BBW

A) Pre Assessment Question:
Kristin has a battery and a small bulb.  She wonders how many of strips of wire she will need to connect the battery to the bulb so that the bulb will light.  What is the smallest number of wire strips Kristin needs to make the bulb light up.
A. One strip of wire
B. Two stips of wire
C. Three stips of wire
D. Four strips of wire
1) I think the smallest number of wires Kristen needs is two wires.  The answer would be B. 
She will need two wires to complete the circuit with the battery to the light bulb because you need one wire from the positive side going to the light bulb and one wire from the negative side going to the light bulb as well.  These wires would be both connected to the light bulb to make a complete circuit of a flow of electricity.

B) Pink Lab:
First we tried to light to light bulb by having one side of the wire at the positive side and the other wire touching the light bulb.  This did not work so we decided to try something different.  For the first question we got the light bulb to light up by placing the light bulb and the wire touching the battery at the same time to either side, the positive or the negative side.  See picture below:

Two wires activity: Using two wires we got the light bulb to light up by using the method above but using two wires.  Yes you can light the light bulb with out the bulb touching the battery.  You simply have both wires touching one side side and then the other side of the wires connecting to the bulb.  

Above are two of the ways we found to make the light bulb light up. We think there could be more we just did not have time to see all of them. 


C) Yellow Lab:
1) Simple Circuit:
   We got the light bulb to work by following the 5 steps to making a simple circuit.
2) Series Circuit:
    We made a circuit by using three wires with two wires attaching to the battery to the two light bulbs and a wire in between the two light bulbs.
This lab was more teacher directed because it was a step by step lab that lead us through exactly what we needed to do.  I was not as fun as the pink lab but I still learned a lot from the lab making different circuits with different numbers of wires, batteries and bulbs. I liked how there were pictures in the lab so we could see what we were suppose to do and if we did something wrong we could just look at the picture and see what we need to change.

D) T-Chart:
Strengths of Pink Lab:

• Student-Centered activity
• Exploration 
• Students can ask questions 
• Creativity
• More engaging
• More fun 
• Promotes higher ordered thinking skills
• students able to obtain the information better
• Helps with differentiation  

Weaknesses Of Pink Lab:

• Students might get discouraged because they can not find the right answer
• Students who like to follow directions might have a hard time with this lab
• Time consuming 

Strenghts of Yellow Lab:

• Clear instructions 
• All students will be able to read the dirctions 
• Time efficient 
• Has pictures

Weaknesses of Yellow Lab:

• Boring 
• Students can not explore 
• More likely to be forgotten

E) Table 1: 

Standard/Benchmark:	Learning Goals What should students know?	Formative Assessment What do students already know?	Learning Performances What do you want students to do to show they’ve learned?
·      Content Standard B, Light, Heat, Electricity and Magnetism ·      Electrical circuits provide a means of transferring electrical energy when heat, light, sound, and chemical changes are produced.	How can you use the least amount of wires to make a light bulb light up?	When our group was discussing the probe we all thought it would take at least two wires to make a light bulb light up.  We all remember doing this lab I elementary school and thought we needed two wires to make a circuit, which would make the light bulb light up.  We were all surprised that we could light it up with one wire.	We had 2 different labs to play around with. One was student focused with little instruction and the other had very specific instructions on how to perform the activity and what the outcome would be.       The pink lab was student focus and asked that we try to make a light bulb light up using just one wire, one battery (D), and one light bulb.  There were no instructions provided to us so we were just suppose to play around with the wire and battery to see if we could make the light bulb light up. The sheet did did not say if it was even possible and asked the student to draw pictures of right and wrong choices they tried.  After the student worked through the first problem it asked questions like what about 2 wires, 3 wires? and so on.       The yellow lab was the other activity and it was more instructional based.  It did not ask for pictures or any recording of thoughts or ideas throughout the process. This lab consisted of the student following specific steps correctly and if they did all the steps correctly they would arrive at the right answer. The answer they were supposed to solve is to successfully make a simple circuit, then a circuit with 2 and 3 bulbs that lit up.       The first activity wants the students to show what they already know about electricity and investigate themselves.    The second, the students are showing they can follow instructions about electricity to make circuits. After this I would want my students to show what they have learned by brining in an expert about electricity and have each student ask them a question

