Elementary science is not just about gaining subject knowledge, but also about exploring, discovering, hypothesising and testing. It is only by doing practical investigations students will develop a true understanding of the world around them and begin to discriminate scientific claims and facts. Your role as a science teacher is to provide opportunities for your students to experience the excitement of carrying out investigations and solving simple problems for themselves. This unit will focus on ways of incorporating a long-established experimental technique called the scientific method into the elementary classroom.
After studying this unit, you should be able to:
plan a practical investigation that explores seed germination using the scientific method
identify other practical applications of the scientific method in the elementary science classroom.
Science is ultimately based on observing. Observations lead to questions, and questions then lead to experimentation, in an attempt to produce convincing answers. The scientific method (Figure 1) refers to a series of steps that, when followed, can provide reliable answers to questions in the field of science.
The scientific method is not reserved for trained scientists. It can be easily applied to everyday classroom contexts – even those with limited resources. Figure 2 is a flow chart of the steps to be followed in the scientific method.
Resource 1 provides a more detailed description of the scientific method, while Resource 2 explains what is meant by the term ‘fair test’.
Students are fascinated by the world around them. They naturally observe and explore their surroundings and ask questions to make sense of things. Such curiosity provides teachers with many opportunities to facilitate meaningful learning experiences.
The basic steps of the scientific method can be introduced and used with students from a young age. The list below discusses some of the ways that the scientific method can be applied in the everyday science classroom. It is not necessary to use all the steps every time you undertake an investigation in your classroom. It is possible to use the scientific method flexibly.
You may have noted down similar ideas in response to the ‘Pause for thought’ questions in Section 1.
The following activity invites you to consider how students’ scientific skills are developed through completing an investigation.
Watch the video below, which shows how a teacher supports her students to investigate germination. If you are unable to watch the video, it shows the teacher skilfully using the scientific method to organise the investigation, while still allowing her students to lead it and make any associated decisions, such as which variable to change. She provides a simple chart for her students to record their data and allows her students to choose their preferred method to do so. Some students draw pictures while others combine words and pictures. The students are given the opportunity to observe the work of their classmates, which helps them to develop their own conclusions. At the end of the lesson, the teacher asks her students to report their findings. You may also find it useful to read the video transcript.
Watch the video again and answer the following questions:
What did you like about the lesson in the video? How could you apply these ideas to your classroom practice?
Mrs Yadav, an elementary science teacher, wanted to inspire her students to generate questions, produce a hypothesis and draw conclusions about the germination of seeds. To do this, she decided to read out a letter to her students, pretending that it had been written by a local farmer called Mr Desai.
As soon as I had read out the letter to them, my students assured me they knew which farmer it must be! They were most concerned about his situation and very keen to help him.
First, I asked them to recall what they had been told were the essential requirements for the successful germination of plants. I wrote up their contributions on the board:
I then asked my students. ‘How can we be sure this information is right? What will happen if we send the wrong information to Mr Desai and his seeds don’t grow properly?’
One of my students suggested that we could buy some seeds and try to grow them under different conditions to ensure that Mr Desai received the correct information. So the following day I brought some seeds, small pots and soil into school.
I arranged my students into groups of eight and asked them to think about what they wanted to find out and how this would help Mr Desai. I asked them to write down any questions they had about seeds. I walked around the class and listened to them discussing their ideas. I stopped the class and asked them to share their questions. One group asked the question ‘Can seeds die if you give them too much water?’ Another group asked ‘If a seed is too cold, will it die?’
Using the board, I demonstrated how to turn a question into a statement. These statements could be considered hypotheses (scientific predictions).
Two examples, based on the questions above were:
Each group of students wrote a hypothesis (scientific prediction) in their exercise books. The students then planted their seeds and decided where to put them. This is what my students decided to do with their seeds:
I gave my students a simple table to record their observations. I asked them to look after their seeds and record their observations every two days over a period of two weeks. Some students drew pictures to record their observations; others added labels and captions. All checked for growth and measured it with a ruler. On the last day, I brought in a camera and allowed my students to take photographs of their experiments.
I asked each group to write a letter back to Mr Desai, explaining what they had done with their seed, what evidence they had collected and what this told them about seed growth. Here is a letter one group of students wrote to Mr Desai:
I was nervous about letting my students lead the investigation and decide what to do with their seed. I wasn’t sure if their ideas would be relevant to the task. However, I need not have worried. Providing them with an initial problem to solve helped to focus their ideas and discussions. I was very pleased with the way they generated their own questions. Most students needed a little support to change their question into a hypothesis (scientific prediction) and some also needed help with writing a clear conclusion. However, the activity was very absorbing and proved a great success. I am sure Mr Desai’s seeds will grow successfully this year!
The next activity asks you to reflect on Mrs Yadav’s lesson.
What made Mrs Yadav’s lesson a success? Would you use any of her ideas in your own teaching?
Write the following headings:
Under each heading, note down how Mrs Yadav managed each stage of the scientific method.
