MAIS K-6 SCIENCE INQUIRY, INVESTIGATION, AND DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

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MAIS K-6 SCIENCE INQUIRY,INVESTIGATION, AND
DESIGN TECHNOLOGY
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A Scientists View of Inquiry

• The scientific methodis
• nothing more than doing
• ones damnedest with
• ones mind, no holds
• barred.
• P. W. Bridgman, Reflections of Physicist (1955)

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A Philosophers View of Inquiry

• By doubting, we come to inquiry, and by
• inquiry we arrive at truth.
• Peter Abelard (1100s)

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An Authors View of Inquiry

• The real purpose of scientific method is
• to make sure Nature hasnt misled you
• into thinking you know something
• you dont actually know.
• Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
  Maintenance(1974)

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A 4th Grade MAIS Students View of Inquiry

• I like learning to discover
• all the things I thought I
• could never discover.
• MAIS 4th Grader

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The Project MAIS K-6 Science Inquiry is about
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Our primary goal is

• PREPARING MAIS K-6 TEACHERS TO
• ENABLE THEIR STUDENTS TO USE
• INQUIRY
• INVESTIGATION
• DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

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The project follows the science standards of
Project AERO and the National Science Education
Standards
??
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Representatives of 25 schools in 8 MAIS countries
areparticipating in MAIS K-6Science Inquiry
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MAIS teachers and administrators participate in
model science inquiry experiences they can use in
their own classrooms. For example

• Teachers investigate a simple electrical
• circuit using a flashlight cell, a bulb, and
• wires.

