Anticipation Set: Imagine you are in the grocery store buying ingredients to make a special dinner for your parents, best friends, or yourself. As you stroll up each aisle, you are faced with a lot of cans, cartons, boxes, and food sections that are visually over-stimulating. You clutch your grocery list and reach for your first can of tomatoes before moving on to grab a bag of pasta. As you maneuver through the grocery store filling your basket with food products, you are identifying and applying science skills as you shop. Keep reading to see how a shopping trip can turn into a most delicious science experiment in cooking if you know how to identify and apply your science skills.
Learning Objectives: Being able to apply real life applications and experiences to the acquisition and usage of science skills is a daily practice for each of us. In this lesson, you will understand how the science skills of classification, hypothesizing, organization and recording data, analysis of collected data and conclusion are used whether you're buying groceries for a special dinner or engaging in an actual experiment in the school lab.
Lesson Activity: On each lab table, you have five note cards (one for each student) and five items: glass flask, stirrer, baking soda, vinegar and a beaker of ice cubes. Teachers should tell students that they must also wear safety glasses during this activity and use the insulated gloves when working with any mixtures of substances. Now, let's get started.
- On each card, write the following words (one word/card): Classification, Hypothesis, Recording and Organization of Data, Analysis and Conclusion. In your lab groups write a definition for each word using your science book. Take about five minutes for this part of the activity.
- Each group must work collaborative to answer the following questions and complete the required activities below in #s 3-7 for each card and the word it contains.
- Classification: "How would you classify the items on your table? Why?
- Hypothesis: Design a mini-experiment using the items on the table. "What would the problem be?" "What do you think will occur if you mix certain substances (i.e. mixing baking soda with vinegar)?”Why?" "What would your 'if and then" statement be for your mini-experiment? (I.e. If I mix a small amount of baking soda with 2 ml of vinegar, then a reaction will occur).
- Recording and Organization of Data: "What type of data would you collect for your mini-experiment?" "How would you organize that data? (show tables or columns)
- Analysis: Given the data that you would collect in #5, "How would you analyze the data for patterns?" "Would your data support your hypothesis?" "Why or why not?"
- Conclusion: "Did your experimental design support your hypothesis and generate the expected data?" "What is your conclusion for your mini-experiment?"
Conclusion: Before students can engage in actual experiments in the lab, they must simulate and apply real-life science application skills identified in the science lesson activity. By having a mini-experiment that will produce a small bang for students who like action and visuals in a science lab, teachers can show students the importance of science skill identification and application before the semester of lab instruction practicum’s begin. Students will come to science class ready to engage and understanding how cooking can be a true science.
Essay: Authentic Author Content