F) Reflection:
   My experiences with batteries, bulbs, and wires is very limited.  I remember in Elementary school we did an experiment very similar to the yellow sheet we did in class.  I remember following the steps to set up a circuit to make the light bulb light with a battery, two wires and a light bulb.  We also had those holders for the battery and light bulb which the teacher made us use them.  This experiment was fun to some extent because we were playing with light bulbs and making them light up but I would ahve remembered the experiment more if we did it similar to the pink lab letting us explore.  During my college years I have not taken any serious science classes that deals with electricity so I have not done any experiments like this in a while.  I am familiar with electricity because I and everyone else use it daily in our lives.  I use batteries to power my t.v remote, my calculator, my headphones, and several other items.  I also use a lot of cords plugging into the wall such as my ihome, my phone charger, my computer charger and I could keep going on.  Believe it or not I have actually put in my own light bulbs as well which has been an interesting experience.  I wish I did have more experience with this topic besides using electricity.  I think it would be a fun unit or lesson to teach the students because there are a lot of ways the students can investigate and learn for themselves.
     In the article, "Moving Beyond the Science Kit,"explores the concept of energy and how it is hard for students and adults to understand what energy is and how we use it.  This article presented the readers with two different classrooms, Ms. Stone, and Ms. Travis.  These two classrooms are taught two different ways dealing with electricity and performing experiments about electricity and energy.  Both classrooms were give the "science kit" with batteries, light bulbs and wires to make an experiment involving these materials while teaching about electricity.  Ms. Stone's classroom were a given a step by step experiment to follow.  The students were given the step by step instructions to follow and told them how to perform the lab and what results they should get and did a lesson with vocabulary in the beginning of the lab. This lab is very similar to the yellow lab we did in class involving the teacher leading the experiment and having the control.  Ms. Travis's classroom was given a probe about electricity and then the students were independent in their experiment by investigating electricity.  Ms. Travis let the students discover the vocabulary and terms about electricity for themselves and let them figure out the procedure and results to share with the class.  This experiment was very similar to the pink lab we did in class.  It was more student centered, letting the teacher just go around the room and help out when needed, not leading the lesson.
   Both of these experiments each teacher did are helpful to students. Whether it be more direction from the teacher or more independence for the student when giving an experiment I think it is more beneficial to the student to have a more student-centered lab. But if a student is not independent and likes to follow steps then having both options is a very good idea.  I really enjoyed reading this article and putting everything together and performing the experiments in class.

G) Ideal Lesson:
     Looking at all the different experiments dealing with electricity, I have noticed that each have their own original twist and letting the students investigate whether it be in the end or in the beginning of the lesson.  For my ideal lesson I would have the students investigate a flashlight just like Ms. Travis's class.  I would have the students learn the vocabulary by themselves by taking apart this flashlight and learning a little about what makes a light light up and how electricity works.  After this I would then have the students try to make their own flashlights by providing them with the necessary materials.  After students make their flashlights, we would talk about what makes a flashlight light up and how does this relate to electricity.  The next day, I would have the students learn about circuits and have them do the experiment we did in class seeing how many wires it takes to light up a light bulb.  After that I would allow the students to record and investigate other circuits and share with the class a circuit they found dealing with more than one battery, one wire and one light bulb.  This will help the students become more independent and I would have the students learn and understand this material so they remember it when they have to teach this lesson to their own students.

H) Five Essential Features of Inquiry:

5-E Criteria	Part(s) of Lesson that addresses this inquiry criterion	More teacher-directed or student directed? Explain.
Engage	How does a flashlight work? How many wires does it take to light a light bulb? BBW probe: Ask questions about how many wires do you need to light a light bulb, how does a flashlight work? What are the parts to a circuit?	Both.  It is teacher-directed because the teacher needs to give the questions to assess the students’ perceptions and misconceptions before going into the lab.  Student directed because the students can see what they know and learn from their mistakes after performing the lesson.
Evidence	Students carry out the experiments using the materials given and jot down their recordings in their science notebooks drawing pictures and making a table.	Student directed.  It is student directed because the students are leading the experiment, they are in control and investigating the flashlight and seeing how many wires it takes to light a light bulb.
Explain	Based on the evidence collected above, students should be able to formulate explanations relating to the scientifically oriented question.  They should find out that it only takes one wire and should find all the parts to the flashlight and make a mini flashlight with their group.	Student directed. It is student directed because the students need to be able to put the evidence together and explain why this is happening and answer the scientifically oriented questions asked before the experiment began.
Evaluate	Students will compare their results with other groups and research more about electricity to prove their findings are correct.	Both.  Teacher directed because the teachers have to bring the class together to have them compare with other groups.  Student directed because the students are researching and comparing their results to other groups figuring out if they did anything wrong and find proof to explain their findings.
Communicate	Students will put together a presentation about their findings to show to the class.  They will make a poster so we can put it up in the library so all the classes can see their work.	Student directed: It is student directed because the students are communicating with us their findings in the experiment with visuals. They are sharing what they learned and how they found these results.  There could be some teacher directed if the teacher asks questions to the group performing.