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MAIS K-6 SCIENCE INQUIRY, INVESTIGATION, AND DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

MAIS K-6 SCIENCE INQUIRY, INVESTIGATION, AND DESIGN TECHNOLOGY. A Scientist’s View of Inquiry. The scientific method…is nothing more than doing one’s damnedest with one’s mind, no holds barred. P. W. Bridgman, Reflections of Physicist (1955). A Philosopher’s View of Inquiry.

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MAIS K-6 SCIENCE INQUIRY, INVESTIGATION, AND DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

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  1. MAIS K-6 SCIENCE INQUIRY,INVESTIGATION, AND DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

  2. A Scientist’s View of Inquiry The scientific method…is nothing more than doing one’s damnedest with one’s mind, no holds barred. P. W. Bridgman, Reflections of Physicist (1955)

  3. A Philosopher’s View of Inquiry By doubting, we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we arrive at truth. Peter Abelard (1100’s)

  4. An Author’s View of Inquiry The real purpose of scientific method is to make sure Nature hasn’t misled you into thinking you know something you don’t actually know. Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance(1974)

  5. A 4th Grade MAIS Student’s View of Inquiry I like learning to discover all the things I thought I could never discover. MAIS 4th Grader

  6. The Project MAIS K-6 Science Inquiry is about:

  7. Our primary goal is: PREPARING MAIS K-6 TEACHERS TO ENABLE THEIR STUDENTS TO USE… INQUIRY INVESTIGATION DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

  8. The project follows the science standards of Project AERO and the National Science Education Standards 

  9. Representatives of 25 schools in 8 MAIS countries areparticipating in MAIS K-6Science Inquiry

  10. MAIS teachers and administrators participate in model science inquiry experiences they can use in their own classrooms. For example : Teachers investigate a simple electrical circuit using a flashlight cell, a bulb, and wires.

  11. Sarah, an elementary school principal from Las Palmas, shows off her newly-found electrical skills.

  12. Instructor Ken Mechling demonstrates the construction of a series circuit and has participants infer its parts, operation, and electrical flow.

  13. Teachers investigate chromatography and…

  14. … share their designs, describing the flow of molecules.

  15. Teachers investigate vibration, pitch, and amplitude with soda straw kazoos.

  16. They use special glasses to investigate the spectra from various light sources.

  17. Teachers experience various scents in “odor vials,” investigating smell and relating their discoveries to animals, including humans.

  18. They use hand-held microscopes to investigate worlds too small to be seen by the naked eye.

  19. Teachers construct seed-germination chambers to investigate variables affecting seed growth and plant development.

  20. They use magnifying lenses to investigate factors affecting the behavior of Isopods, also called rolypolies, sowbugs, or pillbugs.

  21. Participants use the methods of inquiry to investigate, design and test objects that magnetism does or does not pass through.

  22. They construct boxes containing mystery objects and challenge their colleagues to infer the boxes’ contents—without using the sense of sight.

  23. Participants design experiments to measure their own reaction times.

  24. Instructor Amy begins a design technology activity by reading partway through the book, Little Lumpty… to the point where the main character, Little Lumpty, an egg, is perched on a high wall and is about to jump.

  25. With 8 sheets of paper and 25 cm of tape, teams design and construct egg-catchers to keepraw eggs from breaking whendropped from increasing heights.

  26. Then they test their designs and consider redesigns.

  27. With the egg drops completed, Amy finishes reading Little Lumpty and the teams discuss how they could redesign their egg catchers to make them more effective. Building an egg catcher and reading Little Lumpty combines science and technology with children’s literature.

