Classroom Applications To Data Page To 50 Questions Page
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (WWNFF) sponsored Environmental Science Institute in Costa Rica includes goals for the “inquiry-based” science classroom. Our study on the bromeliads is a good example for inquiry-based scientific endeavor. So for our discussion of classroom applications, it is worthwhile to consider some of the problems we encountered, and some of our successes.
The WWNFF model of “50 questions” is an excellent model of the initial type of thinking necessary for inquiry in the classroom. Our study began with all the teachers in Dr. Tom Langen’s group (Large Group 2) individually writing questions that dealt with habitat fragmentation and global change in La Selva Biological Station. Each teacher then grouped those questions in broad categories with similar themes. We also crossed off those questions that were outside the scope of our resources and time. All the teachers in Large Group 2 then listed the broad categories on the white board. Thus, the study teams at La Selva were set up by “affinity” grouping. That is, the teams were comprised of people having like questions, or affinity through similar interests.
The four members of our affinity group then met to decide more exactly the nature of our inquiry. We discussed our individual ideas, and as we did so we began forming a spirit of team cooperation. We did not feel it was necessary to assign specific roles for each person; instead we worked together as a team and quickly reached a consensus to study the aquatic microhabitat within the leaf clusters of bromeliads in disturbed habitats and non-disturbed habitats.
We then began planning our study, and after discussing our ideas with Dr. Tom Langen, we wrote an abstract. Our abstract stated the purpose of our inquiry, and it included the locations from which we would gather our data. There were four locations: primary growth forest, secondary growth forest, landscaped forest, and converted pasture.
In the primary growth forest, the bromeliads are
usually near the top of the canopy, so with our equipment, many of them were
definitely out of reach. However, since the focus was the water held by the
bromeliads, we felt that we could gather significant data from plants that were
upright, attached to a branch, or a tree trunk, and no more than two meters off
the ground. The bromeliads identified for testing had between eight and fourteen
leaves in the rosettes.
We used the same selection method in each of our sites in the primary growth forest, secondary growth forest, landscaped forest, and converted pasture. Once the samples of bromeliads were identified at each site, we put them into randomly paired samples. We tossed a coin to randomly select one of each pair and we discarded the other one. The selected sample was then tagged with a code number for the site.
We conducted our research in the lowland rainforest of Costa Rica, and yet it only rained once during the three days of our study period. We recognized from the beginning that rain would be a factor, but we didn’t think that lack of rain would be a problem. However, the amount of water in several of the bromeliads present was small enough to be difficult to measure in all the days of our study. Another problem we encountered was finding bromeliads within the parameters we had set in both the secondary and primary forests; with a lot of walking and searching, we solved this problem.
In the final analysis, our data did not lead to any significant results. For further study, there are more data that should be collected. If we were to continue our investigation, we would add data on precipitation and humidity, and we would have made other changes in our procedures. As often happens with scientific studies, our research was influenced by factors outside our control. This has significant application for the classroom inquiry, as it is the same type of problem that students can encounter.
Throughout the duration of our study, decisions were made in a democratic manner. Our team realized that a cooperative spirit and a positive attitude were important throughout the collection and assessment of data. We feel this study was a worthwhile learning experience with implications for future scientific inquiries, both in and out of the classroom. For our purposes, as teacher-advocates of inquiry-based learning, the conclusions and implications transfer directly to the classroom. An experiment with unclear results can offer opportunities for identifying new variables for further experimentation. Our experience also serves a lesson for teachers to give students time for reflection and revision. Both teachers and students can use our experiment with the bromeliads of La Selva when designing their own scientific inquiries.