During the first day of the lesson, the class made it through the engage and explore phase. When we started off the lesson, students told me about the physical characteristics by answering questions I asked them. During this part, I did not ask students to explain their answers for the sake of time. One student told me the water was liquid as a physical characteristic, so I put that at the top of the column. This helped me lead the students to name the first column as solid and last column as gas. Based on these responses, I showed students the definitions of the three states of matter to be used as reasoning at the conclusion of the experiment. I asked students if they agreed with the definitions before we moved on. We then read the book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, and students took notes on words that describe the Oobleck, which I stopped at to point out. Students then decided if each word described a liquid, solid, or gas. They then logged into INTEL to make their predictions. I provided the sentence frame “I think Oobleck is a…” for them to finish typing into INTEL. The dragged words over to support/disprove their claims. Most students got creative and described Oobleck as something like a “liquidized solid.” When they write their final claim, I will have them pick either a solid or liquid to provide better evidence and a better-connected reasoning. I asked a few students to share their prediction with the class and I asked, “how do you know?” and they told me words from the text. I showed them how to use the data table and reviewed the safety rules for the lab. Students played with the Oobleck and I went around asking students, “what happens if you…?” to propose tests for them to complete. Next class time, we will complete the explain phase, including writing our explanation and reasoning.
Today started with a revisit of the explore phase. I reminded the students of the Oobleck experiment and told them to write down any more observations as possible. We then created a class data table of observations. Students told me things to put on the table, and I frequently said, “tell me more.” The student would then go into more detail and give me better information to share with the class. For example, Trenton told me that it was solid when he hit it. I said, “tell me more,” and he explained that when he punched the Oobleck it was hard and when he lightly touched his finger to the Oobleck it sank in. When students were running out of observations to share, I asked if any of them dropped the marble into the Oobleck. Three hands raised; one told me the marble sank immediately, one said it stayed on top, and one said it sank slowly. I used this as an opportunity to explain that we had several tests that had slightly different results. Once we got it all recorded, I told students to have at least five things recorded on their paper in each column. I then explained to the students that I understand most predictions said it was a “liquidized solid” or something similar. I explained what Oobleck is made of and how it displays properties of both a solid and a liquid. One of the students, James, told me that made sense because the corn starch is a solid and the water is a liquid. With that information, I told students I wanted them to pick whether Oobleck is a solid or liquid and I explained we would be supporting our claim with evidence. Students decided and wrote their claim on the line. We graphed the number of students that said each state of matter; 8 students picked solid and 13 picked liquid. I asked those that picked solid to raise their hands. I called on a student and asked for his evidence. Dylan told me “I picked solid because corn starch is a solid.” I redirected him by asking which thing in the data table proved that it was a solid. He then told me “poured slowly from hand to hand.” I said “if it pours, I would think more like a liquid.” Ayden said, “that’s what I was gonna say, ‘cause like syrup is a liquid.” Dylan then told me, “dries on hands” and I circled it. I explained that students that selected solid should also circle it on their own papers. I repeated the same “evidence” procedure with the liquid students. Ayden gave me the evidence of “poured slowly from hand to hand” and we returned to his comparison to syrup. He went on to explain that “not every liquid has to pour fast.” I explained that they should have at least three pieces of evidence circled on their data table. We then moved onto the explanation. I showed students the sentence frame, but explained they would get six choices to demonstrate their knowledge; graphic organizer, drawing, skit, rap, poem, or writing. They were allowed to work individually or with a partner. I asked what they needed to be successful, and Joseph helped remind the class they needed three pieces of evidence. I also reminded them to include the state of matter they selected to support. Students took eight minutes to prepare and I walked around the room helping students. At the end of the time, I refocused the students and we talked about scientific reasoning. I showed them the sentence frame, “this happened because…” and none of them knew how to finish it. I showed them the definitions of solid and liquid from the first day and explained how the definition was the reasoning. The students then recorded the reasoning on their paper after I repeated the instructions. This would have been best to do at the very end, but I was supposed to be out of the classroom to meet with my supervisor when I would normally include this in the lesson. The kids then began presenting their explanations. I tried to make sure each kid gave me their choice and three reasons. I had one kid only give me two reasons because he was absent the first day. Once presentations finished, I had the students complete my survey.