Anya Hennig BEDUC 421 3/14/12 Science Inquiry Project Reflection Paper

Connecting science to my students everyday lives begins with encouraging them to pursue a scientific question that is important or interesting to them. The purpose of this is so that they will want to see their experiment through to the end in order to answer their question, as well as help them to see that science can happen anywhere at any time and that they, too, can be scientists. As for me, I chose to study which bird species are the early risers in my neighborhood. I chose this topic after being intrigued by the various bird calls and songs that awoke me every morning on my trip to Australia a couple of months ago. This got me thinking about the birds in my neighborhood and if there are birds that naturally arise earlier than others. This led me to my prediction, which was that crows would be the earliest of risers because of their tendency towards aggressive behavior. I thought that this trait would affect when they would arise to scavenge for food. Stating the reason for the prediction is just as important as the prediction itself and I believe teaching students to add a statement about the reason for their prediction helps them to consider the deep thinking and motivations that are behind the science. It is also imperative that they know that predictions that do not come true are not considered bad, and that we can learn from assumptions just as much as our conclusions so as to make better predictions next time. As it was, my prediction came true, but I was also surprised to find that they were not the only early risers or when they actually arose each morning. The American Crows in my neighborhood called out for the first time exactly as twilight began each morning. However, they tied for 1 with the American Goldfinch (our state bird). These birds held the stage for exactly eleven minutes before they were joined by California Gulls passing through to the Puget Sound, and Varied Thrush and Marsh Wren nesting nearby in the wetland next door. The Stellar Jays called out with their mocking laughter them thirteen minutes later, from the evergreen trees surrounding my neighborhood. The last of the early risers before sunrise were the House Sparrows arising two minutes before dawn each morning. These birds could be heard from the eaves in the
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townhouses all around me. What surprised me was each bird species timing, and I think it is important that students know that they may be surprised by the outcome of their experiments, and that those unexpected discoveries can also be teachable moments that can further their thinking and help them in asking new questions and making new predictions about their topic. At this point, I think it is important to note that I needed to adjust my method of observation in regards to when I would record the bird songs and calls. Originally, I had proposed to record the birds ten minutes before dawn until ten minutes after dawn. However, after doing some research on when the sun rose each morning, I realized that there is a morning twilight that begins anywhere between 30-35 minutes before sunrise. Therefore, I decided that I would start my recordings at twilight and record until sunrise. I made this decision because I realized that I needed to define early riser, in order to proceed with my experiment. This brings me to the point of how important it is to teach my students the academic language of science, which includes the process language like scientific question or hypothesis, proposal, prediction, method, constant and manipulative variables, data, analysis, and conclusion. Furthermore, it also includes any terms that are key to a particular inquiry project. For instance, in my experiment I needed to determine what I meant by early riser and needed to set-up a cut-off time in which all other birds would be considered late risers. I ultimately decided that any bird that began their singing or calling in the minutes between twilight and sunrise would be considered early risers and that my cut-off time was exactly at sunrise. By making this decision and using the process academic language throughout my project to organize how my experiment would work, I felt more like a scientist and that I was thinking metacognitively about my project. And, I think that by teaching kids how to organize their thoughts about what they are curious about will help them to identify as scientists as well as encourage them to think more deeply about what they are doing in order to make discoveries. This critical thinking skill will be valuable and applicable in other areas of their life as well. In regards to how I would support my students academic language development in science, I think I would begin by verbally and visually model each term for them. I would also ask them to turn-andtalk with their lab partner about how they would define each term in their own words, and if there are any academic language that they do not understand or can foresee having to define in their own project. The

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cognitive aspect of getting the kids to think about what they will be doing and how they will be performing a science inquiry project is going to be essential in supporting students academic language development. My data collection method was flawed to some degree and this became a teaching moment for me. I had been audio recording the birds with my iPhone Voice Memo Recorder app, but did not take into account how the cold temperatures of the winter months here in the Pacific Northwest would impact the technologys performance. Therefore, during three of my recordings (Days 2, 4 and 5), my phone froze; although bird songs continued to record on Days 4 and 5, the device essentially crashed and these recordings did not convert into the proper file format to be played back either on the device or when downloaded to my computer. The device shows that those two days of bird songs and calls are recorded, but there is no way to access them with the software that I possess. Additionally, the device turned off completely during Day 2s recording and therefore, I was only able to capture 6 minutes and 18 seconds of bird calls before the device crashed due to the cold temperature. Furthermore, although I had anticipated vehicular noise due to the experiment location taking place next to the freeway, I did not anticipate that there would be a massive rainstorm on one of the days or that my neighbors would be outside moving about and making noise that early in the morning. Therefore, several of the days, additional noises in the vicinity (such as downpour of rain beating against the deck which the audio recorder was placed on, a generator, washing machine and what sounds like clanking silverware) can be heard over the birds. I think this experience will be important for me to share with my students to help them understand that sometimes our projects do not go smoothly and that mistakes will happen, but that we can reflect and learn from our mistakes and move forward with what we have and devise better plans for future experiments. After collecting my data over the course of four weeks, I was unsure of how to categorize, label and chart my data. I tried various ways to organize it, but nothing seemed to include all of my data something was always missing. Therefore, I asked several scientists what to do and we discussed my dilemma. They also came up with ideas that did not incorporate all of my necessary data. Therefore, we decided to stop and think about it for a few days. One of the scientists said that she would discuss the matter with her marine biologist husband. About a week later, we reconvened and brainstormed the matter again and ultimately came up with the way I charted my data for this project that can be seen on

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my project website (http://earlybirdgetstheworm.weebly.com). This was a collaborative effort between several scientists (both professional and non-professional). This cooperative experience reminded me that science is a social enterprise (Michaels, 2008). Scientists all over the world work together on a variety of topics that interest them. They bring their ideas and strengths and weaknesses to the team and work together to solve global problems. I could relate to this and I believe that my students will be able to relate to this social aspect of science as well. Therefore, I want to encourage them to work with others, whether it is with their lab partner, other students in the classroom, another classroom or school, or even professional scientists around the world. I want to participate and affiliate myself with a national or global science organization that can be resource for me to collaborate with others on teaching science and for my students to be able to work with others who are also interested in learning new things about the way and the why our world functions. I think this will not only encourage the development of cooperative teambuilding skills but also support my students interest in science and perhaps even encourage some of them to become professional scientists in the future. I can use examples from my experience of doing this scientific inquiry project when I teach my students about science. I will teach them the purposes of using academic language, making predictions, questioning why things happen or the metacognitive thinking behind why people study why things happen. I can also encourage them to work collaboratively on their projects as scientists around the world do, and as I have done with my experiment. And, furthermore, this experiment can be a model for how to learn from our mistakes and move forward and still identify ourselves as scientists.

Bibliography Michaels, S., Shouse, A.W., & Schweingruber, H.A. (2008). Ready, Set, Science!: Putting research to work in K-8 science classrooms. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.

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