What to Teach in the SNC1L / SNC2L Science Courses – Post 20

My blog posting last week contained several tips for teaching the locally developed grade 9 and 10 science courses, in Ontario. Since then I have been contacted by several readers who have asked me, “But what am I going to teach them?”And that my friend is the big question!

The Ontario Ministry of Education provides us with well thought out course outlines as well as detailed course profiles. These resources are an excellent starting point, especially for the new teacher. But, due to the nature of the learner in these classes I suggest that these two high school science courses are probably the ones with the most flexibility built into their curricula.

There are five units of study set forth for each of the courses. In grade nine they are:

Unit 1 Scientific Inquiry: Science in Daily Life

Unit 2 Biology: Staying Alive

Unit 3 Physics: Electrical Circuits

Unit 4 Chemistry: Properties of Common Materials

Unit 5 Making Personal Decisions

In grade ten they are:

Unit 1 Scientific Inquiry: Science in Media

Unit 2 Biology: Living Together

Unit 3 Chemistry: Interactions of Common Materials

Unit 4 Physics: Using Electrical Energy

Unit 5 Community Action Plan

The Ministry’s intention for the course is that the first units (Science in Daily Life and Science in the Media) be interwoven throughout the course content. In the grade nine course students examine personal and workplace situations with an emphasis on health and safety, for both themselves and others. In the grade ten course relationships between the student and the environment, the effect of individual choices and actions affect the community, and an individual can make a difference in his or her community.

It did not escape my notice that when the entire high school science curriculum was overhauled by the Ministry in 2009 the only courses that were left untouched were the SNC1L and SNC2L courses. I don’t know why this is, but I am sure that the Ministry has their reasons. One consequence of their failure to act means that these are the only two courses offered in my science department that are not subjected to the “big ideas”. The “big ideas”, as every high school teacher in Ontario knows, are the over arcing themes that the learner needs to take away from the course with them.

As an experienced science teacher who is intimately familiar with the documents used in our system I would venture to suggest that these are the big ideas:

Grade 9 – Health and Safety

Grade 10 – The Environment and what one can do to keep it healthy

So what should one teach? Here’s what it comes down to:

1. What the students want to learn,

2. What you are comfortable teaching,

3. What facilities are available to you?

What the Students want to Learn

The units defined by the Ministry and listed above are great suggestions, I have focused on all of them in various ways over the years but what one should really teach is what the students want to learn! How do I know what the students want to learn? Simple, first of all I ask them and secondly, I observe them.

It is not uncommon to have non-verbal students, or those identified with other types of communication exceptionalities, enrolled in these science classes so asking them has to be done in a different manner than just standing in front of the class and asking, “What do you want to learn?” Instead one must set the stage and employ some unconventional techniques to get the students to communicate their desires to you. I have the advantage of teaching in a real science lab so there are lots of visual prompts all around my room to get kids thinking and talking about science, these include lab equipment, posters, an aquarium, books, safety equipment, the layout of the room, examples of student work, a word wall and even an attached greenhouse.

To get the kids thinking about science and what it is we often do a walk-about where I point things out and invite discussion about them and also ask lots of open ended questions. Such questions usually begin with a how, what, when, where, and why. So I can point to a glass-fronted cabinet full of beakers and ask, “What could these beakers be used for?” or I can take the students into my greenhouse and ask, “Where could all these plants have come from?”; or I can offer a carrot stick to the turtle in my aquarium and say, “Why does this turtle like carrots?” The beauty of asking opened ended questions like this is that there are (almost) no wrong answers and gradually everyone becomes engaged, even if they are not talking.

The question remains, “What do you want to learn about?” After the students have completed their walk-about I give them large (8 cm x 13 cm) sticky notes and have them write, draw, sketch or DOODLE the answer to the question. Oh yes, research tells us that doodling is actually thinking in disguise! Each student is invited to tell the class what is represented on their note and post it on the front board. After class, I collect all the sticky notes, jot down what they mean and file them away. Now I have my ideas for the semester! Inevitably you will have someone who wants to “blow things up” and someone who is interested in “outer space”. The first is easily accomplished by demonstrating blowing up a gummy bear whereas the second is an excellent segue into a research inquiry.

