FASTLY - Faith & Science Teaching

Lab Groups and Patterns

In Brief

Forming lab groups that work together for an extended period of time can help build community within a science class and also provide a context within which to focus on the virtues that sustain relationships. Teaching FASTly leads us to focus not only on the content of science, but on the virtues developed as we engage in science with others. This activity offers a way to form initial lab groups that will help students see the way they relate to others as part of science learning. 

Goals

Students will begin to reflect on the virtues needed to collaborate well in the science classroom.

Students will articulate goals and desired virtues for their lab groups.

Thinking Ahead

A science classroom is not a church, yet the Christian calling to live together with others in ways that demonstrate Christlike character applies in science classrooms too. Consider how to give more than lip service to the virtues that help us relate well to one another in science learning. A focus on building community will be learned most effectively if it is not just a stated value at the beginning, but is followed through in assigned work that is genuinely collaborative in nature and in a continued, formative focus on how students collaborate with, and respect one another, as the semester progresses.

In another words, it will be necessary to develop classroom practices that genuinely focus on community and to engage students in both action and reflection related to living well in community. It is helpful to keep students in the same lab group for a long enough period that they get to know each other and build strong relationships.

Related Book Review: Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society by Bruno Latour.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• Note cards with words on them, one per student. A master copy for printing the cards is found in Lab Groups and Patterns.

• A copy for each student of Virtues List.

Teaching the Activity

As students enter class, give each one a card from Lab Groups and Patterns with a word printed on it (see below) and allow them to sit wherever they choose. On the back of the card, have them write: (1) their name, (2) one thing they consider themselves to be an expert at, (3) one thing they still struggle with, and (4) one thing they consider an important value or virtue for working together in the science classroom. It may help to display or give students a list of values/virtues to choose from. A sample list and explanation is provided in Virtues List. If there is different information that you wish to gather about your students, you could have them include that as well. Having students write on the card prevents them from swapping later on when they are getting in groups.

Without revealing the categories, tell students to find three people to form groups of four based on the words that were printed on their cards when they received them. For a smaller class omit some categories. As students try to find their groups, they will discover they need to ask questions to clarify what categories a word belongs to. For example, “Is Mercury a planet, a car, or an element?” Initial groups may need to re-form as more groups fall into place.

Sometimes when the class gets stuck, one or two students emerge to take leadership roles and start writing groupings on the board or laying all the cards out so that they can all be seen at once. Let the students figure things out on their own with as little interference as possible. The goal is to create an initial experience of collaborative investigation.

Possible Groupings (there are other equally correct groupings since some cards can go in multiple categories):

• Presidents: Lincoln, Bush, Washington, Clinton
• Disney Characters: Minnie, Mickey, Pluto, Donald
• Cities: New York, Cadillac, Charlotte, Austin
• Elements: Mercury, Oxygen, Cobalt, Neon
• Planets: Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter
• States: Florida, California, Texas, Iowa
• Cars: Ford, Honda, Dodge, Volvo
• Names: Grant, Dallas, Lily, Brooklyn
• Virtues: Charity, Courage, Hope, Justice

Once groups have been established and everyone is sitting back down, discuss the following ideas and how they relate to the scientific learning community of your classroom. You may wish to display a possible solution, such as the one above and compare it to what emerged, to make clear that there are multiple possibilities.

• Like this exercise, many scientific questions have more than one right answer or more than one pattern that could fit the data.
• To arrive at a final solution everyone’s data was needed, this was not a task to solve alone. Science is often like that.
• Finding a pattern does not necessarily mean having found the answer. One or two data points do not make a pattern, and an initial pattern might not fit all the data later. Even after we have an initial pattern, we keep investigating.
• The answer evolves over time as more data comes into view and different patterns are tried. Again, science works like this.
• Very often human feelings can become involved in investigation as we become attached to an initial pattern and don’t want to dissolve it or feel as if our piece of the data is not being taken seriously in the whole.
• How are virtues such as humility, courage, and kindness relevant here? Humility is involved in being willing to reconsider a position already taken. Leaving the security of a provisional solution for renewed inquiry requires courage. Kindness can create a context in which risks are more easily taken.
• How did the way the group worked help or hinder arriving at a solution that everyone is happy with? Communication, attentiveness to others, sharing information, and listening well are all important. Treating each person’s information as important was part of arriving at a solution.
• Is arriving at a solution all that matters or does it matter how we worked together to reach it? How might the way we interacted make it easier or harder to work successfully together on future problems?

Finally, ask students to read over the explanation of virtues in the Virtues List. Discuss briefly how, even though the classroom is not a church, the virtues that underpin Christian community are relevant there. Tell students that they will continue to work in these groups in the coming weeks. Have students share the virtue they included on the back of their card with the rest of their group. Give each group a large note card and have each group decorate the card with their team name and three or four key words that describe the core goals or values of the group that will inform how they work together.

