I have been working with the Grade 8 and 9's on critical thinking. I have taken along a science activity / experiment and the students have to draw a picture of what has happened or what they thought was happening and write underneath as many reasons why First experiment, thank you Warren Bruce, was a floating and sinking exercise. Ordinary coke or sprite sinks in a bucket of water, where as the diet version of the same drink floats. Now this could be for a whole lot of other reasons apart from the fact that the regular drink has 7 teaspoons of sugar in it. These students really are not used to thinking or exercising the mind. They have come up through a system that is based around the transmission model of learning. Followed by tell me what to learn and I'll regurgitate it back. I grabbed a couple of pics of the girls actually checking out the ingredients of the cans......... Thats a start, at least they are problem solving for solutions.
2 comments:
You must feel somewhat exasperated at times with the initial lack of response.
Well, maybe they'll come up with the reasoning that if the diet ones float then they weigh less therefore they must be more slimming?!
Maybe the floaters have more air in the can, or maybe one weighs more than the other so it tips the balance just below floating, or maybe water favours the rights of one sort over the other. In order to have an opinion the girls would need to have some sort of science thinking and a range of previous experiences to draw on.
So girls drink 10 of one sort then 10 of the other and consider the effects. Floating? "Don't care," they say.
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