Updates for Inquiry and Brain and behavior Fall 2009

Hello all!  I am going to update you on the progress of how I used Brain and behavior and the Inquiry institutes in my classroom.  We started the year with Inquiry and learning about boxes within boxes.  My students were able to play and explore using their own senses and try to make sense of what they were trying to make sense of, the science curriculum.  I am going to upload pictures which help explain what we did! 

   I am having a hard time uploading the pictures but  the students did a series of three experiments and investigations using their senses and recording how they figured out what the unknown substances were.  They used their own procedure in which the group developed.  They described the substances using their 4 senses, they could not taste to describe 3 white powders of their choice.  They had to describe them and within the group decide what they were and give  a reason for their choice.  The substances were cornstarch, powdered sugar, vanilla creamer, and baking soda.   The follow up included a discussion on how they came up with their choices and which senses were the best to help them describe the unknown substances.  In the next lab, we  worked on how to use a microscope.  I wanted the students to learn how to use a compound microscope and review the plant and animal cell.  They set up an experiment to describe the parts of a cell and then another group had to follow their instructions to see if they came to the same conclusions following their instructions.  The third thing we did was to make an advertisement to help us go green in our school.  They developed the commercial and we posted it on the web.  In the next few weeks we plan to make plant centers and follow how NASA uses plants in space.