“How long does it take to eat a Freezie?” -- A Math Inquiry: Blog #42

 Since being pumped up from the Science Teachers Association of Ontario’s (STAO) conference last week, where I was awarded the Secondary Schools Science Teacher of the Year 2011 by Youth Science Canada, I decided to do an inquiry based lesson with my math class today.

Some people may have hesitated before trying inquiry based learning with my math class for any number of reasons:

• Class room dynamics are unpredictable

• Each learner is on their own individualized learning plan (IEP)

• A wide range of mathematical ability
•  50% of the students are English Language Learners (ELL)
•  I’ve been out of the classroom for the past 3 teaching days
• This is a split level math class with KNN9A, MAT1L  and MAT2L students present

No worries! I am confident this will work! The inquiry we conducted was: “How long does it take to eat a Freezie?” For those of you unfamiliar with freezies they are basically frozen sugar water sealed inside a flexible plastic cylinder. Kids cut the top off the plastic, push up the frozen treat and enjoy them – especially in hot weather.

Together we brainstormed all the possible variables that needed to be taken into consideration prior to conducting our test. Here is the list that the students generated:

• Temperature -- Frozen or liquid

• How hungry are you?

• Eating techniques

• What size is the Freezie?

• Colour – it was determined via discussion that the students eat their favourite colour faster than others

• How many do you have? Class discussion revealed that if there was only one freezie a person would be more apt to take their time and enjoy it whereas they would gobble it up quickly if there were lots more available to them

• Would you be just eating, or eating while talking?

Since I was the holder of the freezies I was able to inform the students that the freezies were currently: 

•  Frozen

• Large

• Various colours

• They would each get one

• They would just eat and not talk

Next the students each thought about long it takes them to eat a Freezie and recorded their estimate.

Students were then instructed to pull out whatever technology they had in their pocket and find the timer or stop-watch feature on it. This integration of 21^st century technology lead to several teachable moments while the students were amazed that they even  had this capacity on their gadgets, downloaded appropriate apps from the internet and helped each other with this task. Those who had no technology moved to sit with those who did without me guiding them whatsoever.  The collaboration between the students was natural and free flowing! 

Students cut the tops off their freezies, started their timers and sat back to enjoy their investigation. As each student completed their eating task they recorded their time.

By the time all the data was collected and tabulated today’s class was over. Tomorrow we shall move on to analysis. The type of information the students will be expected to extract from the data will depend on what level they are working at. The types of questions that shall be posed range from: “Who ate their Freezie the fastest” to “calculate the mode of the time it took for the freezies to be eaten in our class.”

Because the students are working with data they generated themselves they have ownership of it. This makes the learning task engaging and authentic to them. Learning is fun!

Posting Seven -- Series and Parallel Circuits

One of the hardest concepts for students in the grade nine applied science course to fully understand is the parallel electrical circuit. I have tried many different approaches to teaching the parallel circuit over the years but it appears that the learners are not yet ready for this concept. This year I took an inquiry-based learning approach and the results were more successful than in the past.

1. Initiate and Plan – ENGAGE

We began our study of electrical circuits with the series circuit. This allowed us to become familiar with the parts of the circuit (load, source, conductors, and switch) and trouble shoot problems that are commonly encountered when connecting the circuit.

Once the class could build a simple series circuit I taught them the symbols used to record their circuits. You can read more about this process in the previous blog entry (posting six). It is also an excellent example of how the conclusion of one inquiry becomes the initial planning stages of the next inquiry.

As an introduction to the parallel circuit, we watched a video wherein both the series and parallel circuits where examined and explained using age appropriate language and examples. Then we watched a simple power point presentation that I created that covered the same ground. Then we took notes, in the form of a t-chart, to compare the two types of circuits. Next, we did a set of questions together, step by step, that covered series and parallel circuits. Finally, for our exit card that day I distributed small recipe cards. The students were instructed to use the appropriate symbols to draw a series circuit on one side of the card and a parallel circuit on the other side of the card. They were allowed to use their note books, text books, confer with each other and check with the teacher during this process (diagnostic or “assessment for learning”).

2. Perform and Record -- EXPLORE

Prior to the next class I went through each of the cards. Using two sets of stickers – big stars and little stars—I assigned groups and which parallel circuit would be built. I used colour coded big stars to determine which students would work together in small groups, students with the same colour big stars would be in the same group. I used smaller stars to determine which parallel circuit I would require them to build –the circuit drawing with the small gold star would be built. In this manner, everyone go two stars—because they are all stars -- yet I got to mix the groups up and control what circuit would be created. The students responded amazing well to this sticker system and seemed quite pleased that I had made at least some of the decisions for them!

It is not uncommon to have some students absent everyday in applied classes at our school. For those students who were missing on the day we made our cards I took a blank card for each of them, wrote the absent student’s name on it and put two star stickers on the blank card – one large one to determine the group the student would be in and one small one, that was any colour except gold!

The next day the cards on which series and parallel circuits had been designed were returned to the students along with the instructions to move into their assigned groups, pick up all the equipment they needed to build the circuit drawing with the gold star on it and go to it!

The students were soon demonstrating their ability to read circuit diagrams, planning what equipment they needed to build their circuits, constructing circuits, using instruments (voltmeters and ammeters), and experimenting to see if they could successfully complete the task.

3. Analyze and Interpret = EXPLAIN

As stated previously, building parallel circuits is very challenging for students in the grade nine applied science class so it was not surprising to me that this task took a lot of time and patience on behalf of the students. While trying to succeed they engaged in constant analyzing, evaluating and reviewing in numerous attempts to get their circuits working. Of the four groups one group finished much sooner than any of the other three. At that stage I dispersed the members of the successful group amongst the other three groups to be their “consultants”.

It was interesting for me to observe many group members using the voltmeters to determine that there was in fact current running through the parallel branches even though the light bulbs were not coming on.

4. Communicate = EXTEND

Now the students took the initiative to test all the light bulbs in their circuits and replace the ones that were not functioning. They even wanted to know the proper way to dispose of the burnt out bulbs!

This weekend I am working on my midterm report cards marks. This class has a mean score of 82%. Now I am worried that my administration will be questioning why my marks are so high! If they do, I shall refer them to this blog!

Here are some videos showing the levels of engagement in the students during this inquiry!