  28. Teachers are also provided with Lesson Plans as Guides for their own classroom lessons. Here is one for investigating owl pellets: OVERVIEW: Students investigate the contents of owl pellets, identify numbers and species of animals found, and construct a food web with the owl at the highest trophic level.BOOKLINK: Welcome to the World of Owls by Diane Swanson, Whitecap Books, Vancouver/Toronto, Canada, 1997. ISBN 0-937934-32-1SCIENCE ACTIVITY LINK: Children "dissect" an owl pellet, identify the number and species of animals found, describe the characteristics of owls, and construct a food web with a barn owl as the top carnivore.OBJECTIVE: Students investigate an owl pellet, identify its contents, research and describe the characteristics of owls, and construct a food web with a barn owl at the highest trophic level. SCIENCE PROCESSES AND CONTENT: Processes-Observing, inferring, measuring, communicating, predicting, investigating, gathering and analyzing data, and constructing models. Content-Skeletal anatomy of animals found in pellets; anatomy, physiology, and habits of the barn owl; energy flow in an ecosystem--food chains and food webs.

  29. Another is on analyzing rocks and minerals: OVERVIEW: Students observe and record the properties of selected rocks and minerals. Using reference resources, the students identify the specimens, distinguish between rocks and minerals, and classify the rocks as igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary.BOOKLINK: Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor, Aladdin Paperbacks, NY, 1974. ISBN 0-684-71051-8SCIENCE ACTIVITY LINK: Students work in groups of two or three to observe rocks and minerals, use reference resources to identify them, distinguish between rocks and minerals, and identify the three kinds of rocks.OBJECTIVE: Students will observe, identify, and classify rocks and minerals.SCIENCE PROCESSES AND CONTENT: Processes-Observing, communicating, classifying, predicting, inferring, and gathering and recording data. Content-Systems and subsystems, origins and composition of rocks and minerals, and Earth processes including vulcanism, mountain building, and erosion and sedimentation.

  30. Still another is on designing and testing rolling objects: QUICKPLANROLLIN', ROLLIN', ROLLIN'(QuickPlan developed by Dr. Ken Mechling, Clarion, Pennsylvania) OVERVIEW: Children construct rolling objects from paper or plastic cups of varying sizes to determine how far they roll, test the rolling distances on different surfaces, and investigate the effects of added weights in the cups to the distances rolled.OBJECTIVE: Children will use and describe processes of science and design technology to build and test simple wheel and axle devices made of disposable cups.SCIENCE PROCESSES AND CONTENT: Processes-observing, predicting, measuring, communicating, formulating hypotheses, experimenting, recognizing variables, interpreting data, and formulating models. Content-design-redesign technology, properties of objects, position and motion of objects, simple machines, gravity, momentum, friction, and potential and kinetic energy.NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS: Unifying concepts and processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (2) Physical Science, (5) Science and TechnologyMATERIALS: Assorted paper, plastic, and/or Styrafoam cups of varying sizes as wheels, masking tape, measuring tapes or metersticks, materials for an incline, e.g. large books, boards, cardboard, etc.

  31. Parents get into the act too!These parents are investigating sound cups at the American International School of Egypt.Nine MAIS schools had two-to-three day on-site visits this year. Many involved parents in after-school science programs.

  32. As a part of every program,participating MAIS directors, principals, and teachers develop school action plans to improve science in their schools.

  33. MAIS K-6 Science Inquiry also includes a website. http://www.maisk-6scienceinquiry.org/  for MAIS, international schools worldwide, and others. The site averages 3,000 hits per month.

  34. What do kids learn?They learn inquiry processes:

  35. They learn science concepts relating to:

  36. They learn:

  37. Is the project working?Early indicators of success are: … Increased science in schools and classrooms. … Increased hands-on, minds-on science experiences. … Increased use of inquiry, investigation, and design technology by MAIS students. … Positive attitudes toward science by directors, principals, teachers, children, and parents. … Increased school leadership for science.

  38. Teachers and administrators say this about the project: “Excellent program!” “Outstanding real science investigations!” “I like it because my kids are learning to do their own critical thinking and problem solving.” “The program you did for us had application to real life teaching.” “I love science now…and my kids do too!”

  39. MAIS children say…in their own words…and spelling: “You can learn a lot from experiments because you can see for yourself what happens”…6th Grader “In science what I like to do best is expirements!” …2nd Grader Science is...”figyoring theings oat.”… 1st Grader

  40. W. B. Yeats has said, “Educating is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.”

  41. MAIS K-6 Science Inquiry is lighting firesamong MAIS teachers and students.

  42. Thanks, OSAC, for your support and leadership!

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