For this week, the focus of my guided inquiry was the question, "Which pendulum will come to rest more quickly-a lighter pendulum or a heavier pendulum?" To gain insight, I reflected back to doing this experiment with my students a month ago. When I first introduced the concept of a pendulum, the students had a difficult time visualizing what it was. The challenges I face with inquiry-based learning is my students are not used to this type of teaching. They are used to being spoon fed the answers and are almost afraid to ask questions and be curious. However, they have grown a lot since the beginning of the year and are well on their way to being inquisitive scientists.
For the engage part of the activity, since they were having a difficult time visualizing what a pendulum was, I took them out on the playground to re-enact a version of the experiment in the book regarding Newton's Second Law of Motion (Integrated Science, p 41). I chose the smallest student in my class and we both sat on a swing. We then swung back and forth several times until we picked up some momentum. When I had us both stop pumping our legs on the swings, I instructed the student to come to a halt naturally, without touching her feet to the ground. My students found that the lighter of us (my student) came to rest more quickly. However, they could not quite yet explain why.
For the next step, we wrote down vocabulary words in their science notebooks that had to do with pendulums. Words like: momentum, pendulum, variables are words that had to do with the unit and that I thought would help with understanding the concept of pendulums. Next, we had a conversation as a class to try to tie the vocabulary words to what they witnessed with the swings. Again, my students pointed out great concepts and we had a great discussion. However, they failed to make the specific connection between the weight of a pendulum and momentum.
Students then worked in pairs and received materials (string, paper clips and pennies) to make their own pendulums. They recorded their information on charts as they conducted several fifteen second trials of swinging their pendulums. As they did this, they gradually increased the weight by adding a penny to their paper clip on the string with each trial. In the end, we graphed the results as a class on the smart board and discussed their findings. After the experiment, the students were able to explain in their written reponses and also in class discussion that the lighter the pendulum was, the more quickly it came to rest.
Overall, this type of experiment and inquiry-based learning greatly benefits my students. Not only does it make learning more interesting, but it encourages students to become more inquisitive and independent. Rather than just teaching students how to pass a test, this type of learning helps prepare the students to pay attention to the world around them and to become critical thinkers that can make every day, real-world connections.
- When I reflect back on this lesson, I would not change a thing. I actually love it that my students were having a difficult time at first understanding the concept of the pendulum and the real-world application. It forced me to get more creative. Based on my past experiences
with scientific inquiry, the modifications I could make to this experiment to get a different or modified result would be to change different variables in the experiment. For example, if I wanted to show the students that a variable in this experiment that I could change to get a different outcome would be, I could change the starting point of when I began to swing the pendulum. I could have the student and I not go back all of the way on our swings and see how many times we swung back and forth before coming to a halt. As oppose to starting as far back as possible on the swing and then going. I would also have the students do this (and I did) where the students could do a couple of trials where they release their penny from the middle rather than all of the way at the top of the paper clip. The students saw in the end that it picked up less momentum when they did this.
References
Enger, E., Ross, F., Tillery, B. (2008). Integrated Science, Fourth Edition. United States of America: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The Science Center. (2003). A Case For Inquiry Based Learning. (2003) The Science Center. Retrieved from http://www.thesciencecenter.org/InquiryBasedLearn
Holly,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post. I find that students in high school also have trouble in inquiry based learning. It is as if they are afraid to get something wrong, I guess they have been taught this since a very young age in education. I wonder sometimes if we would do better highlighting the things we get wrong on a daily basis so students see that it is a part of life?
Sincerely,
David
Holly,
ReplyDeleteI agree that students need inquiry-based learning to forge ahead in their academic careers as inquisitive individuals, critical thinkers, and problem solvers. However, quite a few of us have run into students who are afraid to make mistakes, ask questions, or put forth the effort to learn. I think the more this strategy of learning is introduced in the classroom and used consistently, we will see students embrace it. Your post was insightful.