As the blogs have been down for a while again, I figured I should post an update about STARS as the program is quickly drawing to a close. An overview of our group’s implementation follows.
In order to create an educational environment which would facilitate inquiry-based experiences and allow the participants to engage in authentic science, we as teachers incorporated a learner-centered philosophy in our planning and activities and worked to ensure that open inquiry practices (those which integrate both content and independent discovery) guided the development of a conceptual understanding regarding the chosen topic. By utilizing these methods and providing only necessary framework, we allowed our students the opportunity to conduct an authentic investigation, from which, each student learned from a hands-on, minds-on experience but also recognized her own abilities as a young scientist. It is our hope that these experiences have helped enable each girl to value her own abilities and realize that her contributions to the field now and in the future can work to revolutionize science.
We began our STARS program with an introduction to what science is and what constitutes the discipline in terms of research and independent discovery. In order to do so, we brought to light the common misconceptions of science by utilizing the girls’ views of what a scientist “looks like” or what the scientist. Through the use of inquiry cubes, we were able to provide the students’ the opportunity to realize that science doesn’t always have a right answer and that certain aspects of the discipline are unknown. In addition, it allowed the girls to investigate a specific question (“What is on the bottom of the cube?”) and recognize that investigation often leads to further questions to be answered. By demonstrating that science, rather than occurring in a linear fashion such as the “scientific method,” happens more organically, we were able to demonstrate to the girls that the “process” involved in scientific investigation has no prescribed order and works to build conceptual understanding and perpetuate discovery.
Our group of young women has been, from the beginning, a very cohesive unit, working well together toward a common goal for the program. The girls bonded quickly upon meeting and participated well in activities meant to provide necessary framework for the development of a question regarding an aspect of environment sustainability. They then compiled a long list of possible questions for investigation and worked diligently as a group to decide on a single, investigatible question for their overall project. By first experiencing Elephant Toothpaste and learning how to distinguish between questions which can be tested scientifically and those which cannot, the group was then prepared to choose a question which was both investigatible and agreeable to the majority of all involved.
These collaborative efforts have maintained the momentum and energy throughout the STARS program for out group. After developing their question for investigation (“Does roof color affect roof color?”), the girls in subsequent weeks worked to brainstorm how they would test their question and what materials would be best suited for the experiment. Again, scaffolded instruction and collaboration between sites provided each student with insight into possible materials and procedures. By providing examples of possible materials and allowing each girl to develop pros and cons for materials and procedures, we were able to both assess their development as scientists as well as use the information and ideas as a basis for the design of the experiment. The students were then able to synthesize a preliminary design of the experiment and determine how they wanted to construct their houses, providing the teachers with the information necessary to scaffold future lessons.
Providing the necessary materials for the designed investigation, the teachers were able to sufficiently scaffold each lesson and activity to allow the students to experience a truly authentic scientific investigation of their own design. Through the implementation of this design, the students were able to problem solve a variety of issues which were manifest at different points of the process in order to minimize error and extraneous variables. In addition, we were able to engage each of the girls in the construction of the necessary pieces for the trials and allow each the opportunity to contribute to the investigation.
In addition to the investigation designed by the students, we provided insight into the girls’ “I wonder…” questions, meant to provide each student with the opportunity to briefly investigation an aspect of science which intrigues her. For example, we investigated how a person doesn’t fall out of a roller coaster when going upside down, how invisible ink works, and what makes glow sticks glow, among others. We were able to incorporate a variety of these short demonstrations and investigations into our lessons and provide another example of how our planning remained learner-center and student-directed. In addition, they demonstrated to the students that their ideas and questions were valid and worth investigating, reinforcing their confidence as scientists engaged in scientific discovery.
After building the model houses (out of balsa wood, wood glue, and colored duct tape) and independently designing the experimental set-up and data tables, the students were able to predict which house would be warmer and which would be cooler and why, demonstrating their understanding that hypotheses and claims necessitate evidence. The girls then collaborated again to determine how they would test each house and, as a means of differentiation, decided to conduct two similar but slightly different tests at each site. The students, using a provided heat lamp, exposed the houses to the same amount of light for 30 minutes and collected data at 10-minute intervals using a Venier LabQuest Pro and temperature probe for accuracy. When the data collected did not complete match their hypothesis, the girls decided to conduct a second day of testing to compare data and determine possible sources of error.
