Unit 1, Scientific Method, with links to handouts

Day 2: Thursday, 9/3/15

So, I’m wanting another carefully structured day (because now we’re in the second day of “Two Minutes, Two Days, Two Weeks”).

Here’s what I do.

To start class, every day, I have a “Do Now” which I call a Catalyst (and, of course, I use this as an opportunity to explain what a catalyst is). I project this Catalyst on screen (it’s in the unit powerpoint). Students complete one everyday using this handout.

I follow this by explaining to students how we’ll set up our 3 ring binders. I teach with lots of handouts, and 3 ring binder competence is essential for success in my class.

Now we start the first lesson of this unit: the scientific method. To get their interest, I show them a clip of the Charlie Charlie video that became a viral sensation on youtube. The students watch. After watching, I have them discuss, with their table partners, how they could scientifically test the reality of Charlie. I briefly have students share their opinions.

I do sharing through random drawings of the notecards I had the students make up the day before. In Berkeley, these are known as “Equity Cards.” I’m not rigid about this: I call on kids, and sometimes I take volunteers. Sometimes I let kids shout-out. I almost always precede a cold-call with a partner share and lots of wait time. I never use questions to ding kids for discipline.

I’m also carefully training students about how to do a partner share. My template for this is the four Ls: look listen, lean in, low voice (which I think were developed by Kate Kinsella). Also, I use a triple chime to get the students attention, and work to emphasize the importance of them being silent and attentive by the 3rd chime.

As I get responses about Charlie, Charlie, I’m not telling students if they’re right or wrong. Instead, I’m communicating that 1) this is a place where you get to talk with a partner. 2) This is a place where your teacher is going to make it safe for you to talk to the class. 3) This is a classroom where you’re going to get called on, so you should pay attention.

We follow this with a reading about what science is and what science isn’t, inspired by a curriculum developed at the University of Indiana. I’m using this reading to teach the content, but also to teach the technique of interacting with text through circling key terms, underlining definitions and phrases of particular interest, and then making marginal annotations using “They Say” (left column) and “I say (right column). I very carefully model for the students how to do this, using Gradual Release of Responsibility (which we’re also very big on at Berkeley High School).

That reading usually takes us right to the end of the period.

Day 3: Friday, 9/4/15

Class always starts with a catalyst (see the powerpoint file to see which one).

We follow this with students forming groups of four, and agreeing on a method to test Charlie Charlie (using the results of their discussion from yesterday: see above). This also gives me an opportunity to talk about how to work in groups of four (how you sit, talk, make eye contact, etc.) I also make sure that every student knows the name of every other student in the group.

Supplies for this are simple: A piece of paper. Two pencils. I give the students about 10 minutes to agree on their procedure, run about 5 trials, and then to record their data in a data table. There’s a fair amount of shrieking (“The pencil moved!), but when we share out, there’s an overwhelming consensus that creating repeatable observations of Charlie, Charlie is very hard to do. Another superstition debunked!

Then a brief talk about how seeds work, and the difference between qualitative and quantitative observations. We use this handout to start observing the growth of our radish seedlings (planted on day 1: see above for instructions). All you need in terms of supplies are metric rulers. To model the drawings and teach the content, I put the handout on a document camera, hooked up to my LCD projector (I know that I’m lucky to teach in a resource-rich school).

In Berkeley, we always start school the Wednesday before Labor day. Since we’re heading for a three day weekend, you have to do two things with your radish seedlings.

1. Seal the plastic bags so that they don’t dry out and die. At the same time, make sure that the paper towels are damp, but not dripping wet (because that will stunt the seedlings’ growth).
2. Use a Sharpie to mark 1/2 the bags with a black dot. Unbelievably, students NEVER notice this (but you should still try to make the dot unobtrusive). Take the ones that you’ve marked with a dot and store those away from light, in a closet. The other half you keep on a light tray or by a windowsill.

Day 4: Tuesday, 9/8/15

Warmly welcome your students back from their 3 day weekend. Remember that you’re still in those crucial first two weeks. You’re communicating warmth and command.

We finish reading the handout we started the previous week. In both of my classes, we just had to do the last section (what science is not).

We’re going to take about 10 minutes to do our radish seedling observations (see above).

Day 5: Weds, 9/9/15

I use this handout, along with my powerpoint, to teach about the scientific method and experimental design. It takes the whole period to do about the 1st page. Here’s a teacher’s version with the answers (only for the 1st page)

Day 6, Thursday, 9/10/15

I use my on-line tutorial on the scientific method to consolidate the learning from yesterday. I have access to a class set of Chromebooks. Students work in pairs to complete the activities and this handout (but no one completes the entire handout on this first day).

Day 7: Friday, 9/11/15

We spend about 1/2 of the period with students getting their final data points from their radish seedlings. Before they get their measurements I need to

1. Let them know that they’ve been doing an experiment, and how they can tell if their seedling was growing in the dark or not (remember that this was just set up as an observation. I didn’t tell the students so that I could teach them about the idea of single-blind and double-blind experiments, even though that design wasn’t necessary here).  Before class, to aid this process, I take a sharpie and make my unobtrusive black dot into a fairly massive black dot that no-one can miss.
2. Train them how to enter the data on a class spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is a google doc, and I use about 5 chromebooks as data entry stations. The data entry is fairly trivial, but these are 9th graders, and they, in general, need careful guidance. Since I can’t share the google doc, please look at this pdf of the spreadsheet. I’ve put the actual .xls file on my teacherspayteachers store.

After all the data is in, it’s very important, however, to give students a minute to look over the data, to make sure that they put their data in the right place (which I do by projecting the Google Spreadsheet on screen using an LCD projector). You’ll probably have to do some cutting and pasting on the fly.

Once the data is in, you can start to record class averages and graph the data. I use this handout to do this.

Day 8: Monday, 9/14

For personal reasons, I was out on this day. I had my students continue their work on the scientific method handout.

Day 9: Tuesday, 9/15

We complete the process of graphing and then interpreting the data from radish seedlings. The interpretation takes a lot of scaffolding and support. 

Day 10: Weds, 9/16/15

Today’s our last day for new material about the scientific method. I use this handout to cover the distinction between theory and hypothesis.

Day 11, Thurs, 9/17/15

In preparation for our first quiz, I give the students this review sheet. I’m going to sound a little defensive here, but it’s the first quiz. Berkeley High has a huge achievement gap to begin with, and my goal is for students to have an successful, confidence building experience. The task is mostly memorization. 

If I’d been more on my game, I would have given them the review sheet a few days earlier…

Students work in pairs to study. I also give them access to our Chromebooks, because it’s the last day we’re going to use them to finish up my Scientific Method Tutorial. They can, of course, access the material 24/7.

Day 12, Friday, 9/18/15

I walk students through the process of handing in the material/worksheets in their three ring binders. This leads to the most perfunctory kind of grading, but I haven’t figured out how to skip this and make students take classwork seriously. I have the students evaluate their own work using this sheet before handing it in to me. I still, of course, have to grade the students work, but this is 1) a valuable life skill, and 2) a method to get them to be a little bit more conscious of the quality of their work before handing it in.

Once that’s done, I give the students the quiz. They can use the time after they finish to complete any missing assignments before handing in their notebook packets.

Unit One is done. Now I just have to do some grading….

List of Handouts in this Unit, with links to editable files