Mars Through Time
July 8–11, 2014
Presented at the University of New Mexico
Teachers' Use of Activities
Is it Science?
Some [students] thought the big foot video was silly. It was hard for some to just focus on the investigation without personal opinions. I had to constantly remind them that I don't care if they believe in it, just whether the investigators followed the 6 characteristics. One class did not want to open up. The other 2 discussed and debated points which went very well. We had some great discussions based on differing perceptions of how the descriptions of the 6 characteristics applied to the video. I WOULD do this again with some modification. I think the explanation of 6 characteristics needs to be typed up in advance and read over before handing out the sheet. I simply read a printout from the website I provided. I also did 2 writing activities, one before the first viewing and one after the first viewing...before the second viewing. This forced the students to analyze more. For the first writing, I asked the students to write "What makes something scientific? What criteria must be applied for it to be scientific? After the first viewing I had the students decide if the video followed the criteria they set for something to be Science. During the first viewing, students were not allowed to write, but during the second viewing, they were allowed to add to their 2nd writing piece. Then I moved into the graphic organizer in groups. Overall it went well considering it is the beginning of the school year, and for some it is hard to open up to whole group conversation.
I too have used the activity with my freshman. They found it to be a lot of fun. We attacked the activity in groups and had a rather large discussion of what the students were even being asked to do. We first discussed whether or not “science and scientific” actually mean the same thing. From there, we watched the video 4 times and each time focused on a different aspect of the video. I created a sheet that the students used to guide their thinking and had a nice class discussion with it at the end.
The 2014 workshop was supported by the ChemCam instrument onboard the Curiosity rover, the Lunar and Planetary Institute,
the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico,
and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.