March+24,+2011

Reflection March 24, 2011- Introduction to the Scientific Method

Today our students began learning about the scientific method. We started off by playing dumb and seeing if they knew what the scientific method was or if they knew any part of it. They knew "hypothesis" and some had the idea of the conclusion but most did not what came before, after, or in between. We handed out a worksheet (LP-Bubbles.doc) and left out the last word of every box of the chart to have them be interactive and try to guess what was missing. Some took longer than others but once we gave them hints like it is like the word "information finding" and starts with an "R" they were able to figure it out. Once they figured out the words they could describe why it would be important to the steps of the scientific method. After we introduced the flow chart, we did a mini experiment to demonstrate the scientific method. On the board, Brianna wrote the different sections of the method and I acted them out with bubbles. We had the kids come up with a hypothesis for the problem: why do bubbles float?. They came up with "Bubbles float because of hot air trapped inside of them." So we tested that hypothesis. We had jar of bubble juice and a bubble wand with some paper towels underneath it. When the kids said "blow a bubble" I picked up the jar and blew air at the jar. Then they figured out that they had to say "take out bubble wand and blow" so I promptly took the wand out and left it above the jar and blew air into nothingness. Then they figured out they needed to say "lift the wand to your lips and blow" so then it worked. They got frustrated but realized how important it was to be specific. After that we blew bubbles with the fan and they realized that it didn't make a difference whether it was hot or cold air in the bubbles. So they came up with a new hypothesis: smaller bubbles float longer than big bubbles. We explained that they followed the scientific method without even knowing it. If their hypothesis was incorrect, they make a new one in their conclusion using observations made during their experiment. I think that the next two lessons of this same plan will go close to the same so it will be hard to write differing reflections. I didn't notice anything special about this time other than one girl (don't know her name yet) knew about the scientific method already because she had recently transferred to RMS a traditional curriculum school.