Comparing Students Results
From my experience, when classrooms do a science experiment, and students test for results, it goes like this… in small groups, students do an experiment, record results on a sheet of paper with only one student recording, and a quick class discussion with only a few participating or knowing what happened.
Recently, I participated in a science experiment where we studied surface tension using coins and water. The recording sheet was easy to read and fill out, but each student had a column where they could record data. After the science experiment, every group came together and wrote their results on a large whiteboard. Instead of finishing with a 2-minute wrap-up, we spent upwards of 15 minutes discussing our results and comparing them with each other. We highlighted the highest and lowest numbers in our results and discussed why our results were all different.
I included this experience because it was maybe one of the first times I’ve experienced being fully engaged in the entire experiment. After the experiment, I felt I understood what we were doing, why we did it, and what the entire class’s results were, and this was because I was not limited to only one job in the experiment, or the class discussion rushed over. The experiment was also hands-on and fun! As I start my planning for a science unit, I am really excited to make my recording sheets involve every student and plan time at the end for meaningful and in-depth class discussions using everyone’s results.
