Overview and Objectives

In this unit, students become the scientist. They will investigate various problems through questioning, collaboration, design and engineering skills. Students will be asked to plan experiments, create pictorial and physical models, and use their five senses to explain their results and conclusions. By identifying and using variables, they will be able to make connections between the changes going on in an experiment and the conclusions they've reached.

Using collaboration, students will be able to discover that thoughtful planning and open discussion of ideas and solutions will help create an atmosphere of cooperation and teamwork.

Various Objectives are: (Science 21)

• Connect prior knowledge to scientific experiences in order to solve problems.
• Communicate data orally and in writing.
• Work cooperatively and use materials carefully.
• Support hypotheses and make thoughtful revisions.
• Observe, describe, and compare the properties of familiar objects.
• Engage in problem-posing, problem-solving and peer persuasion as a model of inquiry.
• Design and carry out plans for exploring problems and evaluating explanations guided by questions or proposed explanations that they have helped to formulate.

Sample Lessons

The Lifesaver Lab, The Think Tube, The Mystery Box, and the The Think Pipe.

The Lifesaver Lab requires students to calculate the dissolving time of a lifesaver in the mouth, and then to determine the dissolving time of a lifesaver in a solution outside the mouth. Among the different solutions last year were Fruitopia, Cola, Apple Juice, and we STIILL have a lifesaver dissolving in vegetable oil!! It's going on more than 365 days!!

Both the Think Tube and the Mystery Box ask the students to design and replicate a teacher made model. They are both very interesting and fun to experiment with and to recreate.

The Think Pipe (and the Lifesaver Lab) introduce the different variables into an experiment. Students will drop a golf ball from a PVC pipe, measuring the distance between bounce one and bounce two.

Vocabulary

1. scientific method: a process by which scientists find facts to solve problems.
2. hypothesis: an idea that attempts to answer a scientific question.
3. analyze: to examine carefully, looking for patterns and trends.
4. conclusion: a judgment or decision reached because of data collected.
5. inquire: to ask a question.
6. variable: a factor in an experiment that affects the outcome.
7. manipulated (independent) variable: the part of an experiment that YOU change.
8. responding (dependent) variable: the effect of the manipulated variable, it can be measured (but you have no control over the effect).
9. controlled (constant) variable: the part of the experiment that stays the same.
10. materials: tools and supplies needed to conduct an experiment.
11. science: a way of thinking and learning which involves predicting, observing, interpreting, and drawing conclusions.
12. scientist: a person who engages in science by observing and investigation.
13. measurement: the size or amount of something.
14. pictorial model: a picture that represents something.
15. physical model: a constructed model of something.
16. research: the act of hunting for facts.
17. observation: using your senses to get information and then recording what you notice.
18. technology: the use of tools, power and materials for the purpose of producing something.
19. inference: a guess or hypothesis based on observations.
20. collaboration: to work effectively with others

The Steps of the Scientific Method

1. State the Problem or Question - ask what will happen in a given situation

2. Hypothesis/Prediction - make an educated, solid prediction of an outcome

3. Procedure/Materials - write step by step instructions for completing an experiment (Hint: pretend you are writing to someone who has never done this before!)

4. Experiment - do the actual experiment

5. Collect, record, organize data in a graph, sketch, table, or diagram - create a visual record of what is happening in the experiment

6. Results - what ACTUALLY happens when the experiment is finished

7. Conclusions - what did you LEARN because of the results

8. Further Investigations - what else can you do now that you've finished

What do all scientists need to be successful? Just ASK!