did
you think
that
number was on the bottom?
3. Use the number cube to introduce
the scientific skills of observation and infering. Also use
the
cube to introduce what a hypothesis is. Remind the students that science
is not only a
study
of the world around us but a way of solving problems.
4. Then ask the students what
else could I use the cube for. After taking ideas for possible uses
introduce
the word technology as taking science and putting it to use.
5. Then give each group of 3-4
students a name cube. Explain to the students that they will need
to work together and make observations of the cube to come up with an educated
guess of
of what they think is on the bottom of the cube. Have the students list
their observations
on a sheet of paper and then make a sketch of what they think is on the
bottom of the cube.
6. Give the students 15 to 20
minutes to come up with what they hypothesize is on the bottom
of the
cube.
7. Have a student from each
group put their sketch of the cube's bottom side on the board and
have
the members of each group explain why they came up with that hypothesis.
8. When each group is finished,
tell them they may look at the bottom of the cube and explain
the logic of the cube. This is a good chance to introduce patterns.
Day 2:
1. Review yesterday's lesson,
then ask the students if scientist can always observe with their
eyes
everything they want to study. Remind students that some things are to
small, like the
atom,
or to large, like the inside of the earth or the universe, to observe with
our eyes.
Scientist
must use other senses and aquired data to hypothesize about the structure
of things
in the
world around us.
2. Have the students work together
in groups of two and give them a black box. Tell the students
they
may not open the box and that they must use their other senses to hypothesize
what they
they
think is in the box and what the inside of the box looks like. Again have
the students list
their
observations and make a sketch of the inside of the box.
3. Have all the groups with
the same lettered box get together to share and discuss their ideas.
4. Ask the groups if they could
come up with a consensus of what they hypothesize is in the black
box. Ask the groups why they came up with their hypothesis. This is a good
chance to discuss
how scientist share their findings and test each others work to come up
with potential theories.
5. The students again may not
open the boxes to check their hypothesis and remind
them
that scientist cannot always observe the objects they study with their
eyes and must rely
on the
data they collect and their knowledge of other familiar phenomenon.
Day 3: As a sponge, put a transparency of the footprints
on the overhead and have the students list
their observations of the footprints. Then have the students write a short
explanation or story
of what they think happened. This is a chance for the creative writers
to show their skills of
writing. Again share student's explanations and stories. Again review the
scientific skills of
observing and inferring.
CHECKS ACTIVITY
Colorado Science Standard 1: Students understand the process
of scientific investigation and design,
conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such investigations.
Rationale: Students will use the scientific skills of
observation and infering to develop a hypothesis.
Students will also need to use cooperative group skills
and communication skills.
Materials: 1 set of 16 checks
Time: Activity - 1 class period
Procedure:
1. Each group of groups
are then asked to observe the information on the checks and infer
what
has happened in John Smith's life.
2. The groups the randomly select
5 more checks and are asked to observe the 10 checks. The
groups
then develop a new inference (hypothesis) about what they think happened
in John
Smith's
life.
3. The groups then randomly
select 5 more checks, observe the 15 checks they have, and develop
a new
hypothesis of what happened in John Smith's life.
4. The groups then select the
3 more checks, observe the 18 checks, and develop a new
hypothesis of John Smith's life.
5. Each group then presents
their hypothesis of what they think happened in John Smith's life
and
support it with the checks they have.
6. Ask the groups to the develop
a final hypothesis of what they think happened in John Smith's
life
based on their checks and what they heard from the other groups.
7. Have the groups share their
final hypothesis.
8. Discuss with the groups the
importance of the checks in the order received, the importance of
two
checks not received, the importance of the information received from the
other groups,
and
if there were any biases within each team.
9. I use this activity to tie
into the history of life on earth and the theory of evolution. As
scientist
have accumulated more information from the fossil record their hypotheses
about
life
on earth has changed. Just like there are gaps in the checks of John Smith's
life, there are
gaps
in the fossil record. Scientist rely on information from other scientist
to develop their
hypotheses
and theories. Biases can influence the beliefs of scientist and people
in general.