Going Into Depth About Science Inquiry

The 5 steps of inquiry-based learning

1. Ask questions
2. Probe into various situations
3. Conduct analyses and provide descriptions
4. Communicate findings, verbally or in writing
5. Think about the information and knowledge obtained

Inquiry-based learning is not a technique or practice, but a process that has the potential to increase the intellectual engagement and deep understanding of learners, urging students to:

• Develop their questioning, research and communication skills
• Collaborate outside the classroom
• Solve problems, create solutions, and tackle real-life questions and issues
• Participate in the creation and amelioration of ideas and knowledge

Click this link to read all about the Inquiry Process!

"Learning through inquiry means that the students construct knowledge through the process of asking questions, seeking evidence, formulating explanations based on evidence, and justifying their explanations."

Mock Mystery Bag

• Pass around bag and have 5 seconds to feel what is in the bag
• Felt different objects, heard a squeaky noise and when the bag was shook, the bag made a sound like a maraca 
• Gained an informed guess on the possible answers of what could be in the bag and we shared our findings as a class
• Formulate a statement on what you think is in the bag and create a hypothesis
• Devise a method to obtain information; what would help to evaluate whether your hypothesis is SUPPORTED or NOT supported
• Each test will have two predictions on what to expect; if hypothesis is correct and if hypothesis is wrong
• Restate the hypothesis and predict what would happen
• A hypothesis is NOT just a guess, it is a TENTATIVE EXPLANATION

Collaborative Inquiry Presentation

• Fish is Fish Video
• Children resemble "fish" when they come to class with their misconceptions and through time, they grow and learn who they are as a student
• Common Misconceptions Presentation Topics
• Space Travel
• The sun disappears at night
• Black holes are like vacuums
• The Earth is larger than the sun
• The Earth is round like a pancake
• The moon can only be seen during night time
• Rocks & Minerals
• Rocks must be heavy
• Rocks are the same color on the inside as they are on the outside
• Humans can make rocks and minerals
• Minerals and Rocks are the same
• Minerals are always shiny and metallic
• Life in the Desert
• Deserts are always in a drought, it is dry land with no water or vegetation
• The desert always has a warm/hot climate; no change in weather patterns (Example: Antarctica is the biggest desert)
• Temperatures in the desert do not fall below freezing
• There is no rainfall in a desert

Celebration of Learning

Today was the fourth graders Day of Celebration! The students got the opportunity to celebrate themselves for learning all new material and being such a great class to the science teachers! This day was also an opportunity for the students to celebrate their teachers. Giving feedback back and forth about our lessons and what they liked best was really beneficial for us. Feedback makes us flourish as a teacher to know what works and does not work. When we got to the class, we had the students sign onto their iPads and answer questions on the Sensory Garden Post-Test. Usually, students complain when they see that something is a test. Even though this wasn't being graded, the students still didn't complain and answered the questions to the best of their ability. I never see this happen in a classroom typically. Not one student complained about the questions and just finished the test without any difficulties. After doing this, us teachers prepared a Kahoot! game for the students to play, with questions based on the 4 lessons that were implemented. Of course, the students were ecstatic about playing the game. On our part, we definitely should have planned ahead of time and provided a prize for the winner of the game. The students didn't seem to mind though, they just enjoyed playing a fun game, that also reviewed their prior knowledge. Towards the end of our time in the classroom, all of the teachers stood in the front of the room and told the students how great it was to have them as our class to teach. Besides just a verbal praise, we provided certificates of success for each student with their names printed on them. We called them up one by one and every student was supportive of one another, which was great to see. This fieldwork experience was a great one for me personally. This class very respectful and cooperative which is usually pretty rare to come across. The students really did seem to be engaged with what we were teaching them, especially for me and my group's topic. Not only will I miss this class, I will miss the enthusiasm and support they gave me as a teacher. I wasn't there main teacher, they didn't have to respect or listen to me. But this class was a dream! At times, they were a little too rowdy but overall they were very respectful kids. This day was all about celebrating their success and somehow, the students celebrated us as well, which was a beautiful moment to witness! :)

The Power of the Worm

Today was Group 4's final lesson which they called: The Power of the Worm. They started off their lesson by briefly introducing what the students will be doing today, but James began to review the classroom rules with the 4th graders. He called on one student to read off a rule and then once that student read it out loud, the entire class repeated after him/her. He also briefly mentioned that the students will be playing the teacher vs. class game again and this time there was an even better prize up at hands for them to get at the end of the lesson! Before going into the inquiry lesson, the teachers introduced a "What do you remember?" slide. Each teacher read off a question and had the students answer it and see if they remember anything from their previous lesson. Majority of the students really remembered the facts/definitions that they learned from the previous week, which made them confident to move onto the experiment! Before going into the science experiment, the students had to review the Scientific Method. The entire class felt very confident in this method since they have been introduced to it many times before. The teachers emphasized that this method will be incredibly important for their lesson today because the students will be researching data, making a hypothesis, and formulating a conclusion.