Besides having the students tell you what they are interested in learning about your observations of the students will help you decide what they should or should not learn about. I once taught a student who was always talking about his dog and the weird and cruel things he would do with it – that semester I designed and taught my unit on “Pets”. This unit included not only a research project into maintenance of various pets but an experiential field trip to a pet store where students were presented with facts about the costs of a keeping a pet as well as a classroom visit from a therapy dog. On the other hand I once taught a student with Tourette syndrome whose tic was to shout out words associated with genital anatomy. That semester we did not study reproduction! Another time I had a student with extreme sensitivity to aromatic chemicals, a consideration to keep in mind when deciding what chemistry labs to do.

What You are Comfortable Teaching

Another important thing to consider when planning your semester is your own strengths and weaknesses. One of my passions is caring for the environment. I have kept a vermi composter for years and have integrated it into many lesson plans, which I will blog about soon. Go with what you know and love, your passion is contagious!

What facilities are available to you?

The facilities available to you are also an important consideration when planning your curriculum. For example, if you have no fume hood you probably don’t want to be blowing up gummi bears! If you don’t have running water you are limited even more. If you are in a portable, may God Bless you! Since I have a greenhouse I do lots of projects that involve plants, their germination, fertilization, growth rates, etc but don’t dwell on what you don’t have, look around you, take advantage of what you do have! Your biggest asset is the students and no matter where you are assigned to teach you will have those! And never overlook the myriad of learning opportunities right outside your classroom door – both inside and outside the school. Setting up a school recycling program or doing an electrical use audit gets the students out of their desks and into the rest of the building. And once you walk through the school doors, even if you remain on school property the possibilities are limited only by your creativity!

Have fun and good luck!

Teaching Science to the Special Needs Learner -- Posting 19

On Ontario we have two courses that are designed for the student with weak academic skills. These courses are Essentials Science, grade 9 (SNC1P) and Essentials Science, grade 10 (SNC2P). Some schools will refer to these courses as “locally developed’ for historical reasons.

The students in these courses usually have a number of learning challenges. It is unlikely most of them will be success in the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). Most of them will probably be except and will be graduating with a certificate, not a diploma. When I am looking for science resources to use with them I usually look in the grade 4 – 5 level.

Now that I am a Smarter Science convert it makes teaching these students more fun than ever! No more cookbook labs. The students are in charge of what they learn and how they learn it.

Here are a few tips:

1. Treat them with respect! This may seem self evident but I have often had students tell me that this was the first time they didn’t feel like a dummy in class. Celebrate their successes, every time! When someone reads something for you tell them “Nice reading”, when someone asks a question respond with “That’s an excellent Question, I am so glad you asked”, when someone asks an inappropriate questions say” “This is not the time for us to discuss that but thank you for putting your hand up”, when someone screws up a lab tell them “some of the best scientific discoveries have been made by scientists making mistakes, you might be looking at the Nobel prize one day”. You get the idea.

2. Stay calm and smile! There will be days when you do not feel calm but the very worst thing you can do is YELL, it will take weeks to earn their trust back if that ever happens. When you are going to lose it do something drastic. One of my favourite strategies is to line everyone up and go to the water fountain. I tell them I need a drink of water and I cannot leave them unattended so they all have to come with me. After this, which will take at least 10 minutes, the atmosphere will have changed and you will be fine. Having a sense of humor cannot be over-rated!



3. They must treat each other with respect! Inevitably there will be a student in the class that believes they “do not belong there”. This may be manifested overtly by calling the class “retards” or more subtly by refusing to work with the other students. They have been put into your class for a very good reason so that is not a point to argue. (These may be learners with terrible attendance issues, major substance abuse problems, home lives in crisis, etc.) Instead, find a time to speak to them privately, maybe after class. Explain to them that you know they have a different aptitude than some of the other students but as long as they are in this class this is how is will be . . . . After they have been recognized by you are “not like the others” they feel better about themselves and they are able to participate in class with their dignity intact. In fact, sometimes when there is a funny question or incident occurring I will give this student a secret wink to let them know that I understand what they are also thinking. Another strategy is to ask them to be a “big buddy” for someone that needs a TA but does not have one.


4. They are “real scientists”! A real scientist has to know all about lab safety and wear their safety equipment at all times. Even if the students are simply boiling water and recording its temperature make sure they wear their goggles and tie their hair back. That is what “real scientists” must do. It’s even better if you have lab coats for you and them to wear. I only have a lab coat for myself but I ALWAYS wear it when we do labs. The kids love this! Gloves are a great idea but due to their cost I only let them wear them when absolutely necessary. Ie handling acids. By the way, simply butting vinegar into dropper bottles labeled “vinegar” for the students to work with makes them proud! Even better if you can let them react it with an unknown substance (baking soda) to create a drastic reaction!

