Unit 3: When Should We Use Hands-On Learning?
Thomas Parker: Using Hands-On Activities in Science
UNIT OBJECTIVE
4.0 Participants will be able to determine the best place in instruction for a hands-on activity. (Bloom's level 3)
4.1 Identify how much prior knowledge is needed in order to complete the hands-on activity.(enabling)
1. How Much Prior Knowledge Is Enough?
We need to know what our students know before we even begin instruction on a topic. This helps us to build our curriculum sequence and also to identify any misconceptions right away (which these could even turn into a focus in the unit). Once we know what our students bring to the table, we can also identify what they don't know yet. When it comes to hands-on activities, the amount of prior knowledge needed on the topic depends on the difficulty of the topic.
Figuring out our driving question in this unit "How much prior knowledge is enough?" doesn't necessarily come with a concrete answer. Many times, teacher will take a constructivist approach with hands-on learning. If you are unfamiliar with constructivism or would like a quick refresher, take a look at the following video(pay special attention to point #3 in the video!): Don't misconstrue #7. The point is that hands-on is not EVERYTHING, but that doesn't mean that it is not important to constructing meaning or learning.
2. Scenarios
I would like you to think about the following scenarios. Which of them gives the best chance for a successful hands-on activity? Which one has the right amount of prior knowledge for the activity? Even if the content is a bit out of your expertise, this can still be useful for you as a learner to see the point which is to find the sweet spot for including an activity.
SCENARIO 1: You are teaching in a district in an urban city. You are teaching a lesson on stoichiometry (basically chemical recipes and ingredients). You attempt to talk about how a chemical reaction is essentially a recipe like on the back of a cake box. Some students make the connection, some do not. ***Why do you think that is?*** You move directly into a hands on activity to help bridge the gap between these students. That activity consisted of working with a simple cupcake recipe and making a "chemical reaction".
SCENARIO 2: You are teaching in a rural district in upstate New York. Your lesson is on minerals and mineral properties. You have a class of accelerated students. Your first lesson is a hands-on lesson of exploring the properties of various minerals. By doing this, students would be able, by process of elimination, figure out what samples are what minerals. ***How much prior knowledge di your students have?***
My question is this: Which scenario do you think would be more successful? Does this correlate to the amount of prior-knowledge the students have?
3. Explanation of the Scenarios
Each of the scenarios had a different amount of student prior knowledge involved. You could essentially argue that either of these hands-on activities could prove successful. The argument for the first scenario being better is that you have attempted to connect to the prior knowledge of baking cookies, cakes, etc. This is a wonderful strategy for engaging that prior knowledge. But did every student have the access to making these connections at home? Most likely some did not, or at least not to the same extent.
Scenario 2 had less prior knowledge engagement, but was still a hands-on activity I know for a fact has been used successfully by my colleagues? Why do you think that is? With less prior knowledge, you need to have a bit more scaffolding. This activity most likely includes a better scripted, guided inquiry type of hands-on lesson. This can guide the students, even with less prior knowledge, to a successful ending to a lesson.
The big point here is that hands-on learning will be useful in different situations, at different times and with different required prior knowledge. This puts the ball in our court as educators to develop skills of knowing when to include these activities. If you are unsure, provide more than enough scaffolding and read the signs through formative assessment(s). Back off as needed. Your skills will improve over time and eventually, we can use hands-on activities in a the best place sequentially more and more of the time. The following video helps to pinpoint how we can use scaffolding. The first half is great, the second half of the video is optional as it only loosely ties into this course.