Main Dish: NSTA PLU

Through this course, I walked through the process of presenting a specific phenomenon to students, and using that as an anchor for a lesson in scientific inquiry. The hallmarks of a good phenomenon are something that is visually clear and arresting and connects in some aspect to student experiences, but also has a confounding or mysterious aspect to it.

To use phenomenon well, I need to give students time to make observations. I need to give students time to work individually (the presenter referred to this time as the "Alone Zone"), and also time for groups of students to share what they had done individually. Students make individual observations and share. Then they express their questions individually and then share.

I would then guide students to use their observations and questions to connect the phenomenon to scientific laws, or how the world works, in ways that they already know about. And then I would challenge students to identify new aspects of how the world works, illustrated by this phenomenon.