This activity asks you to plan an investigation on germination with your class.
Choose one activity from the list below and, using the lesson plan template introduced in TDU 1, Using brainstorming to elicit prior knowledge: sound and musical instruments, create a detailed lesson plan that will support your students through the stages of the scientific method. Remember that the scientific method does not have to be followed rigidly.
| |
| |
|
Use Figures 1 or 2 at the beginning of this unit to help you identify what you and your students will need to do during the investigation. Your students may need you to use open-ended questions to support them through the investigation.
Consider the equipment that you will need. Recycled bottles and food containers can be used to plant pots and soil can be dug up from an outside area – although you will need to make sure that it is free of other plant material as far as possible.
Resource 3 can be adapted to support your students with any kind of classroom investigation.
After planning and delivering your lesson, make brief notes to answer the following questions.
Assessing students' scientific investigation skills can be challenging, especially when it involves large classes. Some of these skills can be assessed by evaluating student outputs, such as their data collection, conclusions, reports or verbal presentations. However, in the absence of such outputs, progression can be difficult to assess.
Students’ practical skills are best assessed as they are engaged in the investigation itself. With large classes, it is more effective to observe one or two groups of students in turn over several lessons. Your notes can be made about a group of students as a whole or the individual students within it. Your observations can be quite general or can focus on particular skills such as asking questions, selecting appropriate equipment or drawing conclusions.
The assessment grid in the next section may be helpful when observing students as they undertake practical tasks. The grid can be copied and used for a group of students or each individual within it.
If you don’t have access to a photocopier, you can ask your students to copy out the statements that apply to them. This will make them aware of the skills you are looking for during an investigation.
The following activity asks you to assess a younger student’s scientific skills, based on written evidence.
Print out a copy of Resource 4, or copy it into your notebook. Use a coloured pen to highlight the skills that you observe over the duration of an investigation. Some students, or groups of students, will demonstrate skills from two levels. However, you should just highlight one of these – the one that best fits the students you are observing. A different coloured pen can be used for future observations. This will help you to identify the progression that your students have made.
A student from Class I completed an investigation on seed germination. She set up a practical investigation with the support of her teacher and recorded her findings ten days later (Figure 3).
Look again at Resource 4. Which level best describes this student’s ability and why? What factors cannot be assessed by looking at the written evidence?
Now ask a colleague to complete the same task. Do you both agree about the level of the student’s work? What do you disagree about?
Elementary students will only develop their scientific investigation skills by ‘doing’ science. Teachers need to provide opportunities for students of all ages to carry out open-ended investigations that are meaningful and relate to their life experiences. It is only through practical investigation that students will develop essential thinking skills that will enable them to distinguish between scientific claims and facts.
This unit has explored how young students can use the scientific method to develop their skills of scientific investigation with the support of their teachers. With appropriate teacher support, elementary level students are capable of asking questions, making observations, predicting outcomes, carrying out practical investigations, recording information, interpreting data, drawing conclusions and reporting findings. Incorporating investigations into their learning will increase students’ enjoyment of science, improve their skills, and contribute to the development of complex critical thinking for the future.
Students should be encouraged to make predictions about the possible outcomes of their investigations. For example: ‘if I reduce the amount of water a plant has, then the plant will stop growing.’
An independent variable is the part of the experiment that will be tested (varied) to answer the hypothesis. In the example above, the independent variable would be the amount of water a plant is given. A dependent variable is what occurs in response to the changing independent variable. In the example above, the dependent variable is how much the plant grows.
It is important for an experiment to be a fair test. You conduct a fair test by making sure that you change one factor (variable) at a time, while keeping all other conditions the same.
For example, imagine your students are testing two toy cars to see which one is the fastest by releasing them from the top of a sloping ramp. If one car is pushed and the other released gently, then the test is not fair, because one of the cars has an advantage over the other.
If your students are struggling with the concept of what makes a fair test, you could describe a simple test and ask them if it is fair or not. You could make a fair test quiz or card game.
This investigation sheet can be used to help your students’ understanding of the scientific method. The sheet can be adapted to suit your lesson or the learning needs of your pupils. It can be copied and enlarged and used as a classroom poster to remind students of the scientific method.
Students can:
Students can:
Students can:
All 15 Elementary Science teacher development units aim to explore investigative skills. The principles in this unit can therefore be applied to the activities and practical tasks suggested in all of them.
The content of this teacher development unit was developed collaboratively and incrementally by the following educators and academics from India and The Open University (UK) who discussed various drafts, including the feedback from Indian and UK critical readers: Jane Devereux, Kavita Grover and Christine James.
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit:
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following:
Video: appreciation and thanks are extended to the participation of teachers and students at Ramjas School, R.K. Puram and all those involved in the making of this video.
Images:
Case Study 1: Photo of seed - by Jane Devereux for The Open University
CCE Logo: www.cbse.nic.in
Figure 3: example of student’s work © unidentified student
Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.