Lab Trial #4: Inquiry Based Instruction

Question or Problem

How can Inquiry Based Instruction be used as a tool in the classroom?

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...engaging in IBI activities... researching IBI... hypothesizing that students will be independent learners as IBI is implemented...

Testing the experiment

The lesson I prepared was about determining pH levels in soil and how it affects plant appearance and growth. Using a Lab Aid kit, I had the students use the chemicals (called "Plant Nutrients", "Plant Mass", "Soil Aluminum", and "Agricultural Lime") and develop a hypothesis on what would happen to the chemicals when combined. They weren't given anything to test specifically for pH, rather, they were to determine what chemical provided would have an effect on the plant. It was supposed to change the color of the liquids depending on how much of each was added. I had them work in groups and design their own experiment.

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Analysis and results of data

Inquiry Based Instruction (IBI) is something that does not come easily to me. I am so conditioned to having specific procedures and knowing exactly how I'm going to be graded. I am not used to creating my own learning (if you can think of IBI like that) much less teach it. I was itching to help and teach rather than sit back and let the students take control.

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As much as I prepared and tried to plan for any confusion or gaps, I couldn't foresee the issues that would happen when I turned students loose after explaining what they were to do. I think part of the struggle with my lesson was trying to turn very explicit instructions with the Lab Aids kit into something that had zero directions. I practiced with the chemicals beforehand and tried several combinations based on what I thought my students would do. These combinations still produced pretty accurate results so I wasn't worried about them not getting it 100% in line with the procedures that came with the kit.

When I first introduced the lab, the students were expecting to use pH testing strips. It was then that I realized that my objective didn't match my goal for that lesson... not exactly. Yes, it was a pH lab, but this particular lab wasn't testing pH levels, it was comparing how agricultural lime raises the pH. The change in color was to show that the lime was bringing up the pH; making it more basic. This only created confusion, understandably, and they were struggling to create a hypothesis if they didn't know what exactly it was they were going to see when they tested it. 

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Based on the feedback I got, I think I did a pretty good job of staying cool, reworking their task, and getting them to test something. Once they started working with the chemicals they did start to notice how the chemicals changed the color. However both groups only tested one or two things instead of having multiple test trials. I think they might have been able to figure out the goal if they had tested more than one combination of the chemicals.  

Conclusion

I think I have the idea of Inquiry Based Instruction down and I have a picture of all that can be done with Inquiry. I think the biggest fear (not just mine alone) is trying to plan as much as possible beforehand and play out every possible scenario ahead of time, and then arrive at the lesson only to find out that students don't understand or you didn't consider that they would try testing x instead of y. 

I really liked the idea of the lab I did. I don't know if it was really meant to be an Inquiry lab, but I think there might be aspects of it that could be. I also think I needed to reform my objectives and goals of the lab. I will say that the rest of the lesson was going to go more specifically into pH where they would look at what they've found and compare the colors to charts which would reflect what pH results look like. So this lab was only a snippet of the whole lesson. I hope to get more practice and to observe teachers who use IBI, but for now I think I'm still trying to feel it out. I do hope I can one day get my students to start truly thinking critically and not being so dependent on myself as the teacher. I think that is something so valuable for them to learn.