This activity is a class lab activity in which students will observe unknown rocks and learn about how they fit into the rock cycle.
This activity is a guided inquiry on surface tension where students design their own lab experiment based on a focus question, make predictions, collect data and compare the outcome with their predictions.
Computer technology is used by the research teams of 3-4 students to search for background information for the guided inquiry, organize this information into a concept map, complete an electronic template (the TLNB: Team Lab Notebook), and analyze data with Microsoft Excel. A computer projection system is used to present their findings to the other teams. This format can be adapted to do open and guided inquiry laboratories in biology for both the major and non-major student. In addition it can be used to introduce the students to science journal writing for a class electronic journal. An entire course and laboratory manual was developed using this approach with funds from NSF Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement grant DUE # 9950373.
The purpose of this activity is to discover why an instrument shelter is built the way it is. Students construct shelters that have varying properties and place them in the same location or place similar shelters in different locations and compare temperature data taken in each shelter. Students should predict what will happen for each of the different shelter designs or placements and perform the steps of student research. Intended outcomes are that students gain an understanding of GLOBE specifications for the instrument shelter and perform a guided inquiry project.
