Byrdseed

In the last article on Curiosity Fridays (the introduction is here), students selected reasonably-sized topics (using Google’s Wonder Wheel) and developed sophisticated questions with depth and complexity.

However, this left our experiment-based students in the dark. These kids need a hypothesis to structure their experiment around.

Note: Again, I would scaffold this whole proces. Introduce experiments as a whole group with everyone doing something similar for the first round. I wouldn’t have half my class researching and half experimenting until well into the year.

Develop A Question

Before developing their hypothesis, our students need a question to answer. Some students will already have a burning question in their minds, but others will need you to provide some structure. Consider utilizing the tool SCAMPER (see Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko) to develop their question.

SCAMPER

SCAMPER stands for :

• Substitute
• Combine
• Adapt
• Maximize/Minimize
• Put to other uses
• Eliminate
• Rearrange/Reverse

Each verb alters an existing idea in a specific way. Perfect for creating questions that lead to an experiments.

SCAMPERing Bridges

Let’s assume our student picked “bridges” as a topic and then refined it, as discussed in the last article, to “truss bridges” or “span bridges.” Ask students to change one piece of a bridge using the verbs from SCAMPER (note that you’re setting up an independent variable).

They might come up with:

• Substitute: What are the effects of substituting circles for the trusses?
• Adapt: What other disciplines could a truss be adapted to?
• Maximize: What is the maximum length I could build a span bridge?
• Eliminate: What are the effects of eliminating half of the trusses on a bridge?

SCAMPERing Plants

If a student picked “plants” as a topic and then refined it to “photosynthesis,” they could use SCAMPER to create a question. Again, they should change one thing about photosynthesis:

• Substitute: What are the effects of substituting artificial light for sunlight?
• Eliminate: How long can a plant survive if we eliminate sunlight?
• Rearrange: What are the effects of exposing only one side of a plant to sunlight?

Developing A Hypothesis

From here, these students are ready to develop a hypothesis. Using the Frayer Model of concept attainment, explain what a hypothesis is (thanks to ScienceProjectIdeasForKids.com for some great hypothesis tips):

Definition: A hypothesis is an educated guess that answers the experimenter’s question.

Essential Characteristics:

• Can be proven true or false with a test.
• Must have one specific detail that we change (independent variable) and one detail that is measured (dependent variable).
• Shouldn’t be obvious (no duh statements)
• Often takes the form of: If, then…
• Often includes words such as: increase, decrease, faster, slower

Example Hypotheses:

• If I remove half the trusses of a bridge, the bridge will only support half the weight.
• If I decrease a plant’s sunlight by half, the plant will stop growing.
• If I substitute artificial life for sunlight, the plant’s growth rate will decrease by half.

Poor Hypotheses:

• If I take away trusses, the bridge won’t be as strong (not specific, obvious statement).
• More sunlight means the plant will be better (not testable).

Experiment

By this point, we’ve armed students with a testable, scientific question. They’re ready to experiment.

Naturally, you’ll need to model and scaffold this experience to make it worthwhile.

Remind students that they picked one detail to change (amount of sunlight, number of trusses, etc) and one detail to measure (maximum weight, growth rate, etc). They’ll need to set up three tests to start with, changing the independent variable in three different ways. They’ll measure the dependent variable and (eventually) search for a pattern.

Note: Since this is Curiosity Fridays, these experiments should be fueled by curiosity, not procedures and paperwork. Make sure that “the rules of the scientific method” don’t dominate the experience of organic inquiry.

This isn’t to say that the scientific method shouldn’t be explicitly taught, but try waiting until after a successful round of experiments. This way, students can inductively learn this scientific principle, comparing it to their own experience.

Coming Next

When we pick up next, we’ll look at what to do with the results of students’ research and experiment based curiosity!