Key points:
Earlier this year, I was teaching science to a group of rising 9th grade students involved in a summer learning program. Despite not having access to a dedicated lab space, it was important my students had the opportunity to engage in hands-on, tech-enabled, and real-world learning.
All the boxes needed to be checked–the investigations needed to be:
- Hands-on
- Related to students’ lived experience
- Quantitative, ideally with a dependent variable that could be measured
- Entry level as the students in the program had hugely varying levels of experience and exposure
- Low-hazard for students as well as the room, which was carpeted and did not provide access to sinks or running water
- Doable without chemical glassware
The hands-on component was especially important as this type of learning connects students with the process of science–in particular, it allows them to practice making observations and to identify possible patterns, or the lack thereof.
Whether in a decked-out lab space or a more traditional classroom setting, such as where I taught this summer, below are three tips for fellow educators looking to incorporate more hands-on learning into their STEM instruction.
Start simple. It doesn’t have to take a lot of expensive supplies to engage students in hands-on learning–just start with a thermometer or, better yet, a temperature probe!
For the summer program, I created an experiment in which students got to test out different types of road salts. I used AquaDoc IceMelt, which is mostly calcium chloride, and KindMelt, which is mostly magnesium chloride and sodium chloride. Both are readily available on Amazon.
I then gathered a set of Vernier Go Direct Temperature Probes from the school where I teach during the school year and ordered small water bottles that students could use as reaction containers. The summer program provided Chromebooks for the students to use. These were perfectly suited to run the Vernier Graphical Analysis App, which my students used to help analyze their data findings.
Give students agency. In my experience, even reluctant students become interested in setting up a science experiment when they have some level of agency over what they will be testing.
After a brief introduction, my students determined their constant variable–for most of them it was the amount of water used in each trial–and their dependent and independent variables.
Because all my students are from the Northeast, they were already familiar with road salts–their parents or guardians spread it on sidewalks, driveways, and apartment steps during wintery weather. What they did not realize is why those salts are so effective in melting ice and snow.
The moment they discovered calcium chloride and magnesium chloride cause a dramatic rise in temperature when added to water, they were surprised and excited. Even more so when they realized sodium chloride seems to result in a small, but noticeable, lowering of the temperature.
During the experiment, students had the opportunity to record the maximum or minimum temperature for each trial using the temperature probes, and then use the Graphical Analysis app to create graphs to analyze their results. The use of probeware helped students quantify their observations–while students can feel the temperature changes from just holding the containers in their hands, the use of data-collection technology provided the measurable data they needed to understand the relationship between the amount of salt added and the temperature change.
Invite questions to drive the next steps in learning. Authentic,hands-on experiments, like this one, will often generate questions from students. And, when students realize their questions are taken seriously and that they are invited to create testable questions, they will become more engaged in the learning process.
I have often found the moment I give students a sensor and appropriate guidance to explore, they start asking more and more questions. In this instance, “What if we mix the two different ice melts?”, “How high can the temperature go?”, and “Can we melt the plastic bottle if we add enough salt?” all came up.
If circumstances allow, giving students the time to test some of the more entertaining questions can further their learning. In this experiment, for example, one water bottle lost its shape due to the heat generated when a group of students added tablespoons of AquaDoc to the small water sample. This prompted students to ask, “Why does one salt make the water so much warmer than the other one?,” which aligns well with the Next Generation Science Standard focused on matter and its interactions.
After additional testing and discussion, students researched the environmental pros and cons of different types of road salt and made an informed evaluation as to which one to recommend. This further engaged them with engineering and environmental standards.
Authentic, hands-on learning and data collection such as this creates the infrastructure for students to wonder and think about their results critically, as well as connect their findings to the world around them. In my experience, this level of STEM engagement is really hard to achieve with just textbooks and practice problems alone.
