Science Inquiry Lesson Plan Reflections

          My observations during implementation of my science inquiry lesson were very informative. I learned that during structured inquiry, students have to be lead into that higher level of critical thinking and understanding. At first when I completed the discrepant event by showing them the Cartesian diver, I could tell the students were hooked and engaged. Next, I gave them the guiding questions and elicited responses to what they already knew about buoyancy and density.  The students formulated their own hypothesis, based on what they thought would happen. The students were to write down what equipment they thought they would need to test their hypothesis and began planning an experiment.

        Then, the students were able to begin implementation. Some students struggled with finding the mass and volume of the irregular objects, but when I assisted them a little in explaining how its done, they proceeded with no problems. The students seemed so excited to test the different objects in the different substances. I think this was because I didn’t tell them what to choose, only the guidelines for how the experiment should be done. This gave them freedom in their choice and selection of materials, and I also think they were proud to be able to test their own educated guess about the density of the objects. 

     

          Lastly, we had our Jigsaw and  Think-Pair-Share summary and discussion, and we were able to use our experimental science to explain why we got the results we did, and how we supported our results. The students also increasingly asked more probing and open ended questions, and I could tell that this lab was getting the students to think a little more and more. One student commented that “this must be the type of things that the military have to considered, when building their ships.” I told him yes, you are absolutely correct, and maybe we can do further research on density and buoyancy in the armed forces. The kids thought it would be a great idea to explore and bring back information on it to share with the class for next week.

           I think that not only did I learn a lot about structured inquiry from my students by completing this lesson, but I learned how to improve my current instructional practices. I have completed open inquiry labs in the past, but I  always needed to push them to complete them on their own. Now I see that for students who need some structured inquiry, it’s okay, because I have to meet my students were they are. Sometime I would feel like I was pulling teeth to try to get them to think and use their brain to figure things out. I have tiered and scaffold lessons before, but I don’t think I included all of the 5 E’s. Completing this lesson has made me more cognitively aware of the probing questions I can ask, the importance of a hook that engages the students, the benefit of structure inquiry and the many different levels, and meet my student’s needs from where they are now.