5. Lab safety The most important thing for a science teacher to ensure, in any class, is the safety of the students. With most classes we simply hand out lists of rules. In order to prove that we have done our due diligence this is not acceptable with these learners. In the case of an accident a parent could quickly argue that a student with below grade level reading compression could not possible be responsible for knowing and understanding the safety rules. Furthermore, those parents are right. In order to protect both the students and myself I have developed a Lab Safety Manual wherein all the lab safety rules were illustrated with simple diagrams and the students fill in the blanks (cloze activity) to write the rules out. Unfortunately, my electronic copy of this has been lost in the bowels of one of the many computers I have gone through during my teaching career but it would be a simple matter to make a new one by down loading graphics from the Internet. Depending on the technology and time available to your class you could even use a digital camera and have the kids make their own.

6. Structure, structure, structure! Being in a big high school with different faces in each class, at least four different teachers to contend with, moving through the crowds in the hallway, all these little things that most teenagers thrive on can be overwhelming for the learner in essential level classes. Therefore it is paramount that they know exactly what to expect in science class. By removing their anxiety you have opened the door to learning. Your structure will be determined by you and your classroom set up. Here’s what works for me:

· We keep our binders in classroom.

· Prior to their entry put a short list of what will happen in class on board. This can be super simple. For example:

o Return worksheets

o Discuss today’s weather

o Take note

o Video

o Do lab

o Clean up

A list like the one above can serve many purposes. A common question the students will ask, once they are comfortable with you will be”What are we going to do today?” to which you can reply, “It’s on the board.” Since many of the learners will have weak literacy skills they will help each other read it. This will happen naturally and there will be ad hoc discussion around what it means. Encourage this; it leads to predicting and inferring, both of which important skills for building literacy (See how easy it is to embed literacy across the curriculum!) It also allows for some social interaction which is also something these learners often struggle with. Another important skill you will be teaching by having this short list on the board is “How to use a checklist”. Incredibly this is an essential skill identified by the Conference Board of Canada as being important for employability in many jobs yet our students are unfamiliar with them. As the lesson progresses refer to the list and check things off as they are done. Try to provide the student s with a check list of their own from time to time, for example, as part of a lab procedure, etc.

· I always stand at the door to greet the students, BY NAME. For some of these lost souls their names are all they have, honour them by learning it and using it. If a student is named Timothy and only likes to be called Timothy do not call him Tim, without his permission. This year I had a student named Antonio who insisted on being called TJ, don’t argue, just do it.

· As they enter remind them to pick up their binder on the way to their desk.

· Always have the date written in the same format, on the same place on the board.

· Insist that every single piece of paper be dated and put into the binder, in order by date. This sounds so easy but is a HUGE challenge for these students. You may want to keep an ongoing list of what should be in the binder, in the correct order, posted somewhere in the classroom. Once a week go through the binders together to make sure everything is in order. They can even be taken in for marking. Why? Organization is another essential skill that these students often need to work on.

8. Notes

I often use notes as a settling technique in my class. The note taking is limited to writing down the date, the title and one sentence. Always print on the board, most of these students cannot read cursive writing. Even one sentence is too much for some of the students. For them I provide a print out with just a couple of words for them to fill into the blanks.

Whenever you do give a note ensure it is read aloud and discussed. If the students simply copy it down they will have NO comprehension of what they have copied.

9. Print Resources

Do not look for a text book to use with these courses. These students are not about textbooks.

McGraw-Hill has published workbooks and teacher’s guides called Essentials Science 9 and Essentials Science 10. These are excellent!

You may find the useful articles in magazines that are geared to younger learners. Two magazine I have found helpful in the past are Science World from Scholastic, each issue comes with a teacher’s guide and Yes! Science magazine.

10. Video Resources

These students are not able to watch a video and answer a worksheet at the same time. If you plan to do this you will have to read the worksheet one question at a time, pause the video after each question , re-read what the questions was, rewind and show the answer again, discuss it, write it on the board for them, wait while they copy it down, read the next question, repeat. I’m sure you can see that this will become very tedious. Here’s how to make it work:

Write one question on the board, for example; “At what temperature does water boil?” Before putting someone on the spot by asking them to read the question out loud tell the class that is what you are going to do and for everyone to take a moment to read the question silently to ensure they know all the words – some of the students may use this opportunity to confer with you, a TA or each other is they are unsure of any words. Have a student read the question out. After the question has been read out loud discuss it, either all together, a think – pair – share, whatever works in your classroom. Now you are ready to show a video clip which will answer the question. After watching the video clip discuss what the answer is. Oral communication is key!

