SCIENCE TEACHER EXCHANGE
ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS
September 19, 1996: On Wednesday, the 18th, we planned experiments we
were going to do on animals. Using the Four Question Strategy from Science
and Children by Rezba, Couthran, and Guitsel, the students listed the materials
available for conducting humane experiments on small organisms (grasshoppers,
mealworms, isopods, earthworms, crickets).
The students observed these
organisms in order to identify the way in which the organism looked and behaved
which would enable them to identify changes due to the variables we imposed.
The students also listed ways we could compare one change to another (water vs.
no water on a track or light vs. dark). Finally, they discussed how they could
measure the results of the experiment.
Having planned the entire experiments the day before, the students were well
prepared to conduct the activity according to the choices they had made.
I also wrote a simple template of an experiment report for them to copy, so
they would include their purpose/question, hypotheses, materials, procedure,
results, and conclusions.
The students did a fantastic job! They all knew what they wanted to test, they
stayed on task, and the recorders wrote the report. I had six experiments going
on in the classroom at the same time, and all the experiments were ones the
students selected, cared about, and were eagerly motivated to conduct.
The results were outstanding. Today, we shared their reports and
suggested other experiments we could do with animals even though we
won't be doing any further studies. The conclusions they uncovered were:
goldfish breathe more slowly in cold water than in room temperature water;
mealworms prefer dark conditions with room temperature although some mealworms prefer cold
temperatures;
crickets like oatmeal first then apples;
earthworms prefer a red color floor over yellow, blue, or green;
and a snail prefers a smooth, plastic
surface to crawl on or a soft surface as opposed to a scratchy, hard surface like
sandpaper and construction paper.
What do you think? Have you ever tried something like this? Could it
be better? The noise factor was a problem, and there was some wait time as I
circulated among the groups with data tables discussing how to fill it out.
Copyright @1996 Beth H. Checkovich
Send me e-mail to let me know what you think.
bcheckov@visuallink.com