As a means of providing sufficient background information for the topic which the girls had chosen to investigate (“How does roof color affect the temperature inside a house?”), we devoted two sessions to exploring the roles of light, heat, and color and how these phenomena relate to our question. Through interactive demonstrations using glow sticks, prisms, colored index cards, and ice cubes, we were able to guide the students through the often difficult material regarding light and color. In order to prepare the students for their future investigations, we thought it was necessary to provide sufficient background information for the development of a cohesive hypothesis and conclusions based in evidence. Designed as multiple P.O.E. activities which sequentially built conceptual understanding for each student, the activities helped to provide concrete, meaningful experiences.
For each day of data collection, the girls worked well to provide each student the opportunity to contribute to the process (operating the probes, reading temperatures, recording data on the tables), rotating roles at each time point. This experience (among others) helped to demonstrate to the girls the importance of teamwork and collaboration in the sciences as well as allowed the natural leadership skills of some of the students benefit the group as a whole. Lastly, the variety of roles allowed each girl to contribute in way in which she felt most comfortable.
Following data collection, the girls were extremely excited at the prospect of analyzing their data and relate it to their original predictions. Asked to brainstorm ideas for presenting the collected data in a visual representation, the students were more than enthusiastic to provide ideas for graphs and/or charts. After quickly deciding on a line graph and describing why it would best represent their data (due to the time variable), the girls worked in two groups to graph the data for both weeks using large sheets of fabric and the colored duct tape used in the building of the model houses. After completing their graphs (complete with axes labels, key, and title), the girls were asked to present to the group how their data relates to the hypothesis and what evidence supports their claim, allowing them the opportunity to demonstrate their overall comprehension of the topic, question, and investigation.
As a means of incorporating a community awareness aspect into the project and emphasizing the need to disseminate scientific findings to perpetuate the field and promote further discoveries, we scaffolded an activity in which the girls designed and constructed door hangers which shared their findings and suggestions with community members. While individual students were participating in video interviews, the other students were busy independently working on the door hanger project as well as sharing their designs with the other members of their group.
As a culminating synthesis of the project, the students will again work collaboratively to develop an interactive station demonstrating their conceptual understanding built over the past ten weeks and provide community members with necessary information and suggestions to improve environmental sustainability efforts in terms of roof color of houses.
What worked so well for us throughout the unit was our ability and willingness to develop lessons which were relevant and meaningful for our students by maintaining a learner-centered, student-directed approach. By providing only necessary framework, we allowed our girls the opportunity to engage in hands-on, minds-on experiential learning through scientific investigation and independent discovery. As one student responded when asked “When during STARS have you felt most like a scientist?,” “I always feel like a scientist.” We feel that our lessons have helped to form a foundation upon which can be built a continuous series of experiences which contribute to further conceptual understanding and the development of necessary and valuable skills.
With only 1.5 hours each week with our groups, it was often difficult to accomplish our prescribed goals for each meeting. While our girls always worked diligently to complete tasks, there never seemed to be ample time to get everything done. As a teaching team, we did employ great time management and worked hard not to overextend ourselves for each meeting. However, regardless of the planning we did ahead of time and unforeseen issues with data collection, by week 6 we were behind. Adjustments were made and the available time was nevertheless used well to provide the most encompassing experience possible for our students.
In addition, working across two sites proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated. While our girls worked well together, the pace at which they accomplished tasks was often very different, often affecting quality collaboration via video conferencing. Many times it was difficult to connect with our other half team as we were unaware of their minute-by-minute progress and issues which may have caused delays in their plans. While I completely agree that the “teamwork” portion of the program is essential and we had a group which is a model for respectful and productive collaboration, I feel that perhaps working with half teams at the same site might work out better to allow for even more communication and synthesis of ideas and conceptual understanding. However, our girls were excited at the ability to use technology in the form of video conferencing; rather than conferencing to collaborate and develop investigations with other sites, maybe teams could merely use this opportunity to share findings with other students in the future.
Our students allowed us multiple opportunities each day to assess their growth and development as young scientists. It is quite remarkable to look back to the beginning of the program and see how far these students have come in terms of their convictions as intelligent young women, confidence in their abilities as scientists, and their conceptual understanding and ability to convey conclusions based in evidence. It is our hope that these students can continue this trajectory toward even greater success in and out of the classroom in the future.