Video Clips

This is the way to go! Two minutes maximum! As you know there are a zillion on you tube. Because I do not trust our internet connection at school I always download them onto my memory stick using free software called, Clip Extractor.

Bill Nye videos

The kids love these videos, but there is too much content for them to absorb.

I like to use them to show Bill Nye, or one of his colleagues, doing a lab. Then we do the lab. Or visa versa. We do the lab then watch it on the video. This helps the students feel like “real scientists” because they see other “real scientists” doing the same thing.

Most Bill Nye videos are available on you tube. The New York Teachers website has worksheets for most of them (good for the applied level.)

11. Labs

This is the most important component of the entire course. This is the “hook”! Do at least one lab activity or one demo every day! This sounds insane but for these students almost anything is a lab. Take the temperature of the cold water from the tap and the cold water from the fridge then compare it. That’s a lab. In fact, be creative! This lab could easily take up more than one 75 minute period.

I like to train the students on one or two key pieces of lab equipment and use them over and over during the course. One of my favourites is the graduated cylinder. Why, you ask? First of all, only “real scientists” use graduated cylinders. Where else do you see them? No one has one at home or in their car. Secondly, I happen to have a bunch of plastic graduated cylinders in my lab. (Glass ones can be very expensive.) Thirdly, they are easy to learn to use. I have an entire set of worksheets on “holding the meniscus” as eye level”. Always wear your goggles! Spills can happen! And finally, measuring out a fluid (I like to use water a lot!) is generally a safe part of many labs in the essentials science course.

This semester I am using the beginning scientist Smarter Science framework to help the students work collaboratively to put their thoughts in order, then design and carry out their own investigations. You can see an example of this on my past three blog postings.

Conclusion

You are a hero if you have read this far! I just have so much to tell you. Instead I will stop now. Send me any questions or comments you may have.

Also, you are welcome to come into my classroom anytime to observe and visit. Maybe we could even plan an activity where we get out classes together.

Hope this helps and GOOD LUCK!

Testing the Absorbency of Paper Towels and the Sham-wowTM!

Part Two – Using the Smarter Science Framework to Design and Conduct the Inquiry

(Posting 17)

If you read my previous blog posting you know that I spent a considerable amount of time laying the ground work for today’s inquiry. The students I teach in this class are teenagers yet they all have high needs and a multitude of exceptionalities which results in them working well below grade level.

Today, when the students came to class I greeted them at the door, as usual. On my desk I had the same three items as yesterday – a roll of brown paper towels, a roll of white paper towels and an orange Sham-wow^TM , however, there was no spilled water on the front counter. Taped up on the front board I had the set of four Smarter Science posters that are recommended for use at the elementary level.

We quickly recapped yesterday’s lesson wherein we had observed spilled water and discussed which type of towel would clean it up the best.

“What happened to the spill, Miss?”

“Which towel did you use to clean it up?”

Imagine the students surprise when I told them that I did not clean it up! Instead I left it there when I went home yesterday and when I came back today it was gone.

“The custodian must have cleaned it up” quickly became the class consensus. I asked if anyone had any other ideas of where it might have gone. Sadly, they didn’t so it was up to me to suggest that it might have evaporated. This led to a lengthy discussion about evaporation. The example that most students seemed to be able to relate to was puddles disappearing when the sun comes out. Although they all came around to accepting that evaporation is real there remained a great deal of uncertainty about how long the process would take.

“Let‘s talk about the observations we made today and yesterday” I said as I drew the students’ attention to the first poster at the front of the room. Step One, collectively we came up with three observations:

• Miss spilled water yesterday.
• Miss has towels that could clean up the spill.
• Where did the spilled water go?

“Looking at these three observations, what does it make you wonder?” (Still step one of the Smarter Science framework.)

• Was it really water?
• Why did she spill it?
• How much water did she spill?
• Who cleaned it up?
• Which towel works better?

Although the students had deviated from the intention of the “WONDER” box I did not correct them since they were completely engaged, on track and offering excellent questions. (The “wonder” box is intended to be used for the students to speculate as to the answers they posed in the “observe” box.)

