Kathleen Childress
RE 5140
Inquiry Project
The world around us is full of the unknown leaving us with many questions to ponder. Science is filled with unknown variables that students must begin to recognize. It is the task of the elementary school teacher to unlock the door to a world of discovery and facilitate student’s journey through scientific investigation. Science instruction begins in kindergarten and continues to build student knowledge as they progress through school. The second grade level of science promotes inquiry in of a variety of topics. Inquiry according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Standard Course of Study for Second Grade, is teaching science to provide the opportunity to develop ability and to enrich understanding of how things change as students focus on the study of life cycles, changes in weather, changes in properties, and changing sound. Students develop the ability to ask scientific questions, investigate aspects of the world around them and use their findings to construct reasonable explanations for the questions posed. Scientific inquiry involves asking a simple question, conducting an investigation, recording and analyzing results, answering questions, and communicating the results to others. By engaging in such activities, students begin to develop the physical and intellectual ability of scientific inquiry (www.ncpublicschools.org).
How is the task of promoting inquiry in second grade to be accomplished? It is this question that leads me my topic for this inquiry project. Can literature be used to promote inquiry skills in Science?
In the article, where Literacy and Science Intersect, Annemarie Palinscar and Susanna Hapgood state; Teachers may believe that student should engage in inquiry by exploring questions through their own activity and thinking rather than by turning to books for answers. But when combined with hands-on activities as a way to explore scientific phenomena rather than merely as a way to find the correct answers, reading can be an important part of the inquiry process (2007). Jane Partridge also supports the use of literature as a means of promoting inquiry in the Science classrooms. She states literacy promotes inquiry and hands-on investigation that helps motivate students (Partridge, 2006).
I began to plan my unit on our second grade study of weather. I am fortunate to have access to a class set of some wonderful informational texts on the topic of weather. The first step is to find the best books for your science unit (Abell, 2008). The article, Using Children’s Books to Teach Inquiry Skills, states Children’s literature offers unique opportunities for the introduction of science concepts and developing science process skill in the early years. It also allows teachers to integrate literacy and science learning (Sackes, Trundle & Flevares, 2009). The use of good age appropriate literature is supported in Using Children’s Literature to Teach Standard-Based Science Concepts in Early Years, also written by Sackes, Trundle and Flevares; well written and developmentally appropriate literature not only provides content knowledge and fosters science process skills; it also awakens children’s’ curiosity and offers opportunities for inquiry (Sackes, Trundle & Flevares, 2009).
The goals of my weather unit promote student inquiry through reading informational text, class discussion and hands on investigations. The unit began with each student being given a weather journal. This journal will document the inquiry process over the next ten days of our unit. The article, Reading, Writing, and Conducting Inquiry About Science in Kindergarten, supports the use of science notebooks; Children build writing and reading skills as they participate in the activities. across all units, teachers emphasize that as part of asking and answering questions, scientists must record what they want to know and what they find out so that they can remember what happened, compare what they see over time and communicate their findings to others (Patrick, Mantzicopoulos & Samarapungavan, 2009).
Day One: We begin the study of weather by filling in a K-W-L chart that is in the weather journal. The K-W-L chart gets the students thinking about what they already know, as well as what the are wondering. Each child is given time to fill in their chart in their journal and then they choose one thing they already know, write it on a sticky note and add it to our large class chart. We do this again for the wondering part of the chart.
We also access the Weather Channel website at www.weatherchannel.com, in order to obtain morning temperatures. This is recorded on the temperature chart in their journal, we will also access this site in the afternoon and compare temperatures daily as well as across the study of our unit. We also us this information to predict what the temperature may be the next day based on the data we have collected so far. Reading and writing quantification are integral to science (Patrick, Mantzicopoulos & Samarapungavan, 2009).
I introduced the book, What Is Weather? Watching the Weather, the student’s picture walk through the text and are allowed to share a page that is special to them and why they found it interesting. We then read as a class, I read out loud, they can read silently or out loud with me, pages 4-17.
The article Models For Using Nonfiction In the Primary Grades states, as teachers set the stage, they focus on familiarizing students with nonfiction and organizing for instruction. Teacher read-alouds are an important means to familiarize students with nonfiction (Palmer & Stewart, 2005). After we read we add to the L of our K-W-L chart. If a student has something they are wondering we add to this to the W part of our chart. If we find and answer to something we had been wondering we also check this off our chart.
Day Two: today we continue with What Is Weather? Watching the Weather. This day we continue as in day one by access the Weather Channel for the morning temperature. We then read page 18-30 in our book adding and checking points of interest on the K-W-L chart.
Day Three: Today will begin a study of sunshine using the book, What Is Weather? Sunshine. As a pre-reading activity students will fill out an anticipation guide about the sun. We will read pages, 4-30 as a class, similar to day one, and go back to the post reading part of the anticipation guide. Students work with a partner to find the parts in the text that contains correct answers. We discuss this as a class.
According to Charlene Fleener in her article Linking Reading, Science and Fiction Books, anticipation guides allow students to interact with the text as well as uncover their own prior and existing knowledge. This gives them a purpose for reading and questioning. After reading students investigate their thinking by revisiting the text (Fleener, 2003). Students then revisited the text in order to document in their weather journal the detail they determined the most important about the sun.
Day Four: Today we will study wind using the book, What Is Weather? Wind. We read as a class, pages 4-30. Students are then given specific pages in the text and they are to create a poster about the important information about wind on their assigned pages. They then present these to the class.
