Foam ActivityThree Kinds of Hands-on Science
Time Background and Rationale Recently, hands-on learning has become something of a buzz-word in education circles. Under the moniker of "hands-on," countless kits and lesson plans have put materials into the hands of students, but many of them have proven just as restrictive and proscriptive in their use of and inquiry into the materials as were the textbooks that they set about to replace. Because we realized that there was a continuum of interpretations of the term hands-on science, from tightly guided activities to open ended inquiry, we developed the foam activity to help both us and our teacher colleagues make finer distinctions between the different types of hands-on science learning on this continuum. The foam activity allows people to experience three different hands-on approaches to the same subject so that they can compare and contrast their immediate, direct experience and use that as a stimulus for analysis and discussion in a workshop setting. Through this discussion, the sketchy profile of inquiry which most of us have can begin to be filled in. In devising this activity, we chose to work with soap foam for a number of reasons, including that it is a fun material to work with. The fact that foam is not part of anyone's curriculum is also important. Teachers at workshops are used to getting activities to take back to their classrooms. Using a topic that is not part of their curriculum helps to get across to them that the activity is designed for helping them analyze different teaching strategies and not for classroom use. Introducing the Activity Logistics of the ActivityDivide the group in half. One-half will go first to the Inquiry Station where they will spend 40-60 minutes; the other half will divide itself between the Challenge and Guided Stations, spending 20-30 minutes at each station. At the end of the hour, give teachers a short break before reversing groups: the teachers who had participated in Challenge and Guided activities move on to Inquiry, and the Inquiry group splits itself between the other two activities. You need one facilitator for the Inquiry Station. It is useful to have one facilitator for each of the other stations but if necessary, one person can cover both. Just before the end of each activity remind teachers about the need for clean-up before going on to their next station. We use 5 gallon buckets for cleaning up between groups. Teachers can dump all their foam into the buckets and wipe out their bowls with paper towels. If the buckets get too full of foam to hold any more, you can cut the foam by pouring a little vinegar into the buckets. After the second hour, when everyone has worked at each station, "jigsaw" them into discussion groups of 8 to 12, mixing people from groups that experienced activities in different orders. After spending 45 or so minutes
in small discussion groups, you may want to Materials
Spoons and tongue depressors are used to contour the foam, but you can ask people to use their hands. The root beer, shaving cream, eggs and cream of tartar are used at the inquiry center. In the text below, the above list is broken out into three materials lists for the three activity centers. We've found that asking participants to bring in materials (like egg beaters and bowls) from home works well.
This activity uses the attached self explanatory worksheet. Materials for each group are listed on the worksheet. Facilitator's Directions Give them the following helpful hints:
Remind people that they need to stop a little early to clean up for the next group. Dump all the foam into the five gallon buckets and wipe out all the bowls with paper towels. Facilitation Hints One of the issues that arises at this station concerns time. Sometimes one or more groups finish early and do not know what to do while other groups others are still working. Alternatively, some groups run out of time and are rushed or do not finish when clean-up time is called. In that case, you deal with the anxiety and feelings of failure that arise. These time issues are valid replication of what happens in classrooms with worksheets and should be part of the discussion. People who have an inclination
toward exploration may stray off task on this
This activity asks people, in groups of two or three, to build a foam tower at least 12 inches high. Materials
Facilitator's Directions Tell the teachers (or write on a chalkboard) that the challenge of this activity is to build a foam tower at least 12 inches high. The activity's parameters are that:
When a group has met the challenge, ask them to continue building the tower as high as possible. If a group is doing this station first, you can give the participants a starting point by telling them that 1 tsp. of detergent to 1 cup of water is the foam recipe for the Guided Investigation. Although this may not be the best recipe, it provides an idea of workable proportions for soap and water. They can use either hand or electric beaters or both at this station. Facilitation Hints The facilitator at this station
should be the judge of the tower height. To measure, hold a
yardstick vertically on the table and sight across to the top
of the tower. Keep telling teachers how much time they have left to meet the challenge.
As they get closer to the time limit without meeting the challenge,
frustration often grows. For groups that don't meet the challenge,
there is a feeling of failure and "not being good at science." These
are important points to bring to the discussion. Often, in
groups who are doing this activity as the second or third activity,
someone will notice that the old foam in the 5 gallon buckets
from a prior group has dried out and become very light and
fluffy. They will take some of this to use on the top layer
of their tower. The facilitator needs to decide ahead of time
if they want to allow this. Sometimes, participants will "cheat" by
piling the foam onto other objects Participants can become quite competitive at this station. Challenges, and especially the instruction to go as high as you can after meeting the challenge, can easily lead to competition. With competition, everyone except the top group is a loser. The issues of competition are also important to bring to the discussion. Cooperation is also possible at this station. In one session, the groups shared information with each other so that they could all meet the challenge. This is another important point to bring up in discussion. With all of the possible pitfalls of challenges, it is important that the positive aspects are brought out in discussion. First, challenges can be very engaging for both adults and children. They provide a clear goal and give people the opportunity to experiment and find a way to meet that goal. Challenges can also push people to do things that they never would have suspected that they were capable of doing. In that way they can enhance the learner's confidence.