Moving on to step 2(a) of the Smarter Science framework, on the second poster, we worked together as a class to brainstorm the answer to “What could we measure or observe about the spilled water?” We recorded our ideas on pink sticky notes.

• How much water was spilled? (initial volume)
• How long does it take to clean up? (time)
• How much water gets soaked up by the towels? (final volume)
• How big is each type of towel? (size)

These questions lead us directly to step 2(b): “What could we change or vary about the object or the event that may affect what we could measure or observe?” These items were listed on yellow sticky notes.

· Amount of time spent cleaning up

· Blotting or rubbing with the towel

· Size of the towel

· Type of towel

· Amount of water spilled

All of the ideas listed above came directly from the students. A different group of students may come up with a completely different list. That does not mean one list is better than the other. As long as they stay on task any list is correct. The students need to receive continuous positive verbal feedback and reassurance that there is no such thing as a stupid idea in science class. In fact, some of the best discoveries in science have come from what others considered “stupid ideas”. One of my own personal favourites that I use to describe this phenomenon is that of Galileo Galilei, but I digress.

Moving onto poster three, step 3(a) we had to decide what we would change. This choice was limited by the yellow sticky notes we had placed in the box for step 2(b). It was decided that our changed variable would be the type of towel used. This decision was prompted by reminding the students that what we wanted to test, today, was which type of towel was the most absorbent. Consequently, the yellow sticky note reading “type of towel” was placed on the “changed variable box” of step 3 (a).

Our next decision was how we would measure of observe the result. This process was starting to go over the heads of some of the students plus their attention was starting to lag but when I told them that this was really a multiple choice question and all they had to do was choose one of the pink sticky notes from step 2(a) for us to put there they perked back up. The choices we had previously recorded on pick sticky notes in step 2(a) were:

• How much water was spilled? (initial volume)
• How long does it take to clean up? (time)
• How much water gets soaked up by the towels? (final volume)
• How big is each type of towel? (size)

We voted to determine that the quantity we would measure would be time and we would use the second hand on the classroom clock to measure it. So the pink sticky note that read “How long does it take to clean up? (Time)” was moved to the appropriate box on poster three.

Step 3(b) on poster three asks “What will we not change?” so the remaining yellow sticky notes were moved here.

Moving on to poster four all we had to do was move the pink and yellow sticky note from poster three, step 3 (a) onto step 4. Therefore it read, “If we change the type of towel what will happen to how long it takes to clean up (time)?”

Eureka! We have successfully initiated and planned a controlled experiment! But . . .we are out of time.

The students are told that tomorrow they will start by making their predictions and then we will be able to get on to the actual experiment!

“Yay! Another day with no work! We love science!”

See the next blog posting : Testing the Absorbency of Paper Towels and the Sham-wow^TM!

Part Three – Using the Smarter Science Framework to Perform, Record, Analyze and Interpret the Inquiry (Posting 18)

Testing the Absorbency of Paper Towels and the Sham-wowTM!

Part One – Laying the Ground Work (ENGAGE)

(Posting 16)

During the new semester one of my teaching assignments is a split class of grade 9 and 10 Essentials Science (SNC1L and SNC2L), also known as Locally Developed Science. Teaching this class is always a wonderful experience because the students have not only the highest needs of all our learners but also have the greatest desire to learn about science through inquiries. Many of them can only read and write at a primary grade level and compensate for this lack of literacy skill be being exceptional listeners, and highly visual and tactile learners.

The Ministry of Education does have a formal curriculum for these courses as well as course profiles but the emphasis is more on the big ideas and less on the details which leaves the teacher free to follow the needs and interests of the learners, to take into account the equipment available and also to integrate any special skills that the teacher may have into the course.

The inquiry that I am going to describe in this blog fits nicely into both the grade nine unit on Science in Daily Life and the grade ten unit on Science In the Media.

In order to get the students engaged I spent an entire 75 minute period setting up the scenario for them. Prior their entry into the class room I cleared off my desk except for three items: a roll of brown from home and a bright orange Sham-Wow ^TM. (For those of you unfamiliar with the Sham-Wow ^TM it is a type of thick cleaning cloth that is marketed extensively in Canada through a series of hokey television ads, one of the many claims of the Sham-Wow ^TM is its super-absorbency.)

Instead of standing at my door to greet the students as they entered, which is my normal practice, I stood by my desk and greeted them as they entered. This immediately drew their attention to the three items on my desk; they were especially attracted to the bright orange colour of the Sham-Wow ^TM.

