Raising the Bar on Learning

In my opinion inquiry-based learning is one of the best pedagogical techniques available to teachers.  When activities are developed appropriately students are afforded the opportunity to construct new knowledge through exploration, problem solving, developing then answering their own questions, application, and trial & error. This technique typically makes students uncomfortable at first as they have become so conditioned by our traditional culture of education where they would rather be spoon-fed information instead of having to think. Not only do students fight this technique at first, but so do parents.  This stems from the fact that many parents want their children taught the same way they were.  I have engaged in numerous conversations over the past two years with parents explaining how the inquiry-based process for learning will much better prepare their children for success in the future. It is a conversation that I relish as the students themselves ultimately discover the value of this type of learning over traditional pedagogical techniques that are mostly passive in nature and do not require critical thought. 

Image credit: http://www.inquirylearn.com/inquirydiagram.jpg

New Milford High School teacher Mrs. Chowdury has evolved into a master teacher in this approach and here is why. Physics is often thought to be a fun subject where students get to perform exciting experiments. Mrs. Chowdhury has a teaching philosophy that her students cannot engage in fun activities simply for the sake of having fun, but the activities have to trail or follow difficult calculations. When Mrs. Chowdhury’s students found out that she had some Nerf guns in the classroom, they wanted to play with them. So she created an assignment that involved Nerf guns where students had to apply their understanding of energy concepts to figure out the velocity of the bullet as it was leaving the gun. 

She gave the students a meter stick, a protractor with a string attached from the center, and a Nerf gun with one bullet. The students’ task was to design how they wanted to set up and use the materials to be able to calculate the starting velocity of the bullet. The students chose to use the protractor to figure out how high the bullet went and from there use energy concepts to calculate the velocity. When it comes to learning there should never be an easy way out. Making the process fun and engaging while invoking problem solving and critical thinking skills epitomizes the type of learning our students need and deserve. 

Inquiry vs. Memorization

Memorization often gets in the way of learning and yet the practice continues unobstructed in schools.  Fortunately the sciences provide schools and educators with many natural opportunities to move away from the boring, meaningless task of memorizing facts and information to a more constructivist approach associated with inquiry-based learning. Recently Ms Chowdhury’s Consumer Chemistry classes conducted testing on various consumer products as related to chemistry topics. While the students were learning about acids and bases, they had played with a simulation where their task was to create solutions of different pH. They also worked with another simulation that demonstrated acids and bases at a molecular level. 

Image credit: http://adaptedinnovation.blogspot.com/2013/04/inquiry-and-project-based-learning-in.html

Based on their learning from the two simulations, with the facilitation of Ms Chowdhury, the students discussed about a design for testing different brands of antacids. They knew they needed a sample acid and a pH indicator. The students were given lemon juice as acid, grape juice as base and they had three brands of antacid (Equate regular strength, Equate maximum strength, and Rolaids). The students used the idea that the grape juice (pH indicator) will change color when enough of the antacid has been added to neutralize the acid. They recorded the number of drops used from each brand of antacid, and decided on Rolaids being the best among the three based on their results. 

Ms Chowdhury believes that experiments such as this helps students contextualize their learning at a more practical level rather than mere memorization of what acids and bases are. The students also thoroughly enjoy any hands on activities. Regardless of the level of the course high school students today need to think. Memorization of facts does now allow for students to truly grasp concepts, let alone apply and then demonstrate mastery. Science is primed for inquiry-based learning, but schools need to do more by promoting this pedagogical technique across all content areas. 

Inquiry-Based, Constructivist Learning in Physics

Every year New Milford High School teacher Tahreen Chowdhury teaches Newton’s laws of physics and most of the students are able to grasp the first and the second law. However, Newton’s third law is the one that is most contrary to their everyday intuition. This law, as the students know it, is “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. The students have learned this concept since their first science classes, but are puzzled by this concept when they see small cars being demolished by bigger SUV’s. 

Image credit: http://nancyrubin.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/learn_istock_000017123843xsmall.jpg

So this year, Mrs. Chowdhury decided to take a different approach to teaching this law in physics. The lesson started with Mrs. Chowdhury having two students pull on each other with spring scales. She asked the students to pull so that the two spring scales read different forces. The students were unable to do so, each time one pulled with a certain force, the other spring scale read the same force. Normally, students agree when Mrs. Chowdhury says that pulling with the spring scales attached and pulling hand to hand are the same except spring scales just reads the strength of the pull. This year, the students completely disagreed and said that using the spring scales make the forces the same. So Mrs. Chowdhury decided to use the Vernier Force Sensors. She set up an air track and two carts with motion sensors attached to them. She asked the students to come up with different collisions and predict how the forces will compare to each other based on the collisions. The students changed the carts’ mass and velocity so the collisions were different. 

In the end, they saw on the force sensor software that the readings were identical from the two sensors. One student summarized their learning from that lesson as “when two things collide with each other, they exert the same force on each other regardless of their mass and how fast they are coming at each other”. Below is a screenshot of the convincing data of two students pulling on the force probes from two different directions, each time the measured forces were identical regardless of who pulled harder. Mrs. Chowdhury believes that this year the students have a much better understanding of Newton’s third law instead of mere memorization of the phrase “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”.