1. Making Labs More Open Ended
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IMSS Friday July 29th 2011

2. Making Labs more Open-ended

3. Constructivist Process
Journey in which the voyagers arrive without a map in hand
Guided by the questions, "Where are we now?" and "Where should we go next?”
Teacher initiates & facilitates learning activities that help students create their own maps to the territory

4. Open-ended Inquiry
Creates the opportunity for students to begin to design their own investigations and compare their analyses with groups.
Teaches students to comprehend science as a process
Promotes COLLABORATION

5. How to Begin Gradually modify the activities you are already doing.
Analyze activities by deciding who is making the decisions --- the teacher/text or the student.

6. Levels of Openness
Level 0 = Students make few decisions other than deciding whether they got the "right answers."
Level 3 = Students decide what to investigate, how to investigate it, and how to interpret the results they generate.
Level 3 activities are what most scientists do
Prepare this slide as a handout to help teachers make changes to one of their labs at the end.

7. Students & Labs When your students do laboratory activities:
are they simply following directions?
asking whether they are getting the "right answers?"
not really learning much from the experience?

8. Teachers & Labs Are you used to:
comfortable and successful cookbook activities?
having the materials on hand?
feeling that you MUST cover labs in the lab book?

9. Analyze Activities Decide who is making the decisions
the teacher / text
or the student?

10. Gradual Modification not a skill
Choose a few "cookbook" activities that are designed to teach a concept
not a skill
(skills are better taught through a more step-by-step approach)

11. Gradual Modification Ask these questions:
Who decides the questions students are to investigate - teacher or student?
Who decides the procedure to follow?
Who decides what to observe and data to collect?

12. Gradual Modification Ask these questions:
Who decides the response to the question(s) investigated?
Who decides how to communicate this?

13. Gradual Modification
The goal should be to have “the student” growing in ability to do more and more of the processes
A goal of inquiry-based instruction is teachers supervising student investigations after scaffolding

14. Evaluate An Activity or Lab
Take out or think of one of your laboratories or activities that you regularly do.

15. Scaffolding the Process
Idea is to progressively make small changes in the activities
Over weeks or months, students move from doing level 0 activities to level 3.

16. Scaffolding the Process
Start with modifying who decides how to communicate the information.
Remove cookbook data table
Tell students they need to record relevant data
Have students create their own table and/or graph
With this background information- take a cook-book lab and make modification to move it into a more inquiry approach.

17. What happens...
Students might initially be confused. They do not know what data are relevant; fearing an error, they record everything.

18. Why do this?
The situation presents you with an opportunity to discuss and teach students about the communication skills involved in helping others see information at a glance. The chance is there to help students compare data display methods and decide which methods communicate the information best. A process skill!

19. Scaffolding the Process
Some students may record NOTHING.
Another group of students will record EVERYTHING
they do not know what data are relevant
Another group would record the "expected" data, in a table similar to the “cookbook” table.

20. Scaffolding the Process
4. Some students would record relevant data creatively
in a visually appealing manner that you never would have imagined! 15 2 3 6 9 12
grass
humus
wood chips
Fig. 1. Pillbug substrate preferences during June, 2002 at Millikan HS, Long Beach
# of pillbugs

21. Results of Omitting Tables
Students will present a variety of data display methods.
Opportunity discuss and compare display methods to and decide which methods communicate the information most easily
Variety and creativity in student work makes grading less tedious
Students eventually learn to think about the data they should record and how to record it.

22. Scaffolding Procedures
Modify (or omit) many measurements given within directions.
Directions might say to put 20 ml of a solution into a test tube.
Why not 18?

23. Students May… Learn something about why 20 ml may be optimal.
Learn about the need to think ahead and plan, if they run out of materials

24. Make Changes Gradually
Leave the data table out for a few activities before starting to modify procedures.
You and your students need time to accustom yourselves to new elements of teaching and learning.

25. More Radical Changes
Distill commercial activities to a single question that students answer when doing the activity.

26. Teachers are still in control of the work
More Radical Changes
Students can simply be given the question they are to investigate.
Model an experimental set-up
Limit items that can be used
Teachers are still in control of the work
environment!

27. More Radical Changes Students must decide
the procedure
quantities of supplies to use
what to record
how to interpret their data
Students need to have relevant background data to do this successfully

28. Students May Struggle
If you try the changes I am advocating, some students will struggle. However, in this case struggle is good.
Challenge your students in ways that help them think like scientists and develop skills!

29. AVID LACOE Science Coach Based on a paper by Alan Colburn,
Designed by
Anne F. Maben
AVID LACOE Science Coach
Based on a paper by Alan Colburn,
Assistant Professor Of Science Education, CSU Long Beach
CSTA Journal, Fall 1997, pp. 4-6.

30. © 2011 IMSS. All Rights Reserved.