Ross 9/26

I've been headed two different ways on student-led activities recently:

In my chemistry classes, we took a look at chromatography.  I demonstrated what happens in paper chromatography with inks, and the class came up with various hypotheses that might describe what was going on.  Each group designed their own experiment to test their hypothesis, and at the end of class all groups compared results, and, based on various groups' data, we determined that a separation was taking place rather than a chemical reaction.  I decided to approach the topic this way because my chemistry students need to understand where scientific knowledge comes from, rather than passively viewing it as static.  I hope to do more labs like this, where students can come to their own conclusions.

In my physical science class, we've been discussing position, velocity, and acceleration.  After thoroughly covering the basic ideas, the students got to come up with an experiment of their own, with the only criterion being that it had to involve measurement of velocities.  I had some incredibly creative experiments come up, and students got great data.  As I mentioned last week, I came up with more specific guidelines for final deliverables:  the students had to create posters, with specific information on each poster.  This seemed to lead to greater focus in the experiments, though I still need to find a good way of making students think more about their results.  Many of my students seem to feel that the only analysis necessary is making a graph, and won't try to figure out what their experiment tells them.  This might be a place to work in additional writing, as well.