Inquiry Based Learning
How do we best give up control for students to inquire but still manage their safety and learning?
This week we made yogurt in my intro class which went well in the fact that they enjoyed making and tasting, however, going forward I want to think about how can I better set up labs to make them more meaningful. In an ideal world, this lesson was supposed to be 3 days but due to a snowday it became 2 lessons with no day for provide context or background so the first day we had to help students moving to get the yogurt ready to set and the second day was taste test along with a few conclusion question but with having students at all different paces there was no real wrap up so how do I make that meaningful? I do plan to go back next week and review what happened, but what tips are there to have student inquire without background but still help them get the content you intend?
In my animal science class we did the tracking the spread lesson which the students enjoyed and it went extremely well. I enjoyed teaching it, especially after seeing it in the past. I was able to have students think independently and discuss well as a class. I hope to do more of these meaningful and funny experiences for my future students.
Time flies and week 9 is complete!
My advice is to make sure you have "extra" days built in for these experiences as you are correct that there are always "interruptions" to the scheduling. Just keep in mind what your objectives are for any lesson/lab, and then meet them the best you can with whatever the particular situations entails.
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