High School Level Science:
Two different science lab classes participated in the activity. One class had 8 students in it and the other class had 9. For both groups there was a general class discussion centering around the idea that cooling rate influences crystal size in rocks and minerals. Students were then told that they would do an activity to determine if what we had talked about in theory actually occurred. One class of students was given a step by step set of instructions for the lab. Another class of students was given a more open ended set of instructions. They were told what materials they were allowed to use, told the general purpose of the activity, and then asked to design the procedure themselves. This approach was used to determine if having students critically think about the design and purpose of an experiment would allow them to better understand the concepts of the activity.
There seemed to be no real difference in the quality of the responses of the two groups. Both groups seemed to understand the general concept that as cooling rate increases, crystal size decreases. Both groups also had difficulty completing the lab without teacher input, although the group with the more open ended lab had significantly more problems completing the lab than the other group. Students in the open ended group seemed unable to critically think about what it was that they were to find out and design an activity that would allow them to answer the question. They seemed to need or want guidance in the set up and completion of the lab. They frequently needed reassurance that they were proceeding correctly or were doing things right. Although the group which followed the written instructions displayed some of the same insecurities, it was not to the extent or degree of the more open ended lab.
There were no significant differences in the two groups responses to the five analysis questions. The major difference between the two groups was their ability to carry out the experiment. This could be due to the fact that this was one of the first times this year that students have been asked to devise their own experiment. Previous activities have always involved a written set of procedures which were explained in advance by the teacher. More exposure to designing and implementing experiments is needed for students at this level.
Middle Level Science:
At the conclusion of my lesson, students were asked to complete a questionnaire that included questions based on observations and questions based on inferences. Based on my assessments those that completed the procedural lesson scored an average of 72.3% as compared to those that completed the lesson designed for critical thinking scored 77.7%. Each group that participated in the study were fairly equal in terms of ability. Ironically, the students that were following the procedural lesson struggled more with the steps of the activity than those that completed the open-ended activity.
Middle Level Math:
All Math 8 classes participated in the slope activity. The first part of the activity was done individually by each student. The portion of the activity asked the students to make 2 - 3 observations of 3 graphs of parallel lines and 3 graphs of perpendicular lines. The second portion of the activity involved plotting two sets of points on a coordinate axis, finding the slope, y-intercept, and writing the equation of each of the lines. The two lines on each of the graphs were grouped by parallel lines and perpendicular lines. The students were then asked to examine each set of lines and make 2 - 3 conclusions about these sets of lines.
I compared the conclusions the students made about the sets of lines that were grouped by parallel lines or perpendicular lines, the slopes of the lines, and the equations of the lines. I found that number of correct conclusions made by students in the class that "exercised" their brain by working on critical thinking problems each school day for 2 weeks did not vary from any of the other classes.
Each class struggled with critically thinking about the similarities/differences of the graphs, slopes and equations. Many of their conclusions were actually observations of the graphs. A few students were able to take the observations about the sets of graphs. Then, with use of their prior knowledge of slopes and equations, these students were able to make logical/correct conclusions about parallel and perpendicular lines.
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