Raising Questions Adventures with Ice Balloons * All these activities are taken from the Institute for Inquiry at the Exploratorium.

Take-Home Messages Interesting phenomena can stimulate a rich variety of questions. Questions can drive the investigative process. Questions can be either investigative, researchable, or outside the realm of science. Non-investigative questions can be turned into investigative ones.

Observe the Ice Balloons Take the next 20 minutes to carefully observe your ice balloons. Talk with each other and come up with as many questions as you can about what you are seeing and wondering. There are no “wrong” questions, so please don’t censor or edit the ideas that come to you. Have a recorder write down questions on index cards– one question per card.

Investigate Scan over the materials I have at the table. Pick one of your questions that could be investigated with the materials I have available. (You might need to edit/adjust a question). You have 20 minutes to investigate– just enough time to get your feet wet, probably not enough time to finish. 5 minutes to share out

Let’s take 5 minutes for you to look through all the questions you came up with. Pick one to read aloud. What do you notice about the range of questions? What effect do you think time had on your questioning?

Question Sort Take 5 minutes to sort your questions into the following groups Investigable: can be investigated by doing something concrete with tools and materials, lead to directly action. Non-Investigable/Researchable: Need to look it up in a book Outside the Realm of Science

What criteria should be used to determine if questions are investigable? What materials do you have available? What amount of time do you have to dedicate to the investigation? Age Appropriate Leads to taking action

Select an investigable question and a non- investigable. Write them on the board. Are there anyone people believe are in the wrong category? Do you see in patterns or common things among each group of questions? What is about the way non-investigable questions are worded where you can stop before you get started? What are the ways investigable questions are worded?

Turning Questions Variables Scan Technique – Not perfect or fail-proof – Can help with the difficult “Why”s

Ex: Researchable but Noninvestigable: Why does ice melt so fast when you put it in water? What are the variables being looked at? – Ice (how it melts) – Water How can the variables be changed – Ice: Size, shape, how much it’s submerged – Water: amount, temperature, something other than water, adding salt/sugar Create new questions by picking one of the variables to focus on – What happens when I change the shape of ice? – What happens if I put the ice in salt water?

More Practice Why does the ice always float with the same side up? Why does salt melt ice?

Try some of your own Do a variables scan Identify what you can vary and how you might vary it Turn your question Pick one and post it

Connecting to the Classroom Based on your experiences in this workshop, what are some ideas you have about questioning? What are some ways you can help your students become more effective questioners?

Strategies for Improving Students Questioning Skills Model – be a questioner yourself Opportunity – It takes time to ask questions or investigate then come up with questions Listen – tap into student interest, make sure that you call them out on questions you may have heard in a conversation Novelty – students find it interesting Misconceptions – address them or challenge them with questioning, provide scenarios to disprove the misconception Find out the source of the misconception and keep asking them without giving them the answers Mystery – pictures or microscopic looks at objects and use deductive reasoning to determine what the object is Wait time Collaboration – Pair/share Questioning Guidelines or Norms so that they feel safe What else do you want to know about ________? Journaling-students can jot their questions down before sharing – gives those with processing issues time to process I don’t know but I would like to know - Eric Jensen

Take-Home Messages Interesting phenomena can stimulate a rich variety of questions. Questions can drive the investigative process. Questions can be either investigative, researchable, or outside the realm of science. Non-investigative questions can be turned into investigative ones.