As students work, walk around and collect each student’s card so that you can get to know her or him better through the information on the back. Make time as the semester proceeds to return to these for brief group self-evaluations based on the stated values – has any growth taken place? While the groups will stay the same for several weeks, the teacher can change where each group sits by placing the group name note cards at various tables each day before class starts.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License adapted from https://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/subversive-lab-grouping-game/.

Brainstorming

In Brief

The following brainstorming activity requires students to think deeply about a topic or concept, rather than just skimming the surface, as a preparation for delving into a topic area. It also uses a form of collaborative practice that focuses on building upon others’ ideas and encouraging each other to think less superficially.

Goals

Students will collaboratively review their knowledge of key science concepts.

Students will reflect on the connection between virtues, collaboration, and community.

Thinking Ahead

It is very helpful to student learning to have students make explicit what they already think and know before you teach new information. Making existing knowledge and assumptions conscious increases the likelihood of new learning. Many brief brainstorming activities surface only the most obvious ideas and are easily dominated by one or two voices.

This activity engages students in digging deeper and also focuses attention on how we can encourage each other to think harder. It also connects science with relational virtues as it focuses on collaboration. This allows explicit discussion about community, particularly how this activity itself required students to work together within their own group to add to the ideas and knowledge of other groups.

A science classroom is not a church, yet the Christian calling to live together with others in ways that demonstrate Christlike character applies in science classrooms too. Consider how to make this connection clear to students without seeming self-righteous. Teaching FASTly pushes us toward being clear about the values and virtues that frame what we do in science education.

Related Book Review: After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters by N.T. Wright.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• One concept sheet per group

Directions:

Prepare the concept sheets (see examples below), one per group. Identify the key questions and concepts involved in a topic/chapter that you are about to teach and make a sheet for each concept. The sheet will have the concept sentence printed at the top and the rest of the sheet should be left blank for student notes. Avoid listing individual facts or pieces of information, but look for the underlying ideas.

For example, a unit on motion/kinematics could begin with the following concept sheets using a sheet for each concept:

• What are the similarities and differences between speed and velocity?
• What does it mean to accelerate? What are some examples?
• What does the term projectile motion refer to? What are some examples?
• What prior knowledge do you have about falling objects?
• What does the term force of gravity mean? How does it compare for individual objects?
• How do Distance vs. Time and Speed vs. Time graphs represent an object’s motion?

A unit on light, sound, and waves could begin with the following concept sheets:

• What types of waves have you heard of before?
• What do you know about sound waves?
• What do you know about light waves?
• What prior knowledge do you have about the Electromagnetic Spectrum?
• What is meant by the term harmonics? How does it relate to sound and waves?
• What properties of waves are you aware of?

Make one question sheet that is not unit specific, but rather addresses the idea of virtues that sustain relationships in science. For example, “How is respect for others related to the practice of science?” If you did not use Activity 1: Lab Groups and Patterns, give students a copy of the Virtues List to support this part of the activity.

Write each concept clearly and succinctly at the top of a sheet of paper. Match the total number of concepts/questions to the number of student groups who will be involved in the activity. If you have more groups than concepts, create more than one sheet for each concept until you have enough. If you only need to duplicate some concepts, choose the more central ones. It can be very helpful for keeping track of this exercise to use a different colored sheet of paper for each different concept.

Teaching the Activity

Tell students that they are going to work collaboratively and will be reflecting both on key science concepts and on the way we interact. Have students work in groups of no more than four. Give each group one of the concept sheets. Ask them to brainstorm together and write down everything they already know about the concept or question on the sheet.

Allow three to five minutes for brainstorming, then take each group’s sheet and give it to the next group moving clockwise around the classroom, so that each group has another group’s sheet. If you have duplicate sheets with the same concept, make sure they are distributed in such a way that groups will rotate through each different sheet as the sheets progress around the room.

Each group must now read what the previous group wrote on the sheet they just received and add at least one or two ideas that have not already been mentioned.

Repeat the previous two steps so that the sheets continue to rotate around the room at intervals. Repeat until every group has seen every sheet or until every group has worked on several ideas. With each rotation the task becomes more challenging since the obvious ideas have already been noted. After two or more rotations you will need to increase the brainstorming time slightly to allow for reading what has already been written.

Collect the sheets at the close of the activity. They can be saved to refer back to throughout the chapter, at the end of the chapter, or posted on the wall for everyone to see. You can also use them to gain an understanding of what your students already know and what they did not think to mention, in order to inform your own planning.

Finally, discuss briefly with the class what was gained by having them try to build on another group’s thinking rather than simply brainstorming for a longer time in their own group. Note how it can force harder thinking and prevent circling around the group’s own favorite ideas. Make the connection to how scientific inquiry involves building upon and extending other people’s work. Help students see how community can support inquiry. Discuss briefly how some of the virtues on the Virtues List can support collaboration. Connect to the idea of community and how we can strengthen each other’s contribution by sharing information and by building on and improving each other’s ideas.

This activity could also be used in a similar way at the end of work on this topic as a means of review.