April+5,+2011

Reflection 5 – Tuesday April 5, 2011

Today was our first day to start the experiments. We were working with group one which has eight students. We wanted to start out our lesson with and experiment since that is the large picture so we asked one of Mr. Lewis’s students, Patrick, to think of and complete a simple five minute experiment for the students. So today we started with a quick review of what the Scientific Method is and the six different sections that we were focusing on. We made sure to bring back the bubble experiment that we had completed with them three sessions ago. This was a nice reminder for them on the different steps. The bubble experiment is playing a much larger factor that we thought it was going to, which is good! After a quick review, Patrick completed a crushing a can experiment. In this experiment, he heated a can with a tablespoon of water in it and then stuck it into a bucket of water. Because of the pressure difference the can crushes. We were both amazed by this experiment, as were the students, because we had never seen anything like this. As Patrick did the experiment, he talked through each of the different steps. Afterwards, one of the students suggested that we try it again with cooler water to see if that made a difference. Naturally we needed to try it so we told the students that at the end of the session we would crush another can with cold water. So we moved back to the regular lesson. Today the students were picking out experiments and doing the basic planning of them. We handed each student a packet of experiments and a lab notebook and told them to write down four or so of their favorite experiments. To start, we were just going to let the students pick their own pairs but once we noticed the “clicks” we decided to make the groups ourselves. We wrote down all of the student’s names and the numbers that they choose as interesting. Then we paired the students based on interest. This worked out really well for us because we were able to get students together on things they were interested in while staying away from the “clicks” that they wanted to work with. Next we have the students write down what their problem was, research, a hypothesis, and supplies. For the research, we did not have time to have them actually look up the information so our research turned into what the students knew about the topic. To start this lesson, we were also going to have the students write out the procedure for their experiments. This did not happen because we ran out of time but we think it will end up working better this way. The students sure are creative. They came up with supplies that we would not have every though of using for their experiments. This is good. At the end of class, we had the students return to the crushing a can experiment and this time we added ice to the water. During this part of the session, Mr. Lewis pointed out the importance of safety. Because we had chosen fairly simple and safe experiments, we did not think about safety measures but now it is going to be covered every session. As Patrick heated up the can and put it in the cold water, the can crushed more that in the regular water. This was a good learning point for the students because it covered the fact that not every experiment is perfect and that you need to go back and re due it as needed. Overall, this was a very good session and we think that the students are really going to enjoy completing their own experiment. We had thought about letting the students bring their own supplies but because we are not exactly sure when they will be doing the experiment and how reliable they are, we will be bring all of the materials for them.

Experiments: 1) Can you sink an orange? 2) Exploding Bottles 3) Tug of War 4) Notes a teacher can't see