the one with the discrepant events

We read an article about using discrepant events in science, "Engaging Science Students Through Discrepant Events," by Judy Jones. The article explains that "a discrepant event is one where the result is the opposite of what was expected." Meaning, students do not properly predict what the outcome of the experiment is. Because of their incorrect predictions, they must figure out what really happened and in the process they are learning more about science.

Jones describes the different activities she used in her class to provoke discussion. The one I enjoyed was the penny drop experiment. The students were to make predictions of how many drops of water could be placed on a penny. Most guess around 4 to 12. However, once students actually got to engage in the activity, some found they could fit around 100 on the penny! Jones even mentions how she uses the 5E model in her classroom, providing a definition of each stage [engage, explore, explain, elaborate/explain, evaluate].

I thought this was an interesting article. Unfortunately, her first link for a cat breeding experiment cost quite a bit of money to used, and the second link was broken. Other than that, I think that these experiments with discussions are a great way to get students thinking about science!

blog you later,
[andrea]