Questions that lead to deeper thinking in Science

As I sit here on the last day of winter break, my brain engaged once again with teaching and learning, I remembered that I forgot to make this post in a timely manner. I did still want to share how a single question motivated my students to learn more about electricity. To begin the unit I asked my students to reflect on the question "How would your life be different if there was no elecric power available anywhere in the world for an extended period of time?" They started by responding individually and shared together in small groups and then whole group discussion. The immediate responses were very narrow and personal=====no computer, cell phone, TV--nothing to do, but as they continued to talk and build on each other's ideas the depth of thought was amazing. The things that might be done about food production and preservation. How communication and transportation would be affected and changed. Would money mean anything or would there be a new barter system? New technology would need to be developed. This led to questions about what creates electricity. How does it work? Where does it come from? I was impressed by the depth of thinking and excited that the students were motivated to learn about our next topic of study.

Trzasko-Questioning

To introduce ATP, I previewed the text with students and asked them to read the 2 pages about ATP.  Then I had them think about what they now understand about ATP, and what questions they have about ATP.  They shared these ideas with their small groups and had discussions about them, and then we shared whole group while I recorded ideas on the board.  Students would jump in and answer each other's questions, sometimes asking deeper questions.  It was interesting to see what they pulled from the text when I asked open ended questions as opposed to telling them what they should have understood from their reading.

Questioning - Professional Challenge #1 Jenny Berman

Using Questions to Make Thinking Visible –Jen Berman

I introduced the new concept of cell differentiation to my students by providing them with new vocab terms and I used diagrams to show the various stages in the process.  The next day, I wanted to see if my students “understood” anything from the previous day’s lesson.  Instead of asking “review type” questions, I asked the students an open-ended question.  Q: What would happen to a developing embryo if you transplant cells from one layer of the gastrula into another layer?  I know this seems like a complicated question, but if the students grasped anything from the day before, I think they could use that knowledge to hypothesize what the results could be. 

I had the students discuss the question in their table groups (groups of 3 or 4) and I informed them that each table was going to share out what they discussed.

One table shared the idea that the developing embryo would probably not survive and that group stated their evidence using the previous lessons info and their own prior knowledge.  Another table suggested that nothing would happen to the developing embryo because the cells would adapt to their new surroundings.  They made the connection between these cells and how stem cells work.  The students started to build on each others ideas.  One student asked, “Why would a scientist do this and has this experiment been done before?” I did not know the answers to these questions, so this introduced my next series of questions.

Throughout the class discussion, it was evident that the students were considering different viewpoints, making connections, and reasoning with evidence.

I think that asking the open-ended question gave the students a way to make the connections on their own.  I think that they used each others ideas which allowed them to further think about the question/topic and they started to generate their own questions.  I think this was more valuable then just asking the “review type questions”.