Day Five: We continue with our study of the wind by discussing the anemometer, an instrument used to measure the wind. Students make their own anemometers. First students write the supplies they used and steps they took in order to construct the anemometer. We then we go outside to see what happens. When we return to the class room students write about what they discovered in their journals.
Day Six: We read about clouds in the Harcourt Science book, pages D44-49.
On the Smartboard I introduce the term nephelococcygia, which is a term that means cloud watching, I read aloud the book, It Looked Like Spilt Milk, by Charles G. Shaw. Students are then given a blue piece of construction paper and a small Dixie cup of “milk”. They then spill the “milk” on their paper. When these dry they glue these in their journal and write what it looks like.
Day Seven: today we begin our study of rain. We read as a class, What Is Weather? Rain, pages, 4-13. After we read we access the Weather Channel website and we look for rainfall across the United States. We discuss what we see, the places that are the wettest and the driest and why we think this is so.
Students also create a rain glyph in their weather journal based on how they feel and what they do on rainy days.
Day Eight: continuing with What Is Weather? Rain, pages 14-30. We read as a class. Students then construct a bubble map in their journals about the important characteristics of rain.
I then read aloud the pages about rain in Weather Words And What They Mean by Gail Gibbons. The final page of this section shows a rainbow during the rain. Students then performed an experiment with colored ice cubes.
Students choose two of the three primary colored ice cubes, red, blue, yellow.
They also are given a clear cup of Sierra Mist.
Students illustrate this in their journals and predict what will happen when both ice cubes are placed in the Sierra Mist. They then write and illustrate about what they witnessed as the two different colored ice cubes melted.
Day Nine: today we begin to study snow and begin reading, What Is Weather? Snow pages 4-17 prior to reading students complete an anticipation guide about snow, after we read we complete the post reading part of the anticipation guide. Students work with a partner to find the parts in the text that contains correct answers. We discuss this as a class.
I read aloud to the class the book Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. We access the website, www.snowflakebentley.com, to view the photographs taken by Wilson Bentley. In their weather journals students will write the important things about Snowflake Bentley; then illustrate.
The important thing about Snowflake Bentley is____________
He___________________and___________________and
___________________
But the most important thing about Snowflake Bentley is
___________________
Day Ten: today we finish reading about snow in What Is Weather? Snow, pages 18-30. Students will create a cause/effect chart in their journal.
Then they will perform an experiment about frost using the following:
2 tin cans, rock salt, crushed ice, water.
Process: In one tin can fill about ½ with crushed ice and about 4 tablespoons of rock salt. Mix it well for about 30 seconds and let it sit.
In other can put only crushed ice and cool tap water. Fill the can about ½ way full of ice and then put just enough tap water in the can to cover ice.
Students document the process in their journal. They should note: the frost forming on the outside of the can with the ice and salt mixture and compare this with the liquid moisture on the outside of the can which contains ice and water. “Students have many compelling occasions to use writing in the context of scientific inquiry. (Hapgood & Palincsar, 2007).
The unit study of weather ended with the students writing reflections about what they learned during this study. Each student was given the five major books we used during this unit. They used these books as well as their weather journals to help them reflect on their discoveries of weather. The integration of reading and writing about science with inquiry activities is a particularly effective and efficient way to teach meaningful science in kindergarten as well as the early grades (Patrick, Mantzicopoulos & Samarapungavan, 2009). This weather unit engaged students in their learning. They were able to use the text we had read combined with the hands on activities they performed to develop their skills of scientific inquiry.
References
Abell, S. (2008). Children's Literature and the Science Classroom. Science & Children, 46(3), 54-55. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.
Fleener, Charlene. (2006). Linkin Reading, Science, and Fiction Books. ChildhoosEducation. 80(2), 76-83.
Hapgood,S. & Palincsar,A. (December 2006/January 2007) Where Literacy and Science Intersect. Educational Leadership, 56-60..
Palmer, R. & Stewart, R. (2005). Models for Using Nonfiction in the Primary Grades. The Reading Teacher, 58(5), 426-434.
Partiridge, J. (2006). Conducting A Science Investigation In a Primary Classroom. Teaching Science-the Journal of the Australian Science Teachers Association, 52(2), 44-45.
Patrick, H., Mantzicopoulos, P., & Samarapungavan, A. (2009). Reading, Writing, and Conducting Inquiry about Science in Kindergarten. YC: Young Children, 64(6), 32-38. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database
Saçkes, M., Trundle, K., & Flevares, L. (2009). Using Children's Books to Teach Inquiry Skills. YC: Young Children, 64(6), 24-26. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.
Sackes, M., Trundle, K., & Flevares, L. (2009). Using Children’s Literature to Teach Standard-Based Science Concepts in Early Years. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36(5), 415-422. doi:10.1007/s10643-009-0304-5.
Classroom Resources
Ashwell, M & Owen, A. (1999). What is Weather? Rain. Heinemann, Chicago, IL.
Ashwell, M & Owen, A. (1999). What is Weather? Snow. Heinemann, Chicago, IL.
Ashwell, M & Owen, A. (1999). What is Weather? Sunshine. Heinemann, Chicago, IL.
Ashwell, M & Owen, A. (1999). What is Weather? Snow. Heinemann, Chicago, IL.
Ashwell, M & Owen, A. (1999). What is Weather? Watching the Weather. Heinemann, Chicago, IL.