Lesson 11: Strategy 3 - Inductive Guided Inquiry

Let the students im agine that they are inside a dark, cold room in a w inter night. Ask them, ‘ What ■as the best way to keep the hands warm?"

EXPLORE

^ c e d u r e :

Predict what w ill happen when you rub hands together vigorously.

I Rub your hands together. Do your hands feel warmer?

3 Rub your hands together again faster and longer. Put your hands on your face. How do your hands feel? Run water on your hands and see if it rubs the same. Now add lotion to dry hands and rub them again. Do you feel a difference in the am ount of heat? t

EXPLAIN

Classroom Discussion about Gravity and Friction Gravity

• Gravity is a force that always attracts or pulls objects toward each other w ith o u t direct contact or impact.

• Gravitational attraction depends on the mass of the two objects and the distance they are apart.

• Objects on Earth are pulled toward the center of Earth.

Friction

• It is a force that occurs when one object rubs against another object.

Two factors that determ ine the am ount of friction:

1. The kind of surfaces

2. The force pressing the surfaces together

• Friction is the force that acts to resist s liding of two surfaces that are touching. It can slow down or stop the motion of an object.

• The smoother the two surfaces are, the less friction there is between them ; therefore, the moving object w ill not slow down as quickly.

• The greater the force pushing the two surfaces together, the stronger friction prevents the surfaces from moving.

Facilitate the experiment below.

Objectives:

As the learners perform the experiment, they are expected to:

• state that the size of the surface does not affect the am ount of friction and the force that presses the surfaces together does not affect the am ount of friction;

• hypothesize concerning variables that affect friction;

• control variables as they experiment;

• communicate by w ritin g a laboratory report; and

• interpret the data gained from th e ir experiments.

Grade Level:

• Intermediate grades

Materials:

• Six boards 2" x 4" x 12"

• Six eye screws or hooks

• String

• Six spring balances

Instructions:

Divide the class into groups. Give each group a foot-long 2" x 4" board w ith a hook in the end, a string, and a spring balance. Provide each group w ith the fo llow ing set of questions and directions:

1. Do you th in k it w ill require more force to pull the board along at a uniform velocity if it is lying on a four-inch surface or on a two-inch surface? Write a hypothesis that best expresses your best prediction.

2. How can you test your hypothesis? How many trials should you make? (Pull the board along in each position. At least three trials for each position.) Write a description of your experiment. Include your hypothesis, procedure, results, and conclusions.

3. What do you conclude about your hypothesis? (The force is independent of the surface area.)

4. What effect do you th in k adding w e ight to the wood block w ill have upon the force of friction? Write a hypothesis that expresses your best prediction.

5. How can you test your prediction? How many trials should you make? (Lay some object such as book on the wood block in each position and pull the block along. At least three trials for each position.) Write a description of your experiment. Include your hypothesis, procedure, results and conclusions.

6. What do you conclude about your hypothesis? (The w e ight of an object affects the am ount of friction it exerts as it slides over a surface.)

EVALUATE

Th 5 can be done in class or at home if there's no tim e left in class.

Create a Venn diagram to show the relationship between gravity and friction.

I List down materials/objects that prevent friction and explain th e ir specific use (e.g., lubricant in cars).

Y Application

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Answer the guide questions below.

When should the teacher use experimentation as a strategy to deliver a certain topic in class?

2. What are the lim itations of experimentation as a teaching strategy?

3. Given the learning competencies below, develop a sample lesson plan.

Topic: Energy

Learning Competencies

1. Demonstrate how sound, heat, light, and electricity can be transformed

2. M anipulate sim ple machines to describe th e ir characteristics and uses

ENGAGE

V , ___________________ ________________________________ y

EXPLAIN

ELABORATE

EVALUATE

L What is Inductive Guided Inquiry?

