Teaching with Inquiry (easy)

One of the skills I think it is vital for students to develop is a sense of inquiry. They need to wonder why, and then figure out a way to find out. Inquiry projects are virtually mandatory here in Nebraska with the state standards, and they absolutely should be! Literally (and when I say literally I don't mean figuratively http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/15/living/literally-definition) 5 pages of the standards are about doing inquiry and inquiry can be used to teach virtually any of the other standards. I really enjoy doing inquiry projects because you never know what the students are going to want to do or how they are going to test things. It's amazing how often my sophomores have better ideas than I do. However, I do think that high school sophomores benefit from some structure, so here are the outlines of some of the inquiry projects I do in my classroom. One of the negatives I hear from teachers is that it is too hard to find ways to incorporate inquiry into their classrooms so I wanted to give some super easy examples that I came up with to cover inquiry.

Potatoes
The first inquiry project that we did was about potatoes. We were studying the scientific method and I wanted my students to practice designing an experiment so I made up a scenario about potatoes sprouting. I said that potatoes on the counter sprout but the ones in the fridge do not. Each of my classes came up with a reason why they don't sprout in the fridge and designed an experiment to test it. Then I thought to myself, if these guys are going through all the work of designing an experiment, why not actually do it. 20 pounds of potatoes later, my classes have 3 potatoes inquiry projects currently underway.
This picture is from by third class who chose to test how the amount of moisture affects potato sprouts. The first set of potatoes is the control group with no water added, the second set is set on a piece of fabric that is kept moist and the last is a set of potatoes completely submerged in water. (An interesting side note about the second group is that the fabric is a pair of pants from a mannequin because that was the only fabric I had on hand...Lets just say the mannequin was much more realistic then I thought. My poor sophomores are scarred for life)
The class thought the one with the most water would grow the best but they are starting to disintegrate in the water. One of the potatoes on the counter is the first to start growing sprouts after only one week, but we will see if the group I'm backing (slightly moist) can make a comeback in the weeks to come. One of the nice things about this inquiry project is that it shows the students how easy it is to do an inquiry project. It doesn't have to be a huge ordeal, science can be quick, fun, and easy!

Chicken Liver
A lab activity we will be doing tomorrow also has a little bit of inquiry involved. We are studying proteins and one of the most important functions of proteins is to be an enzyme. My sophomores, however, seem to have no idea about enzymes even though they are so important. We are going to do a lab where catalase (obtained from chicken liver) is mixed with hydrogen peroxide to make oxygen and water. We use a LabQuest oxygen probe to measure how much oxygen is being made. This is a pretty straight forward lab, but I want my students to do more than follow directions. I want them to question why and use the scientific method to get answers. My challenge for them is to find a way to make it happen faster. Their ideas are usually add more liver, add more hydrogen peroxide or make it hotter. With a little prodding they can also come up with changing the pH.This is an easy way for me to change a "follow directions lab" into an inquiry project. (I'll add pictures from class after they do it tomorrow.)

Plant Growth
The largest and most complex inquiry project we do is our plant project. The objective is extremely easy: find a way to help plants grow better. First the students research what plants need to grow, especially what nutrients. Once they have that figured out, they research common household items that occasionally get thrown away that have those nutrients and might help the plants grow. Then they design an experiment to test that household item. My students have tested many things ranging from coffee (helps) to orange juice(nothing grows), from milk (no growth) to Gatorade (growth), from aspirin (no growth) to toothpaste (no growth). They plant the seeds (I have used Wisconsin fast plants in the past but am trying radishes this year) water it, and track growth for about a month. Then they share their findings by writing a scientific paper. (I'll blog about the challenges relating to that later.)

Historic Scientists Presentations

The first graded assignment I have my students complete is a Historic Scientist Presentation. This assignment helps to cover 3 main goals. It helps students see that science and society are interrelated, scientists overcome challenges to reach their conclusions, and it helps students practice presenting information in front of the class. To the right I have the poster I designed to model what I expected for my students. (Pasteur is one of my favorite scientists of all time and I am completely amazed by how much he changed the world in his lifetime)

The First Goal
The first goal of this assignment is for my students to see that society is greatly affected by science and that society plays a large part in scientific discoveries. Last week I mentioned that many sophomores come into class already having decided that they don't like science and that they will never use it. One way to help these sophomores care about the material we are covering is by helping them see how science has affected society. One of the standards here in Nebraska is to "Describe how society influences the work of scientists and how the science, technology, and current scientific discoveries influence and change society." This can all be summed up with this diagram.
One of the scientists they research is George Washington Carver. I ask my students "Why he was so obsessed with studying peanuts? What kind of person grows up wanting to be the peanut man?" The students giving the presentation will usually answer that the only reason he studied peanuts was because he wanted to help the poor, recently freed black farmers in the South. What a powerful example of society dictating what a scientist researches!

