Real research in class

by

Back in January 2011 and 2014, I blogged under a similar title about science practicals and the benefit of researching in school. This post is an attempt to bring those thoughts up to date.

Science teachers the world over, must be familiar with the following situation when teaching reaction rates; you’re then faced with a dilemma:

  1. either organise a practical experiment to reinforce / substantiate the theory, or
  2. you let the students “investigate” before you even teach the theory and allow them to discover the science
 
Whichever route you go down, the eventual outcome is roughly the same – you already know the answer, and if the students are mindful enough and you allow mobile devices in class, a quick Google (or real text book search) will provide them with a similar answer.
 
I’m increasingly left thinking:
 
If you can Google the WALT, you need a different WALT
 
And in periods of self reflection, I ask myself “why am I doing the practical at all?”
 
The stock answer is that its all about skills, scientific method, data handling, etc.  After 10 years in a teaching lab, that no longer sits well with me. 
 
Consider learning football in an academy where you never play against a real opponent. You practice the skills you need (passing, dribbling, free kicks, saving the ball etc) in a safe and sanitized environment – without the challenges and foibles of a real match. Consider another team that learnt its craft on the streets, playing endless games, where the unpredictability of their opponents and the unforgiving nature of the environment makes a totally different football experience. In a match between these two sides, I know who I’d fancy to win.
 
In Science I think we are at risk of creating the football academy approach to teaching the practical aspects of our subject.  We practice the skills and through How Science Works (showing my age with that terminology), we teach the language of practical science, but we and our students never “do” "Real Science".
 
Doing Real Science
In my opinion, Science (note the capital letter) is about finding stuff out and making connections — my main point being NEW Stuff and NEW Connections.
 
So, real Science is all about research – either practically or looking for connections in existing data.
 
Practical Skills vs Experimentation
One word has cropped up a number of times in the blog so far  - “practical”.  And I think that very word is at the heart of the confusion / erosion of real science in schools. Practical lessons in science are an umbrella term for “using kit”, “getting hands dirty”, “doing an experiment”, “collecting some data”, “ practicing using a Bunsen burner” and many other lessons that involve utilising a science lab to the full.  
 
And it is that many faceted nature of the label that leads to confusion. I propose that we enter three new words/phrases into our teaching lexicon:
 
(1) Practical Skills Lesson
Where students practise the use of equipment, measurement techniques, data collection and processing – in fact everything that is canned, pre determined and routine.   For example – using Bunsen burners, stop clocks, measuring cylinders
 
(2) Practical Demonstration Lesson
Not a demo by the teacher, but where students undertake a highly guided practical, to determine something that they could obtain the answer from via Google/Bing.  For example, reaction rates via marble chips and acid, solar cells and lightbulb, enzymes via potatoes and hydrogen peroxide.
 
(3) Experimentation
Where students utilise the skills and wisdom learned from (1) and (2) to undertake a real experiment – to actually find out something new and previously unknown.  (And something that certainly can’t just be Googled).  The point about experimentation is that it’s unpredictable, error prone, difficult to look up the answers beforehand – just like real science.
 
An article from 2010 about a Primary School undertaking research into bees  exemplifies that students can take part in real research.
 
Duly inspired, the first piece of experimentation / Real Science we undertook was to consider the breaking strength of helix aspersa under different acid concentrations.  (As an analogue for acid raid).
 
Real Research in School (2011) from Glen Gilchrist
 
In October 2018, I updated these thoughts with a presentation for a regional ASE conference:
 
 
What I learned:
  • Students can do “real science”
  • The idea that “no one else knew the answer” was highly intriguing to the students
  • Writing up the experiment for an external audience demonstrated how important it was to use scientific conventions
  • There are alternatives to marble chips to explain reaction rates
 
Since I started thinking about real science in class, we’ve investigated and written up the following:
 
  1. Pre treatment effects on germination of luffa seeds (here - pdf)
  2. Impact of video games on physical dexterity (here - pdf)
  3. De-bond effectiveness of super glue treatments
  4. Hand preference impact in reaction speed
  5. Hand span impact on reaction speed
 
For sure, non of these are profound science investigations, but for all of them, the learners could not have Googled the answers before hand.
 
Do you do real experiments in Science Class – or do you run practical skills and demonstration lessons?