In all honesty, I probably would not change very much from the student-centered version of the lab that I was fortunate enough to complete in class (I didn't get a chance to work on the direct instruction-based lab). If I were teaching this concept to elementary students, I would provide the necessary materials for creating a simple circuit (batteries, wires, light bulbs) and ask students to "play" with the materials in small groups. In groups, they will pose a question and record it in their science notebooks. (The question can be as simple as "What will happen when I connect the battery and wire?") No explicit directions as to the amount, type, or combination of the materials will be given; rather, students will be encouraged to see what happens, to find out what they can "make" with the materials given. Groups will work at their own pace, and once a group has discovered that the wire and the light bulb and battery together can light the bulb, I will encourage them to try mixing a variety of materials. Two batteries? Sure! Two light bulbs? No problem.
Students will choose a combination to experiment with and record hypotheses and observations in their science notebooks, which they will subsequently attempt to explain in their own terms. (This will hopefully have become a regular part of our science time, so students will be familiar with the process.) Once all groups have completed at least the first part of the activity, I will ask them to compare their data and science notebooks with other groups. What did they find that was the same, and likewise, what was different? What did some groups discover that others did not? After students have been given ample time to communicate and evaluate their findings with their classmates, I will introduce the concepts of simple and parallel circuits. It is vitally important to the lesson that students explore first and are then given an explanation - they will not be given any handouts that mention the concepts, just the materials. Explicit instruction will be the death of inquiry-based student exploration in science, so it is crucial that they explore and manipulate the materials in a way that is meaningful to them.
| 5-E Criteria | Part(s) of lesson that addresses this inquiry criterion | More teacher-directed or student-directed? Explain. |
|---|---|---|
| Engage | After the materials are chosen, students ask a question in their notebooks and experiment on it. | Student-directed. This falls in the first column in the continuum, as the "learner poses a question" that will be the basis for their exploration. |
| Evidence | The students will collect their findings in their notebook, although no explicit instruction as to what to record will be given. | Student-directed. Again, this falls into the first column in that the students determine what constitutes evidence and then collect it. This is very void of teacher instruction. |
| Explain | After completing the experiment and looking at their findings, students will form independent explanations about why something did or didn't happen. | Student-directed. Students formulate their own explanations after summarizing their evidence, with no guidance from the teacher. |
| Evaluate | Students compare their findings with other groups and hopefully will formulate new explanations and gain perspectives on different explanations. | Student-directed. The students will be independently examining other resources (other science notebooks/classmates) and forming the links to explanations without teacher instruction. |
| Communicate | Again, the students will be communicating their findings with their classmates when they share science notebooks. | Student-directed. As they are comparing their findings with one another, the learners will form reasonable and logical argument to communicate explanations - the teacher will not be a part of those communications of explanations. |
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