Our First Inquiry in Science!

After listening to some teachers sharing their experiences with inquiry-based learning, I thought... okay where do I start?  How do I assess?  I looked at our next Science unit :  Energy in Our Lives- the BIG ideas and the expectations for learning.  I looked at the expectations with a new lense- an inquiry lense, a play-based lense...  then it all began...

In the past, my teaching for this unit included a lot of read alouds, discussions and paperwork.  We would brainstorm where energy came from, draw pictures, search for things that use energy in our classroom etc...  I began trying to think of ways to bring hands-on experience and play into the classroom so that children could explore and discover concepts of energy.  I gathered some items from home- spinners, a bicycle bell, a solar panel, my 5 year old's water table, water wheels, balls, squirters (basically anything I could think of that may spark some discovery).  I began the unit with showing a short video on Energy and asked the children to think of any wonderings or questions they had about energy.  I put on Bill Nye the Science Guy Energy Part 1 for about 15 minutes.  As the students watched the video, they chatted about the things they were seeing.  Afterwards, the students started telling me their wonderings and I started to write them down.  It was so exciting to hear that many of the wonderings were part of the expectations in the Science Curriculum!  YAHOO!

I told the students that the following day, I would be asking for them to choose one wondering that they were most interested in finding the answer to.  Each student then chose an area they wanted to know more about.  Students met in groups and created a list of questions they wanted to explore.

Our next step in the process, was for the children to share their group wonderings and brainstorm ideas in how to find out the answers.  I showed them all of the items I had from home and asked if they could think of a way we could create stations to explore (some students even brought in items the following day to help).  One child suggested that we make stations about the  sun,  wind,  water and what is energy.  I had also suggested that we use our "Creation Station" in some way as well.  The children came up with ways to use the items (i.e. plant at sun station, use items to make things move in water etc...) to explore energy and answer some of their wonderings. They also came up with devices they could create at the "Creation Station."  We agreed as a class that all of the students would have the opportunity to explore each station but that our "Experts" would be the first to explore that station and report back to the class.  Here are some photos of the stations and the students exploring and discovering energy:

        

 

"The Starfighter"

He uses moving air to blow a toothpick to out of his "starfighter"

 

 

The most amazing thing I found with this unit was that the children asked me everyday whether they were going to their "Energy Stations."  They couldn't wait to get started!  All of the children were engaged and focused on discovering how things worked.  To document their learning, the children had their "Discovery Journals" (and yes- the children named the book) and were expected to draw and write about their learning and discoveries.  It was incredible to see and hear the conversations taking place at the stations but also the product inside their "Discovery Journals."  My most reluctant writers and artists (children who struggle with fine motor) shined! The children were staying on-task, sharing their ideas/findings and furthered questioned/wondered things as they discovered something new. The children picked up resources to search for answers, they came up with ideas to experiment (ie. whether plants really needed the sun and the effect it would have on plants to not have the sun's energy etc...). I LOVED IT!  The ideas were not coming from me, but from them.  They had ownership. They wanted to learn it, they wanted to explore further and they experienced it.  It was authentic and personal to them.  Needless to say... I became HOOKED on the idea of teaching science through inquiry and using stations to explore and discover concepts!

Student Samples "Evidence of Learning":

To assess the students and record the learning taking place, I created a short checklist based on the expectations.  I used this simple checklist to check off whether the students were meeting the expectations.  I also added a "rubric"(I use this term loosely)  for three evaluation pieces.