Category: Inquiry Learning

Learning from our mistakes – September ’25 update

I am enjoying a beautiful fall day at my summer office on the deck. It’s been far too long since I posted an update or anything at Semper Sharkus.

I enjoy being outside and practicing being a scientist or being an ornithologist or simply being curious. A few years ago, I knew little about birds and birding. I ‘became’ birder during the summer of 2018 and my curiosity grew during the pandemic when I was at home more than I was at school. This past summer my daughter and wife gave me a hummingbird feeder that has a camera for Father’s Day and I have enjoyed it. I have other hummingbird feeders, as well as seed feeders within view of my ‘desk’  and it is very relaxing and peaceful to work outside on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

My last post was a year ago and it was about asking for help, which is a good message but I had a flashback to it this past week when I was teaching measurement, observation, and curiosity to this year’s classes.

We watched a video, called “Learn the Metric System in 5 Minutes” it is below….

When we were reviewing what they learned – their take aways I call “Noticings” and “Wonderings” – one of the “noticings” they shared was that the ancient Egyptians were the first civilization that used a standard system of measurement.

Egyptian civilization goes back seven millennia and they were the first according to the video.

I learned about ancient Egyptian culture when I was in sixth grade (fifty-two years ago) and the Egyptians are known for their significant contributions to our culture and today’s ideas about scientific thinking.

The assignment was to use a worksheet to practice their measurement skills. I gave each student a worksheet and a paper ruler which I had downloaded from the internet and printed for every student . The following day we were reviewing our findings and their answers. What we discovered was surprising – our answers didn’t match. They were off.

So, I asked them what did they think was the problem?

They weren’t sure, but a few suggested maybe they (the students) were making mistakes as they measured…. one student suggested we check to see if our paper rulers were accurate. So we did, and it turned out the paper rulers were an almost a centimeter shorter than the plastic and wooden rulers I have for the classroom. So I collected all of the paper rulers and recycled them. NOTE: Actually, I discovered this after I had given them the rulers, but before we went over the answers in class the following day.

I apologized to the classes for my mistake and asked them what the big takeaway was from my mistake of giving all of the students an inaccurate measuring device?

Many of their responses centered on learning from your mistakes, which is a good lesson to learn and put in practice. One student suggested I could have (and should have) checked to make sure that the paper ruler was accurate. Then yet another suggested we can’t trust the internet.

All of these are great lessons to learn, but the takeaway I wanted them to have  was that if the ancient Egyptians had not used a standard measurement system, could they have build pyramids which have lasted millennia? It was a why a standard measurement system was good.

It was at that moment, I could sense the shift in thinking and they could too.

More one student asked me if I did it on purpose to make my point. But it was a mistake, I make plenty. Sometimes I actually learn from them.

We’ve been busy in sixth grade science in our first six weeks. We’ve created science notebooks so all students can practice being scientists. They’ve learned scientists use a wide variety of skills including observation, inferencing, communication and record keeping skills, and above all being curious and full of wonder.

I have shared that science is the act of knowing and how we really learn science is by asking questions and making observation – noticing and wonderings.

Monday our students have a formative assessment over measurement – I expect students will do well and then we are on to gathering data, then using the data to create a graph. We’ll finish by publishing our findings using the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning format for scientific explanations.

The year is off to a great start. We have only just begun but I see sparks of curiosity and wonder every day and I am looking forward to seeing my students grow as young scientists.

Learning to think like a scientist. Once a shark, always a shark.

Periodic Table Day – 2024

February 7th is an important day in chemistry and science – it marks the publication of the first attempt at organizing the known elements. Two weeks ago our young scientists celebrated the day in science classes with activities related to the periodic table of elements. It was a fabulous day of learning.

On that February day in 1864, British chemist John Newlands published the first periodic table with elements organized by their increasing masses, five years later Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev created the framework which became the periodic table of elements which is familiar to many of us.

I remember high school and college chemistry and I wish I knew then what I know now about the periodic table of elements. Continue reading “Periodic Table Day – 2024”

History Newsletter – January ’18

Upstander – a person who recognizes injustice in society and works to end the injustice, also known as an activist.

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In 8th grade social studies we are wrapping up our unit of study on the American Civil War. Our focus question is:

Was the Civil War a choice or a consequence?

We began the unit by looking at nineteenth century reformers and reform movements – abolition, temperance, and women’s rights. We looked at 36 men and women who stood up against the prevailing attitudes of the day and did what was right. They were Upstanders. Each of the students was assigned a nineteenth century activist and asked to create ‘Today in History’ slide for their date of birth or death. It was an excellent way to expose the 8th graders to people from the past who made a difference.

Some of the people are well-known, others are not so well-known, but they made a difference by calling for and working for the end of slavery, or temperance, or women’s rights.

History is made by people who make a difference. It’s why we study history, so we can be inspired by their acts to make changes in our own time. When we visited the Naper Settlement in December, we learned that only 1% of the population in 1856 was actively working for abolition of slavery. Most people stood by and didn’t take a stand. Today, it seems obvious, however it wasn’t easy to be voice of change.

Even at 1%, we need Upstanders – they affect change and help move our country forward. And it’s not just our country, it’s our community, and our school.

We’ve finished the Upstanders and now we are looking the differences between the North and the South– economically, socially, and culturally. We’ll finish the unit by looking at the reasons for the Civil War and reading Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address which begins with

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Upstanders, we need them.

Our next unit is the Immigration unit and the Ellis Island simulation on February 9th. We are always seeking parent volunteers for Ellis Island Day and I’ll be sending out a request in a couple of weeks, so if you are interested, mark your calendar.

Until then remember Lincoln’s words,

The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future.

It’s important to study our past, but it’s more important for us to be engaged in our present.

History Newsletter – October ’17

What is inquiry?

You’ve probably heard that word in the past couple of weeks in relation to this year’s social studies class.

Inquiry in the social studies classroom begins with a compelling question – a question that doesn’t have a simple yes or no answer nor is the answer easily searchable with Google.

In our case the compelling question for our first inquiry of the year is:

Was the American Revolution avoidable?

Most 8th graders, and Americans, know the story of the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Revolution. The reason for war of ‘No taxation without representation.’ It’s what they’ve been taught since they’ve been in school. But the story behind the American Revolution is much more complex than a simple chronology of events.

Inquiry, is a shift in instruction – which means some of the responsibility for learning shifts from the teacher to the student encouraging students to be engaged and curious and wonder about they ‘why and how’ of social studies.

The question we want our students to grapple with was, was the conflict avoidable or not?

Most adults remember history class as having to remember dates, people, places, battles, and other events. Knowing this information is important, but it’s not about what teaching and learning history should be. In fact, in my years of teaching, I’ve learned it’s what turns most 13-14 years olds off in social studies. Some middle school students love history, but for many students, it’s a drudge.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a Party of the 29th Regt. Boston: Engrav’d Printed & Sold by Paul Revere, 1770. Fine Prints. Prints & Photographs Division.

Continue reading “History Newsletter – October ’17”