Induction is a th o u g h t process wherein the individual observes selected events, processes, or objects and then constructs a particular pattern of concepts or relationships based on these lim ited experiences. Inductive in quiry is a teaching method in which the teachers ask the students to infer a conclusion, generalization, or pattern of relationships from a set of data or facts. There are two approaches of inductive inquiry: guided and unguided. If you provide the specifics-that is, the data or facts-but want the students to make generalizations, then you are conducting a guided inductive in quiry (Tamir, 1995). On the other hand, if you allow the students to discover the specifics themselves before they make generalizations, the process is an unguided inductive inquiry. In this particular lesson, we w ill focus on inductive guided inquiry.

Inductive in quiry is actually applicable for all levels of instruction (from grade school to university graduate schools). At any level, the processes of observing, making inferences, classifying, form ulating hypotheses, and predicting are all sharpened (or reinforced) by the students' experiences.

II. How to Use Guided Inductive Inquiry as a Teaching Strategy?

In guided inductive inquiry, the use of pictures is usually the easiest way to introduce this concept. For young children, show different pictures of the same scene to the class. Ask the children to tell what they see in the pictures and to describe patterns they observe. Have them state these patterns as generalizations. Ask questions that require the students to do some generalizing themselves, such as "W hat could cause this type of track in the snow?" or "Where have we seen these before?" (Orlich e t al., 2007).

You need to distinguish clearly between statements based on observations and those based on inferences. Begin the lesson by explaining and demonstrating the difference between observations and inferences.

The process of inductive reasoning is developed gradually. As the lesson progresses, prepare a simple chart or list on the blackboard of the students' observations and inferences. The students' understanding of each process w ill gradually develop from studying these examples.

Time Requirements

When you plan to use any type of in quiry activity in class, spend at least twice as much class tim e on each lesson as you normally would. This tim e is spent on in-depth analyses of the content by the students. Inquiry methods demand greater interaction between the learner and the learning materials, as well as greater interaction between the teacher and the students (Orlich et al., 2007).

In the same way, be prepared to reduce the am ount of content you w ill cover because you w ill use more tim e developing process skills. You cannot maximize th in k in g skills and sim ultaneously maximize content coverage.

Characteristics of Guided Inductive Inq uiry Model (Orlich et at., 2 0 0 7 )

1. The learners progress from specific observations to inferences or generalizations.

2. The objective is to learn (or reinforce) the process of exam ining events or objects and then arriving at an appropriate generalization from the observations.

3. The teacher controls the specifics of the lesson (the events, data, materials, or objects) and thus acts as the class leader.

4. Each student acts to the specifics and attempts to structure a m eaningful pattern based on his or her observations and those of others in the class.

5. The classroom is to be considered a learning laboratory.

6. Usually, a fixed num ber of generalizations w ill be elicited from the learners.

7. The teacher encourages each student to communicate his or her generalizations to the class so that others may benefit from them.

identifying a problem

■ B e in g aw a re of so m e th in g

P reparing a statem en t of research objectives

« P ro p o sin g te sta b le h yp othese s

• G a th e rin g evide nce » C o n d u c tin g an e x p e rim e n t • S u rve yin g a sam ple

M a k e m eaningfu l sta tem e nts s u p p o rte d b y data Te stin g h yp othese s

Establishing relationships o r pa tterns Sp e cifyin g gene ra liza tion s

• O b ta in in g n e w da ta • Revising original conclusions

This model can be adapted to other in quiry models, such as problem-solving. These steps form the : -sis of what we know as the scientific method. The students can surely develop the different process skills as • 'e y utilize this model effectively.

The Role of Questioning W ithin Guided Inductive Inquiry

It has been observed that the teacher's questioning plays an im portant role in in quiry methods because n e purpose of in quiry is to pursue an investigation. The teacher thus becomes a question asker, not the one who is answering the question/s. Teachers who are masters of guided induction in quiry state that they spend —eir tim e interacting w ith the students but provide very few answers (Phillips & German, 2002).

W hat kinds of questions should a teacher ask? The fo llow ing list show some questions that the teacher can pose in the class to have a more inquiry-oriented classroom environm ent(based on Orlich & Migaki, 1981). Again, note that these prom pting questions help the students to examine all kinds of interrelationships-one of the desired goals of in quiry teaching and constructivism.

Question Stems: Dynamic Subjects

• What is happening?

• What has happened?