RIP Lesson Page

RIP Reflections

N) What were my students experiences with making observations by using their senses? Were the students able to make objective OBSERVATIONS? Were they able to identify the difference between objective and subjective observations?

 

My students love trying out making observations, but have been struggling with the concept of the objective scientific observation ALOT! Beginning of the year diagram and picture observations were full of subjective little kid creativity (smiley faces on termites, construction cranes inside insect observation jars, etc). Students also had trouble describing orally or in writing with almost any detail in any subject.

 

Although the students were able to grasp the difference between objective and subjective observations in a passive situation (identifying samples, picking out elements of peer sentences that needed editing to replace subjective elements, etc), they found... and unfortunately continue to find ... it  difficult to write without introducing subjectivity. I decided the situation was troublesome enough that observation as a seperate skill needed focused, fairly intensive lessons before proceeding to the next RIP.

 

Therefor, in December, my classes spent 10 days just on PowerPoint notes, samples, exercises and rubric formation on what a useful scientific observation ought to  include. The quality of drawn observations went up phenomenally... there are some very talented artists on my team it seems! Even the less artistic students were able to grasp that measuring, labelling and attention to detail made the observation much more useful for supporting a stance or a hypothesis in any follow up reflections or analysis.  

 

Although the written observations my students produce are significantly weaker than their diagrams (they struggle with clear use of vocabulary, explanations that clarify physical relationships, cause and effect, change over time, etc,) I feel like quality is, nonetheless, measurably improved. Even more importantly, the students seemed to grasp the connection between measurement and objectivity before Christmas and to retain that understanding into our 3rd quarter RIPs. Our obsevation rubric is helping to remind students of the types of information they should include in their observations, but as a document for assessing the quality of student observations it is still very much a work in progress.

 

O) When building a hypothesis why do you think RIP uses the If...then...because...". What is the relationship between the HYPOTHESIS statement, the BACKGROUND INFORMATION and the RESEARCH QUESTIONS?

 

The RIP uses the "If ... then ... because" format in hypothesis formation because this is the scientific norm. When students formally design their own research question and hypothesis, they become part of the research community. As students push themselves to use this formal structure, they begin to see the relationships between manipulation of variables in their lab work and the body of scientific research that is done in other places at other times. Participating in this structured foundation to lab design encourages students to think analytically about how the pieces fit together rather than blindly following a procedure designed by someone else (the cookbook lab approach). As students begin to gather data that is generated from their own questions, whether the data supports the hypothesis really clarifies whether or not they have understood the foundational research and planned their procedure carefully enough. Although the successfully designed RIP is the ideal, students learn enormous amounts from unsuccessfully designed questions, hypotheses, and procedures if they purposefully focus on how the data does or does not support the "then" and "because" clauses of the hypothesis.

 

P) Write your reflections on the Methods Section of RIP (planning the study). Make sure to include your reflections on the defining of the SUBJECTS, MATERIAL and PROCEDURES.

 

Because of the way I usually organize my classes, defining the subjects of our RIPs has been extremely easy. My team's Q1 IDU centers around Formosan Subterranean Termites, so the subjects of our first RIPs necessarily were worker and soldier termites. What the students needed to decide was simply how many of each type to use (based on backgroud information about termite habits etc). Deciding on materials and procedures to use in the tests on the termites was more challenging. The students had to work around problems inherent in dealing with termites (methods for evaluating results on a cryptic subterranean species, the danger of escape, the tendency to dry out, invasive ants - our classroom's fierce native population, etc) Each subsequent RIP has been focused on the standards and subject matter of the quarter. My goal would be to have a RIP for each of the 6 Kingdoms and each of the  key characteristics of life. However, time is still  a major limiting factor. What's more, if the size of termites makes them challenging to test on, prokaryotic cells would seem impossible.

 

Q) What where the challenges and successes that you and your class had in the completing the RESULTS process.

 

Because the Rip process can be very time consuming, one of the biggest challenges my students and I face is having enough time to address all the issues that come up over the course of labs and how they may have affected the outcomes.

 

Some of the successes we've experienced are that my students have become connoisseurs of lab errors. The kinds of errors lab partners may commit and how those issues should be reported in the errors section seem endlessly fascinating to my students. They love strategizing how to  redesign procedures, choose more appropriate materials, equipment, or subjects, etc ., so as to repeat the lab in a more accurate way ... we guess... The down side of this is that we don't have the time or resources to actually do the "Next Steps" that we believe could be so much more informative. The optimist in me says that this leaves the kids wanting more, thinking that science classes in their futures could allow them endless possibilities. The pessimist in me says that I am encouraging students to feel that halfway done is good enough.

 

Another success is that students are gradually coming over to the idea that measuring, counting and calculating ACCURATELY are useful and interesting processes not just one of those irritating Math teacher quibbles. I think the concept first came home when we did a  termite population estimate activity with beans. Students were able to see that increasing the number of sample counts directly affected the accuracy of the population estimate. This estimation lesson really helped clarify the concept that a small number of subjects strongly affects the impact each outlier is likely to have on data. Although we still don't have enough time, the students are much better able to understand why it is useful for one scientist to try to replicate the work of another. This in turn clarifies why writing and rewriting the materials list and procedure until they are CRYSTAL CLEAR is not just one of those irritating Language Arts teacher quibbles.

 

 D) How do the Science Standards integrate into the RIP process? What standard/benchmark did you use? Give an example of one of the benchmarks used within your RIP and describe whether the students were able to successfully grasp that benchmark target.

 

For 7th grade students, the RIP is ideal for helping gain mastery of all Standard 1 benchmarks. My students are very comfortable now with designing an experiment where they have planned out not only the dependent and independent variables (7.1.1), but also the control and constants as well. Of course there is a range in ability across the class, but now even one of my weakest students was able to tell me that the dependent variable was "about the numbers...the stuff that we counted all the squares..." There are no longer complaints (and even students are the first to suggest!) when data is counted and recounted to verify accuracy.  My students frequently suggest multiple trials of their RIP investigations as a necessary Next Step in the process because they are curious to see if their work is "replicable and precise" (7.1.2). The element they still struggle with most is the use of journal articles and other supporting research for their hypothesis formation and to explains why conclusions need to be revised (7.1.3 and 7.2.1). The RIP has made them aware of how important this research is though. Now the difficulty is just to understand the meanings and implications of the materials they find online and in journals.

 

If the process of the RIP only supported mastery of Standard 1 concepts, it would still be valuable, but in fact, it has also really helped my students with Standard 3: "Understand the unity, diversity, and interrelationships of organisms, including their relationship to cycles of matter and energy in the environment" benchmarks in greater depth as well. My students are much more able now to explains how one organism, the Formosan Subterranean termite interacts with other members of its biological community here in urban Oahu - its predator/prey relationship with local frogs, lizards and birds; its role as primary consumer as compared to the wood it eats, the producer; the mutualistic relationship it has with the gut protozoa that allow it to gather energy from the wood it eats; the competitive nature of its relationship with various ant species; the cooperative nature of colonial insects; the termite's positive role in its forest niche vs its less positive one in an urban one... 

 

 

 

 

Anne's Lessons are organizied by General Inquiry - Here she will identify the major concepts that she was trying to hit with the various content studies. The second cluster of lessons that are named Groups 1 to Group 6 is the student work.  The Group samples documents some of the students projects and may reflect more than one unit of study for each of the groups.