Keystone Science Network Spring Colloquium 2002

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Keystone Colloquium, May 9, 2002
Practical Strategies for Launching and Supporting Inquiry

Participants took this opportunity to explore useful strategies and resources for enhancing science teaching and learning through inquiry, whether they were using a kit-based program or not. They explored what it means to create an inquiry environment, questioned strategies for inquiry and developed explanations from evidence, and considered video case studies and internet resources.

Susan has distributed the materials to create varying sounds using taut string and weights, and everyone begins to sort out what they have to work with.

It's not easy with such tough cups, but the teachers successfully poke holes in their cup as part of the listening device of their experimental materials. Susan lets everyone know that, in the future, the investigation would work just as well with flimsier cups.

Jason puts his ear to the cup as Terri plucks the string.

Molly assists a group in figuring out how to attach the string to the top of the bottle of water in order to use it as an effective weight.

Experimenting with a set-up.

Everyone takes an active role in the investigation.

One team decides to measure the length of the string that they're using so they can quantify and describe their findings more accurately.

Taking notes before moving on to the next step.

These two set-ups feature different lengths of taut string. What effect will it have on the sound produced?

Some early results noted down. This group seems to have found a relationship between the length of string and the quality of pitch.

There's more to come.

The Franklin Institute gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the National Science Foundation and Unisys Corporation.

The Franklin Institute is the Demonstration Site for the Eisenhower Mid-Atlantic Consortium, providing science and math resources for teachers.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9819641.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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