The Second Goal 

The second goal of this assignment is for students to understand the challenges scientists face overcoming commonly held beliefs. There are lots of ways students could reach the first goal, whether its talking about nuclear weapons, discussing how cell phones changed society, or learning why science is focused on curing cancer rather than HIV. However, this activity allows us to "kill 2 birds with one stone." and cover two standards with one activity. I think this can be particularly helpful for female students who are researching a female scientist. One of the scientists they study is Rachel Carson (crap...I shouldn't have mentioned killing birds earlier...) who was a whistle blower about the dangers of uncontrolled DDT use in the United States. When the students realize the things chemical companies said and did to discredit her and her work, it really opens their eyes to the challenges female scientists used to face and makes them realize how much more open society is now to females pursuing a career in science.

The Third Goal
The third goal is for students to practice and become more comfortable sharing information to their peers. Last year, I had students write a paper about the scientist but I found I spent most of my time trying to teach them how to write instead of seeing them learn about scientist. I went for the poster and in-class presentation approach to help them develop their public speaking skills which I think are absolutely vital. One concept that is very dear to me is the idea of scientific literacy, where students can do more than just memorize science stuff, but discuss and share it with others in a way their audience can understand. This also helps level the playing field for students who struggle in school because they are poor writers (although these students also generally lack confidence to share info in front of the class, I do my best to ease their discomfort.) One area that I try to focus on is presenting rather than reading. Some students get so concerned about making a mistake or forgetting to say something, they want to just read what they put on the poster. This is an area that I really try to help them improve because watching the back of someones head while they read something you can read on your own is super boring.

Here is the link of the rubric I used if anyone is interested in doing a project similar to this.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/110425052/Scientist%20Writing%20Assignment%20rubric.docx

Does anyone do something like this? Any suggestions for improvements?

Introducing Biology to Sophomores

One of the frustrating aspects of teaching sophomores biology is their attitude toward science before they even enter your classroom. I cannot count the number of times I have told a younger student that I teach biology to which they reply "Oh, I don't like science." It is so heartbreaking to know that somewhere along the line these students' nature curiosity and interest has been crushed before I get a chance to teach them. It would be interesting to poll elementary teachers on what their favorite high school subject was and see how many of them loved science.  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17HGJ5m7f4jMHLRrAgZrKXXF2YVpL-gh85-bopZaQBEw/viewform


I try to overcome this obstacle by telling them that they have never had biology before so they cannot possibly know that they don't like it. Typically the thing they don't like about science is being bored reading sections out of a textbook and then answering review questions about them. They also do not like getting a packet of material for them to figure out on their own while the teacher sits back and waits for them to finish. When they get the chance to actually make their own experiments and test hypothesis how they want they start to realize that science isn't all that bad. 

To me, however, the most challenging group of students to excite are those students who have a strong grasp on what they want to do with the rest of their life and going to college is not part of that equation. Their attitude is that I am never going to use these concepts for the rest of my life so I am not going to learn them. Instead, I am going to do just the bare minimum to pass this class so I can graduate. This is one of the challenges of teaching a class that is required for everyone to take before they graduate. Sometimes I think it would be easier to just teach an upper level science class where every student is in the class because they chose to take it. However, it is vital to get these students to be engaged more than just the bare minimum. 

One thing I try to do is to forget about the science and figure out what skills are absolutely essential to have after you get out of high school. You may never use a Punnett square  the rest of your life, but are there skills you can develop during that unit  regardless of the content. I think the most important skill students can have is the ability to think critically. My students may not care one bit about photosynthesis in spinach leaves, but can they apply prior knowledge to come up with a way to get it to go faster? That is a skill they will need no matter what career they end up going into. It is also super important for them to be able present information in front of a group. If  my high school science class would have presented information on a regular basis using speeches, powerpoint presentations, iMovies, or scientific papers, how much easier would have my college speech class been , or having a leadership role in a college group, (Check out page 3 Homecoming court as Navigators' president)http://wildcat.wsc.edu/stater/archive/2011/september_28_2011.pdf or my teaching career? If they plan on going to college they better be able to take notes in a way that is useful for them, why not start practicing now? They also need to be able to collaborate and work in groups throughout their lives and high school biology gives them a great place to do that!

What other important life skills do you teach? What are other ways you get your students excited to learn?