Over the course of four weeks, the innovative unit plan discussed in detail in the previous sections was implemented across five sections of 6th Grade Life Science at Twelve Corners Middle School. Working collaboratively with fellow Warner graduate student Carli Moochler and cooperating teachers Tom Wimer and Dave Connelly, I had the opportunity to engage the students in a relevant and meaningful hands-on minds-on inquiry-based experience dedicated to the investigation of invertebrate animals and the connections which exist between all members of the Animal Kingdom. While not without challenges, the overall unit seemed to provide vital insight both into the students’ capabilities to conduct authentic scientific investigations as well as their understanding of and appreciation for living organisms. In addition, the students were able to contribute to the established community of learners as scientists and develop the conceptual understandings necessary to build connections between concepts and content through these experiences.
A persistent challenge throughout the unit was the students’ desire for a “correct answer.” Conditioned to receive information and regurgitate facts and “understandings,” my students struggled with the task of initiating and, in some instances, participating in an authentic independent investigation. In order to alleviate many of these concerns and frustrations, the unit was scaffolded in such a way so as to allow students to participate in experience-first opportunities that provide insight in the various components of the unit and help generate ideas regarding individual implementation. As such, through this open-inquiry-based unit, students engaged in a differentiated investigative opportunity that allowed for individualized participation and the development of unique ideas regarding content.
In addition, regardless of the intensive planning that went into the unit prior to implementation, unexpected last-minute changes were often necessary. For example, during shipment of some of our organisms from California, one of the boxes was destroyed and those creatures had to be re-ordered, setting our original schedule back by a few days. In addition, the starfish unfortunately did not survive the transfer into the established salt-water environments; as such, the students assigned these organisms had to change investigations at the last-minute so that they could still participate. Lastly, because of previously scheduled school-wide events, we often had to shorten portions of the unit, change classrooms, and adjust the prescribed order of some components which may have had an effect on the overall outcome of the unit. However, I believe that we were able to adapt well and still provide a unique and meaningful opportunity for all our students as a means of allowing them to connect with the material through authentic investigations.
Overall, the students seemed thoroughly engaged throughout the unit as it incorporated components which allowed the teams to design, implement, and analyze their investigation with a living specimen based on initial background research. Providing students with a field journal detailing the various components of the unit, scaffolding specific portions with discrepant events and concrete examples, and allowing peers and instructors the opportunity to share perspective and feedback, I feel that we designed and implemented a thoughtful and relevant inquiry-based experience that allowed students to physically engage with material as a means of gaining further insight into the Animal Kingdom. As a fellow instructor shared with me, “I was just grading an ELA practice test that my students took today, and they had to read two different passages. The first one was about birds and how we modeled airplanes after a birds ability to fly, and the second was about different types of cat fish. The question read ‘If you were an animal which would you choose and why?’ (using examples from EACH story to support your answer) and Diarra Bell, wrote “Whoever wrote this question clearly doesn’t know that humans ARE animals, but if I had to be a different animal, I would choose a bird.” I thought it was pretty funny and that you might enjoy it. I guess they learned something while the student teachers were here!!!”


