Institute for Inquiry: Graduate Work

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GRADUATE SUBMISSION:

Donna Lawrence and Wanda Rinker:
"Three Kinds of Hands-On Science with Ice Balloons"

District
Lawrence Township, West Windsor, Plainsboro: New Jersey

Team Members
Donna Lawrence and Wanda Rinker are science resource teachers with full-time classroom responsibilities.


Donna Lawrence	Wanda Rinker

Purpose of Workshop or Activity
The activity described below (3 kinds of hands-on science with ice balloons) took place on the first day of a one week inquiry teacher workshop. The purpose of the week is to introduce teachers to what inquiry is all about, including questioning, constructivism, assessment, communicating results, and what inquiry looks like in a classroom.

The main objective of the 3 kinds of hands-on science activity was to put everyone on the same page so when we mentioned inquiry science, everybody had the same mental picture. Not that the other ways were not good, but we wanted teachers to distinguish them from the inquiry part.

Audience
150 elementary teachers and administrators

Description of Activity
Here is a brief description of how we did our "Three kinds of Science " (Foam) segment in New Jersey. We used ice instead of Foam as a material. We used ice balloons (frozen water balloons) as the "inquiry model". We investigated them in a similar manner to what we did at the Exploratorium in April. (The materials were: ice balloons, buckets of water, salt, sugar, food coloring, nails, plastic plates, and hammers) We used the facilitating techniques of the inquiry activity in "foam".

For the challenge activity, we used ice cubes. The Challenge: Design a method to put a hole all the way through an ice cube. Parameters: Do not break or crack the cube. If you do, you must get another cube and start over. There should be as little melting as possible. You may use only the materials provided at the materials center. (large ice cubes, sugar, salt, nails, food coloring, hot and cold water, plastic plate). You will have 10 minutes. Again we facilitated this in a similar manner to the "foam" challenge activity.

For our guided activity, we gave everyone fresh cubes. We made up a worksheet that included these questions:

1.) Observe your ice cube. Draw and describe its shape, size, and general appearance.
2.) Bring your finger near all sides of the cube's surface. Do you feel any changes in temperature from top to bottom? From side to side?
3.) Allow the cube to sit for several minutes. Observe carefully. Describe any changes that you notice.
4.) Where does the melting seem to occur? At the sides, top, or bottom?
5.) Take two fresh cubes. Place one in a plastic baggie and leave the other in an open drinking glass. Observe the changes over time.

We did the ice balloons activity in groups of four. We did the challenge and the guided activity in pairs.

Due to our numbers (150 people), we split the group up into 5 groups of 30. Each group went to a different room. Two staff Developers worked with each group of 30. Each room proceeded the same way so the participants had very similar experiences which we could refer back to all week. As an instructional team, we decided on the order of inquiry, challenge, and then guided. Due to the nature of our set up, we did not rotate through stations. Everyone did the same activity at the same time. We used the same type of questions and end of the activity processing discussion that we used at the Exploratorium in April. The discussions were very rich. The participants really liked this activity, and it really brought home the difference between the types of hands-on science. I would have to say that it was a success.

Schedule
2 1/2 hours total

inquiry part: 40 minutes
challenge part: 15 minutes
guided part: 15 minutes

Write in journals on the following prompts: 20 minutes

"What are the similarities and differences between the 3 approaches?"
"Which approach did you like best?"
"Which did you like least?"
"What issues did doing this activity raise for you?"

Small group discussion: 40 minutes

How the Activities Support the Purpose:
Got people involved and excited on the first day so it would make an impression.

Gave people a concrete picture of inquiry and other approaches so they could refer back to them in discussions later during the week.

Gave them something to look back on.

Questions and Feedback:

How did it go?
People liked the inquiry part. They didn't want to stop.

Goal oriented people loved the challenge.

People were so bored by the guided activity that some didn't even want to fill in the worksheet.

We had to train the trainers. We were the only ones who had experienced the activity so we had to do the activity with the trainers first. They were so nervous when it came to facilitating the activity that we had to write a script of what to say and when to say it. It went very well. During the discussions, if the trainers were anxious about getting conversations going, they could simply ask people to read from their journals about the prompts.

What surprised you?
How well received it was, and how much people referred to the activity later in the week without prompting. How big of a need it seemed to fill.

Linear thinkers were worried that we put materials out but didn't tell them what to do with them in the inquiry part. People took three times the materials they needed just because they were there (just like children) until they realized they didn't need them.

We found that people liked to peel their own balloons.

What pleased/disappointed you?
We would like to refine the challenge activity to make it a bit more open ended.

Would you do it different next time? How?
Would use clear plastic tubs instead of buckets so we could see the iceballs float.

Might try it with parachutes instead next time in order to not have to freeze and transport so many ice balloons.

What would you like feedback on from the group?
Would like feedback on improvements in the challenge activity. It lacked options. There seemed to be one best way to do it (salt and twist a nail). We would like to find a challenge that has more than one way to solve it.

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