Jeff Bigler [email protected] mrbigler@mrbigler

Converting Existing “Cookbook” Laboratory Experiments to Inquiry

Format

Wed-09:45-W-01 & Wed-01:00-W-09

Jeff [email protected]

[email protected]

What is Inquiry?

• Learning by questioning/experimenting.

• Knowledge is built step-wise and through relationships with existing knowledge.

• Methods are student-driven.

Questionably EffectiveWays of Teaching Inquiry

• “Figure it out if you want to pass.”

• “Decide what you want to find out (with minimal guidance), but be sure to make a good decision.”

Teaching Inquiry Gradually

Disclaimers:• This is how I develop my students’ inquiry skills. If

you’re doing something different and it ain’t broke, you don’t need to fix it.

• I don’t pretend that there is a “one right and true way” to teach inquiry. You might decide to borrow a couple of ideas and implement them differently, or you might decide that what I’m doing won’t work for you at all. If this workshop doesn’t turn out to be a waste of your time, we all win.


1. Teach students to fill in gaps.• Teach techniques before experiment.• Give students a “crude” procedure that guides

them through the outline of the experiment, but requires them to use techniques without procedural details.

2. Gradually widen the gaps.• Require students to string multiple techniques

together• Give an outline of the experiment orally (but not

in written form) and expect them to remember/figure it out.


3. Remove the scaffolding.• Give students the objective and have class create

experimental plan through Socratic discussion.

• Gradually eliminate the class discussion and require students to create the experimental plan on their own, given only an objective.

• Begin introducing the question of “What might be some possible experiments?” “[For a given experiment], what would the objective be?” Evaluate student objectives compared with teacher-directed objectives for relevance and testability.


4. Use student-generated objectives• Start with a Socratic class discussion of possible

experiments and evaluate the objectives.• Have students prepare all solutions and materials for

their own experiments.• Gradually eliminate the class discussion until student

groups are designing and performing their own experiments. (This will require the ability for lab groups to be able to perform different experiments simultaneously.)

• If your school has a Science Fair, encourage students to string a series of related experiments together to create a project.


Guiding Questions for Teaching Students to Plan Experiments

1. What quantity or relationship do you want to find?

2. Can you measure it directly? (The answer to this should be “no”—otherwise there would be no experiment.) If not, how can you calculate/determine it?


3. What do you need to measure in order to perform the calculation/determination in step #2?

4. How can you measure these quantities in an experiment?


5. Can your experiment differentiate between results?• If you are investigating a relationship, can your

experiment determine whether or not the relationship is causal?

• If you are calculating a quantitative result, can your experiment resolve data precisely enough?

Problems With This Approach

• Students are explicitly taught a method for problem-solving, which may discourage other, more “outside-the-box” methods.

• The process is slow—it can easily take two years for students to progress from filling in gaps in a crude procedure to full inquiry.

Plan for Today’s Workshop

1. Form groups. Because of the format of today’s workshop, there needs to be a minimum of 3 people per group, and an even number of groups.


2. Choose one of the following “cookbook” experiments:Molar Mass of a Volatile Liquid Using the

Dumas MethodKinetics of HCl + S2O3

2− → SO32− + S

Equilibrium for Fe3+ +SCN− Ý FeSCN2+

Strong Acid-Strong Base Titration


3. Decide what stage of inquiry you are adapting the lab for:a. Beginning:

• Assume students have already been taught necessary lab techniques.

• Write a crude (outline-level) version of the procedure. Leave out details of lab techniques.


3. Decide what stage of inquiry you are adapting the lab for (cont’d):b. Developing:


• Talk through the crude procedure with your students. Allow them to jot down brief notes, but do not let them write down everything you say word-for-word.


3. Decide what stage of inquiry you are adapting the lab for (cont’d):c. Approaching Proficiency:


• Give students the objective, but let them formulate their own experimental plan. Use your judgment about how much support they will need to evaluate, fine-tune, and implement their plan.


4. Prepare your “lab materials” (handout and/or presentation)—15 minutes.

5. Find another group to partner with.


6. Perform each other’s experiments (45 minutes):a. At any given time, at least two of the people in

your group will be “students” performing the other group’s lab. Role play accordingly—pretend you are confused and ask for help with anything that you think would confuse your own students.


6. Perform each other’s experiments (cont’d).b. At any given time, at least one person in your

group will be the “teacher” of the lab that your group prepared. The first “teacher” will need to tell the other lab group what stage of inquiry the lab is designed for, and to communicate the objective (and possibly crude procedure) to the other group.


6. Perform each other’s experiments (cont’d).c. Within your group, decide how often to switch

roles, ensuring that everyone gets a chance to be both “teacher” and “student”. (I recommend switching at least once every 10 minutes.)


7. At the conclusion of the experiment (and clean-up), each pair of groups should discuss the experiment—what went well and any recommended changes. (15 minutes)

Jeff Bigler [email protected] mrbigler@mrbigler

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