“What’s this, Miss?”

“Is this for a lab, Miss?”

“Did you spill something, Miss?” were some of the questions posed by the more verbally inclined of the group. Some of them touched the various towels while others just looked on.

After everyone had gotten organized and sat down I picked up my tea cup from its usual position on my desk and accidently spilled all the water out of it onto the front counter. The students thought this was the funniest thing they had ever seen! They laughed and laughed!

Keeping up the pretext that I was a goof who had just spilled water I posed the question, “What should I use to clean this up?” Everyone had a suggestion and some of the students even got up from their seats to clean the mess up for me. I reassured them that I could handle it, thank you, but I left the puddle of water right where it was. Instead I seized the opportunity that had now opened itself up when everyone started shouting out their suggestions about how I could clean up the spill. Getting the students talking about the situation means that they were now thinking, the ever elusive metacognitive skills had become engaged!

I announced that we were going to take a vote on which one of the three types of towels I should use to wipe up the puddle but before we voted each student needed to jot down on a sticky note which type of towel they were going to vote for. As usual, the students liked using sticky notes because they knew they would be tossed into the recycling box at the end of class and therefore they were not threatened if their spelling was incorrect, their writing was messy and they could even doodle (in fact it is encouraged). After everyone had something down on their sticky note they were instructed to find a partner who wrote something different then they did. This allowed some built in, controlled movement of the students who need to get up and move around during class anyway. Once the partners were found the next step was to give each partner 30 seconds to try to get other one to change their mind about which cloth should be used. (This strategy is called Think – pair – share.) Everyone was then given a second sticky note, of a different colour than the first, and told to write down their final choice, for the vote.

The second sticky note became the ballot for voting। I drew a chart on the board and each student came to the front and placed their sticky note into the appropriate column on the chart. This allowed for some more controlled movement within the class and also provided us with a nice visual we could use to tally up the votes.

Brown paper towels	White paper towels	Sham-Wow TM

At this point of the class, the spill still wasn’t cleaned up, I asked if anyone would like to explain to the class how they had voted and why. Responses included:

“Those brown paper towels are no good. They never get my hands properly dry when I use them in the washrooms.” (Good example of using prior knowledge.)

“The white one is best, I saw it advertised on TV, and it is the quicker picker upper.” (Good example of making inference.)

“My dad uses the Sham-Wow ^TM when he washes the car and it works really well.” (Also prior knowledge.)

“I saw an ad for the Sham-Wow ^TM on the internet and it can absorb more than its own weight in water so it is best.” (Inference? Recall? Prior knowledge?)

“I voted based on the colour.” (visual preference)

“I voted that way because my partner told me to.” (Peer pressure.)

“I don’t know.” (Honest!)

As you can see, a wide variety of responses, but they led me exactly where I wanted to go next, which was into advertising claims. The class agreed that no one had ever seen any advertisements for the rolls of brown paper towels and even hypothesized that they were probably used in all the schools because they are cheap and no good! Most had seen ads on TV for a variety of white paper towels although there was dissention regarding which brand name went with which paper towel. Many could recall seeing ads where entire rolls of paper towels were unrolled to compare how long the actual roll was when measured against other brands. This in turn, led to a discussion about whether the length of the roll had anything to do with the absorbency of the paper towels.

I showed the students some ads for paper towels that I had downloaded from youtube and we discussed them. Here is an example. http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=UDeDNidI74Q&gl=US

Watching and discussing these ads was a perfect segue into discussing the Sham-Wow ^TM. After watching this ad once we watched it again while pausing it to discuss several things that were of note. Here is a link to the commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJEKqI1e714

Things that we discussed from the video clip included:

• The claim that it can absorb 20x its weight of water.
• Not all rubbing was done the same way when spills were being mopped up.
• It looks like fabric and can be cut like fabric.
• It can be washed and reused (unlike disposable paper towels).
• It was invented by Germans.

By now it was only a few minutes until the bell and I had spent the whole period modeling in order for the students to have a good understanding of the inquiry that would now have to wait. I told the students that tomorrow we were going to design and conduct an experiment to determine which of the three paper towels was better at cleaning up spills. The spilled water was still on the counter!

“YAY! Another class with no work! We love this course.”

Next blog posting: Testing the Absorbency of Paper Towels and the Sham-wow^TM!

Part Two – The Inquiry (Posting 17)