At this station, participants are asked to work in groups of two or three to explore soap foam and to learn what they can about its physical properties, including what makes it strong. In addition to the materials that are available at the other stations, provide participants with shaving cream, root beer, eggs, cream of tartar and whipping cream. Set aside these materials aside from the others, so that at some point in the activity you can let people know that they are available for extensions. If possible, you can also include a binocular, dissecting microscope so that teachers can look more closely at the soap foam. It is important to emphasize
for teachers that this station provides them the Materials
These materials should be enough for both rotations of participants. Facilitator's Directions If this is their first station, you might need to help people find a way to get started by offering a "recipe" for foam, or by actually demonstrating how to make foam out of dish soap and water. You can also recommend that they look closely at the foam, add new ingredients to it, build with it, experiment with the other materials, etc. You may also want to ask the group to suggest two or three ways to explore some of the physical properties of foam, including its strength. This introduction is meant to give people without experiences from the other stations some ideas of how to get started and to show them that their ideas are valid--but be careful not to have the suggestions misinterpreted as instructions. The point is for people to lead themselves through a process of inquiry and discovery. Facilitation Hints Sometimes people ask if they can use materials that were not set out at the start. If people ask for items that are available, like food coloring or a microwave, you might want to provide them. For the last five or ten minutes of this station, bring the group together to share their observations and discoveries. This process will illustrate for them the importance of the group interaction for building understanding about inquiry. During this time, emphasize again that this station is only the "first-phase" of the inquiry process and that it does not represent all that there is to inquiry.
The point of doing these foam activities is to provide first-hand experiences with three sorts of hands-on activities, and to generate thoughtful discussions about the differences noted and experienced among the three. The facilitation of the discussions and other processing of the experience is therefore the most critical element of the activity. A good way to get people started is to ask the participants to write briefly about each station using the following questions as prompts.
Discussion can follow this writing period, or you can start the discussions right after the end of the last activity. Teachers should meet in groups of no more than 12 people plus a facilitator. Jigsaw the groups mixing people who experienced the activities in different orders and who worked in different groups. An easy way to jigsaw the groups is to approach each of the Guided Activity groups, while they are still doing their activity, and ask them to count off 1-2-3 (that's if you are planning to have 3 discussion groups, if you are planning on four have them count off 1-2-3-4). Ask them to remember their number because that will be their discussion group which will meet at the end of all the activities. This is only one possibility--there are other ways to distribute people into discussion groups that you may find more useful.
Your choice of discussion prompts depends on the make-up of your group and what you are trying to emphasize with this activity. The following discussion prompts have proven useful in stimulating productive dialogue:
· How did it feel to work in each area--what was your personal reaction? People will have different reactions to each area. Some will love the freedom of the inquiry station. Others will feel insecure there, not knowing what to do or what the objective is. Some will like the guidance provided by the worksheet. Others will find it limiting. Some love a challenge. Others hate the pressure of the challenge. Discussion often turns to how to appeal to kids with different learning styles. Many teachers will say things like Now I know how my students feel when I make them do ___. · What kinds of questions came up in the three areas? How did they differ? Some people find they have more questions in one activity or another, or that the types of questions they have are different in different activities. For instance, the challenge or the inquiry activity might bring up questions like "I wonder what would happen if...?" While the guided activity might bring up questions like "I wonder if this is why ____ happens?" Looking at the kinds of questions that came up can be a good lead into a discussion about when you would want to employ one or another of the activity strategies. · How does the timing or order affect the experience? Order makes a difference for many people. Sometimes, people who start with the more structured activities have a hard time in the inquiry station. Their curiosity and creativity seems to be stifled. Sometimes this question turns
to "Which order is the right order to teach in?" · What were the advantages
and disadvantages of each approach? Challenge Activity
Inquiry
Materials
Directions 1) Which foam has bigger bubbles, A or B? On the small plastic plates,
build piles of foam as high as you can. On small plastic plates, build
mounds of foam 4 inches high; one with foam A and one with
foam B. Try to make a dowel stand vertically in the foam, with
the pointed end of the dowel down.
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