WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?
HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?
There is something nice about weird schedules during testing week. Since I can use the excuse, "I had a strange week," I can make it really strange by trying something a little out of the ordinary. I decided to take a typical lab and make it a bit more inquiry.
For years we have done a lab on intermolecular forces. Students were provided the structures of alkanes and alcohols. They were also provided information about hydrogen bonding and other intermolecular forces. They would collect data on temperature change as these solvents evaporated and link that to intermolecular forces. Essentially, the stronger the intermolecular force, the slower it would evaporate and the lower the change in temperature. The less force, the larger and more sudden drop. I also showed particulate videos and models before the lab.
This year I changed things up. First, they got the data with little explanation (macroscale first). They then developed a question ("What makes thing evaporate differently?). Next, I told them they would have to predict what would happen if we did the same experiment with pentane. What would they need to know besides data? They asked questions about structure, polarity and molecular weight. I introduced intermolecular forces, structures and hydrogen bonding as they asked about it. They asked lots of questions but I choose the ones I answered. This is the "guided" part of the inquiry. Now they are putting it into a full scale trifold lab. The level of questions and ideas have been greater for those who actively participated. Google docs has allowed me to give out information efficiently and in bits and pieces on a need to know basis. Tomorrow we will test their predictions after the lab gets turned in. I will keep you posted......
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