Thread: Science through inquiry

I teach high school - But I LOVE inquiry labs.
The first one we do is slime mold and they have to come up with some sort of question about how it will grow.
The questions have to be specific. they also have to really focus on one variable.
slime mold likes - damp, dark and cool. It grows well on agar plates.
students ask questions like
"will slime mold eat flavored oatmeal" or even better "Which type of oatmeal does slime mold prefer - plain, cinnamon rasin, or apple and spice"

There is so much you can do with inquiry labs. It is all about getting the students to ask questions detailed enough to guide thier procedure.
My students moan at first but by the end of the lab they say how much fun it was. I think it really empowers them to answer their own questions

That's awesome...
where do you get slime molds? can you buy them from bio supply places, or do you culture them from ones you find in the woods?
When you say that they like to be cool, does that mean room temp, or fridge?

I like how you get them into the different oatmeal flavors - do they have a guess as to why they prefer a certain flavor? (more sugar?)

This is the sort of thing that I was thinking of doing to my labs, (making them open ended, so the kids have to think) thanks!

I have to move thorugh the inquiry continuum - from pretty much cookbook labsat first, relinquishing teacher control a little at a time until the kids are comfortable being in charge of their own learning.

Some classes move along this continuum faster than others.

I've never been able to have a completely full inquiry course:
1. not enough time - true inquiry is time consuming
2. some topics don't lend themelves to inquiry as easily as others

I try to do as much as I reasonably can, but all inquiry isn't realistic for me.

here are some links - If you have more questions let me know. Also I can send you the hand out that I use
[url]http://students.ed.uiuc.edu/freymuth/490i/assessmentartifact.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.teachersfirst.com/autoframe.htm?http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/AEF/1995/skinner_mold.html[/url]
With younger students any type of question would work. You do not really need to explore all the science behind it. I use it as a lab to demonstrate the scientific method.
I know a teacher that also did an inquiry lab using diapers. Her theme was questions are the answer and she held up a diaper and asked students to come up with questions. Then she asked how they would solve those problems. From there she would let them try to answer more questions - it was really cool and the kids loved it.

I do inquiry labs in the beginning just because it gets the kids really excited. Just know that the first day or 2 when they are coming up with the questions and setting up the lab are pretty hard for them. After that they get really excited and want to share their results with everyone, even thier parents

Thanks for the advice! I too am thinking that I won't be able to get a true inquiry into the school year. (how would one do this with cells, anyhow?)

guess I'll just try my best and see what happens this year. At the very least, they'll have to think more! Thanks for the your links and advice.

dover7science

Slime mold is shorter if you make the agar plates for the students.
You can also use it to talk about what cells need and how things get in and out. If you have dissecting scopes you can see them streaming and that is really cool. I get rid of other labs to do the inquiry stuff. Slime mold takes me a week and covers scientific method and beginning of cells

Here is an easy inquiry based lab. All you need is:
Droppers- medicine, beral, or pipet
coins - pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, some foreign (canadian pennies)
water and water mixed with a few drops of detergent

Tell the students they are going to see how many drops they can fit on a coin (any coin or give them different ones, one to each (group)).

Make a stem and leaf plot on the board of their results for the class, let them put in their data (number of drops).

Don't give any other instructions.

Let them go!

They WILL try to get you to give them more info... DON'T (hard to do).

Allow them to share thoughts with other groups, but do not encourage this.

The trick is in not giving critism or direction.

Allow them to describe the experiment, view the results, then give their findings.
How do the results differ? Possible reasons why do they differ. What could be done to change the results? To make the results more scientificly repeatable.
What are (any) variables in the results.

This works well for 2nd graders up.

Wife teaches 3rd graders for 26 years
I have taught HS science for 20 years
This has been a very successful lab experience.

PS The water with detergent will very quickly fall off the coin, have them evaluate it by giving it second, or give it randomly to group(s).

Amazingly, about 50 drops will fit on a penny (heads side) before spilling off.

Inquiry should be at the heart of any good science classroom. I have a supply of inquiry-based science teaching resources on my page including entire units, individual lessons and activities. Please check it out.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Educationrus

Thanks.

Devon

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Well, well, well about the sunscreen, almost everyone is familiar,and as the time comes, more and more people go into a conversation about sunscreen safety and issues, we will tell you 3 respects which most people don't know, but definitely should.

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It's possible that many people has the common sense the highest SPF,the better it is. Not entirely. The truth is Increases in SPF only improve protection slightly (e.g. SPF 30 blocks 97% of UVB rays and SPF 50 blocks 98%). After 50 there