One of the most frustrating things, I think, about scientific inquiry is that sometimes you may not ever have a definitive answer to a question. Further more, answers you find may only lead to more questions. That's the thing though; scientific inquiry is learning, and learning, well, just isn't clean cut. It's messy, and jumbled, and many times discombobulating. I think that as both learners and teachers, we need to become comfortable with the feeling of not knowing. At the heart of learning, it's okay to not know something, be wrong, and make mistakes. It is said that people, adults specifically, fear what they don't understand; I think that that fear is derived from a deep-seated intimidation of the uncertainty inherent in the unknown. However, in order to further ourselves as teachers and furthermore, enable our students to become scientific thinkers, we need to learn how to embrace the uncertain and the unknown. We need to learn that it's okay to be wrong, to not know an answer, and to make mistakes along the way. That's where learning happens! I think this is why our PBL activity where we had to design a transportation device for a marble using only certain items given to us was one of my favorite classes this semester. If the first iteration of your design didn't work, then you were able to go back to the drawing board, discuss, question, redesign, and test again. It was fantastic! Check out some of the groups' test runs below:
The heart of scientific inquiry, I feel, is curiosity. What better way to explore and encourage both than through bubble gum!
It was fun and engaging lesson and activity for graduate students- I can only hope to have the same effect with my future elementary/middle school students.I love that you can take a simple concept such as questioning which bubble gum brand makes the biggest bubbles, or which stretches the furthest, or which maintains its flavor the longest and explore all of the scientific process skills: raising questions, predicting, planning and conducting investigations, explaining/hypothesizing, interpreting evidence, and communicating results.
What a fantastic way to introduce these concepts to young learners. With this type of PBL activity, you can meet standards in the elementary grades (2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade Embedded Inquiry), and further apply this to middle and high school standards by further discussing physical and chemical properties. What I remember of learning the scientific method in school left me feeling bored and disinterested. I distinctly remember there being more emphasis put into the steps taken rather than the process skills (that should have been) being developed. In contrast, I feel that PBL investigations such as the bubble gum activity we carried out in class can introduce the core concepts of scientific inquiry while encouraging the inherent curiosity needed to develop a scientifically literate mind in young learners.
I think that as both learners and teachers, we need to become comfortable with the feeling of not knowing. At the heart of learning, it's okay to not know something, be wrong, and make mistakes. It is said that people, adults specifically, fear what they don't understand; I think that that fear is derived from a deep-seated intimidation of the uncertainty inherent in the unknown. However, in order to further ourselves as teachers and furthermore, enable our students to become scientific thinkers, we need to learn how to embrace the uncertain and the unknown. We need to learn that it's okay to be wrong, to not know an answer, and to make mistakes along the way. That's where learning happens!
I think this is why our PBL activity where we had to design a transportation device for a marble using only certain items given to us was one of my favorite classes this semester. If the first iteration of your design didn't work, then you were able to go back to the drawing board, discuss, question, redesign, and test again. It was fantastic!