Tara began by telling the students about Gary the Goblin. This story was printed out for the students to read in their individual folders which I thought was a great idea. She read the story out loud with great confidence and explained that the job for the students were to prove that worms are incredibly important and beneficial to gardens. This is when the inquiry experiment of using a webquest was introduced! There were 4 different stations: Food Scraps, Soil, Create Your Own Worm Bin & Worm Meet and Greet. At every station, the students were to bring their packet full of questions and space to record their research. The student's used iPads to visit websites within the webquest in order to support their hypotheses. At the worm bin station, the teachers provided a real life worm bin for the students to look at and research. At the worm meet and greet, the students got the opportunity to touch and play with real life worms! This part of the lesson was incredibly important and kept the students engaged because they were so intrigued about the worms. There were over 200 worms and they were to be placed into the sensory garden that is being constructed! After each student visited all four stations, they were told to return back to their original seats and use the research that they found to conduct a conclusion about why worms are so important to a garden. Since the teachers were running out of time, the class didn't get to share as much as I wish they could have. The stations were a great idea and it seemed like the students really enjoyed this process! After completing all four stations, the students were prompted to write a letter to Gary the Goblin convincing him why worms are so important, while including different facts that they learned and key terms from the direct instruction lesson. Overall, this lesson was extremely creative and it seemed as though all of the students were very intrigued to learn about the worms, since they will be placed in their sensory garden. The teachers were very confident in the material and walked around the room to make sure that each student was participating in the webquest and staying engaged at all times!

Live Organisms and Life Cycles

Today was the last groups turn to teach their direct instruction lesson! The focus of their lesson was on live organisms and life cycles. They started their lesson off by having a student read off the title of the lesson shown on the board. From this, the teachers discussed the classroom rules and had everyone read them out loud. If the class followed these rules throughout the day, they were to receive a prize! To check for the students' understanding, each 4th grader received a thumbs up/thumbs down popsicle stick. They were to hold these up when they understood or didn't understand in order for the lesson to move along. After reviewing the rules of the day, one of the teachers reviewed what the class has previously learned from the other three groups. What I didn't like about this part of the lesson was that the students were placed in groups, but all of the students decided to clump together in the middle of the classroom rather than form groups at their tables. I felt as though this was a distraction for majority of the students. After reviewing, the teachers told the students to open the folders on their desks which included their key terms note sheet. One thing I would change about this is that the key terms were given, when the definitions should have been given instead, in order to save time. Many of the students complained that they had to right down full definitions. 

The lesson began with different types of material: the life cycle, life of a plant, worms, composting, worm bins, and much more. I really liked how all of the teachers seemed very knowledgeable about the material that they were teaching. They used real life, simple examples in order to explain different definitions and processes. One of the teachers even included a little humor into his part of the lesson, which I thought was very engaging! One thing I didn't like about this lesson was the attention grabbing technique. The teachers resulted to clapping five times and having the students clap back. This only worked a handful of times. I felt as though this technique was over used and became ineffective. For majority of the time, the teachers had to talk over the class which should never be the case. Another thing I would have done differently is making sure that ALL students were included and paid attention to. As an observer, I noticed one particular student who was not paying attention. He was secluded from everyone else and was never placed in a group. He was also never called on to share an answer or opinion. This is unacceptable when you're a teacher because you need to give every student the opportunity to learn and grow.

After the lesson was completed, I really enjoyed the group's guided practice activity, which was matching key terms to definitions on the smart  board. This was simple, yet effective! After this activity, the students were given their independent practice, which was to label the stages of the life cycle and plant cycle. I felt as though this was a little difficult for the students because the terms are very intricate. After completing this task, one of the teachers introduced Dr. Smirnova's husband Michael to the class, in order for him to speak about gardening and the knowledge he had to share. The students seemed very intrigued by the facts he was sharing! He focused a lot on compost and worms, which was a hint to group 4's inquiry lesson! Overall, great lesson with great material, there were just definitely a handful of things I would have done differently or added to the lesson in order to make it run more smoothly.