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Sarah, an elementary school principal from Las
Palmas, shows off her newly-found electrical
skills.
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Instructor Ken Mechling demonstrates the
construction of a series circuit and has
participants infer its parts, operation, and
electrical flow.
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Teachers investigate chromatography and
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share their designs, describing the flow of
molecules.
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Teachers investigate vibration, pitch, and
amplitude with soda straw kazoos.
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They use special glasses to investigate the
spectra from various light sources.
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Teachers experience various scents in odor
vials, investigating smell and relating their
discoveries to animals, including humans.
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They use hand-held microscopes to investigate
worlds too small to be seen by the naked eye.
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Teachers construct seed-germination chambers to
investigate variables affecting seed growth and
plant development.
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They use magnifying lenses to investigate factors
affecting the behavior of Isopods, also called
rolypolies, sowbugs, or pillbugs.
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Participants use the methods of inquiry to
investigate, design and test objects that
magnetism does or does not pass through.
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They construct boxes containing mystery objects
and challenge their colleagues to infer the
boxes contentswithout using the sense of sight.
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Participants design experiments to measure their
own reaction times.
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Instructor Amy begins a design technology
activity by reading partway through the book,
Little Lumpty to the point where the main
character, Little Lumpty, an egg, is perched on a
high wall and is about to jump.
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With 8 sheets of paper and 25 cm of tape, teams
design and construct egg-catchers to keepraw
eggs from breaking whendropped from increasing
heights.
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Then they test their designs and consider
redesigns.
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With the egg drops completed, Amy finishes
reading Little Lumpty and the teams discuss how
they could redesign their egg catchers to make
them more effective. Building an egg catcher and
reading Little Lumpty combines science and
technology with childrens literature.
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Teachers are also provided with Lesson Plans as
Guides for their own classroom lessons. Here is
one for investigating owl pellets
OVERVIEW Students investigate the contents of
owl pellets, identify numbers and species of
animals found, and construct a food web with the
owl at the highest trophic level.BOOKLINK Welco
me to the World of Owls by Diane Swanson,
Whitecap Books, Vancouver/Toronto, Canada, 1997.
ISBN 0-937934-32-1SCIENCE ACTIVITY
LINK Children "dissect" an owl pellet, identify
the number and species of animals found, describe
the characteristics of owls, and construct a food
web with a barn owl as the top carnivore.OBJECTI
VE Students investigate an owl pellet, identify
its contents, research and describe the
characteristics of owls, and construct a food web
with a barn owl at the highest trophic level.
SCIENCE PROCESSES AND CONTENT Processes-Observi
ng, inferring, measuring, communicating,
predicting, investigating, gathering and
analyzing data, and constructing models.
Content-Skeletal anatomy of animals found in
pellets anatomy, physiology, and habits of the
barn owl energy flow in an ecosystem--food
chains and food webs.
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Another is on analyzing rocks and minerals
OVERVIEW Students observe and record the
properties of selected rocks and minerals. Using
reference resources, the students identify the
specimens, distinguish between rocks and
minerals, and classify the rocks as igneous,
metamorphic, or sedimentary.BOOKLINK Everybody
Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor, Aladdin Paperbacks,
NY, 1974. ISBN 0-684-71051-8SCIENCE ACTIVITY
LINK Students work in groups of two or three to
observe rocks and minerals, use reference
resources to identify them, distinguish between
rocks and minerals, and identify the three kinds
of rocks.OBJECTIVE Students will observe,
identify, and classify rocks and
minerals.SCIENCE PROCESSES AND
CONTENT Processes-Observing, communicating,
classifying, predicting, inferring, and gathering
and recording data. Content-Systems and
subsystems, origins and composition of rocks and
minerals, and Earth processes including
vulcanism, mountain building, and erosion and
sedimentation.
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Still another is on designing and testing rolling
objects
QUICKPLANROLLIN', ROLLIN', ROLLIN'(QuickPlan
developed by Dr. Ken Mechling, Clarion,
Pennsylvania)
OVERVIEW Children construct rolling objects from
paper or plastic cups of varying sizes to
determine how far they roll, test the rolling
distances on different surfaces, and investigate
the effects of added weights in the cups to the
distances rolled.OBJECTIVE Children will use
and describe processes of science and design
technology to build and test simple wheel and
axle devices made of disposable cups.SCIENCE
PROCESSES AND CONTENT Processes-observing,
predicting, measuring, communicating, formulating
hypotheses, experimenting, recognizing variables,
interpreting data, and formulating models.
Content-design-redesign technology, properties of
objects, position and motion of objects, simple
machines, gravity, momentum, friction, and
potential and kinetic energy.NATIONAL SCIENCE
EDUCATION STANDARDS Unifying concepts and
processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (2) Physical
Science, (5) Science and TechnologyMATERIALS
Assorted paper, plastic, and/or Styrafoam cups of
varying sizes as wheels, masking tape, measuring
tapes or metersticks, materials for an incline,
e.g. large books, boards, cardboard, etc.
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Parents get into the act too!These parents are
investigating sound cups at the American
International School of Egypt.Nine MAIS schools
had two-to-three day on-site visits this year.
Many involved parents in after-school science
programs.
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As a part of every program,participating MAIS
directors, principals, and teachers develop
school action plans to improve science in their
schools.
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MAIS K-6 Science Inquiry also includes a website.

• http//www.maisk-6scienceinquiry.org/ 
• for MAIS, international schools worldwide, and
• others. The site averages 3,000 hits per month.

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What do kids learn?They learn inquiry processes
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They learn science concepts relating to
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They learn
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Is the project working?Early indicators of
success are

• Increased science in schools and
• classrooms.
• Increased hands-on, minds-on science
• experiences.
• Increased use of inquiry, investigation, and
• design technology by MAIS students.
• Positive attitudes toward science by
• directors, principals, teachers, children,
  and
• parents.
• Increased school leadership for science.

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Teachers and administrators say this about the
project

• Excellent program!
• Outstanding real science investigations!
• I like it because my kids are learning to do
  their own critical thinking and problem solving.
• The program you did for us had application to
  real life teaching.
• I love science nowand my kids do too!

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MAIS children sayin their own wordsand spelling

• You can learn a lot from experiments because you
  can see for yourself what happens6th Grader
• In science what I like to do best is
  expirements! 2nd Grader
• Science is...figyoring theings oat. 1st Grader

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W. B. Yeats has said, Educating is not the
filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.
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MAIS K-6 Science Inquiry is lighting firesamong
MAIS teachers and students.
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Thanks, OSAC, for your support and leadership!