Chemistry Experiments

On Wednesday during science class we played with the "mystery blue liquid". The mystery blue liquid was actually red cabbage juice. I learned that red cabbage juice is an indicator and can tell you which substances are a base, an acid, or considered neutral in regards to the pH. We used the cabbage juice indicator to test some of the substances the students in the class brought from their homes. This was an AWESOME lesson! I learned so much from it, and I am a college student! I loved the fact of not knowing in the beginning what the blue mystery was. Not knowing made me want to find out what it was, and I wanted to experiment with it to see what would happen. I was able to make my own connections and inferences as I was experimenting with the mystery liquid. I guess that is the power of inquiry based lessons. I wanted to know more about it, and no one had to encourage me to learn more about it. I can promise you that if I would have been taught with this type of lesson in high school I would have been much more interested in science. In high school, when we did experiments, we knew ahead of time what was going to happen and what we should be looking for. I understand that there are some occasions that you have to know what you should be looking for as you are experimenting, but always knowing kills the inquiry. I want to use lessons like this in my classroom to encourage inquiry. I want my students to be more interested and engaged in science than I ever was. I will keep my eyes open for more lessons like this and I will know that if I would be engaged with the lesson, there is a pretty good chance that my students will be engaged in it.

The NSTA is a great resource for finding inquiry based science lessons. After only a few minutes of searching a found an inquiry based lesson for grades 6-12 on boiling water. The neat thing about this lessons is that it ties to the International Boiling Point Project. After students have completed their experiments they are able to compare their results with students from all over the world. The ultimate goal is to find which factor (room temperature, elevation, volume of water, and heating device) has the biggest impact on boiling water. I love the idea that students are able to collaborate with other students who are not in their classroom.

Watching the Pot to Improve Inquiry Skills