Using Science to Teach Math: Launching a Inquiry Science and Math Unit for Gifted

 Today we dove head first into inquiry in science and math.  We used purposeful play to help students begin to explore and question bubbles.  I watched as my students made bubble mountains, bubble chains, bubbles inside bubbles and the biggest bubble ever!  They broke up into pairs and then decided ultimately to work collaboratively as a group to make the biggest pile possible.  

The whole thing reminded me of how important it is for students to play with the world around them, experiment without direction, try new things, and collaborate with others.  Students develop a curiosity of the world around them and notice things.  

I have been watching a Ted Talk with the older kids this week.  It talked about how creativity was being drained from students and how they are learning to be more and more afraid of making mistakes.  We don't know what the world will bring in the next five years or ten years or twenty years, and in order to meet those needs, one of the most important characteristics a child can have is the ability to problem solve and think flexibly without an adult showing the way step by step.  Actually, many of the students asked me to share the video with their parents.  It can be found here: Ted Robinson. 

We collectively gathered our observations and questions about bubbles.  I will guide the students into developing testable questions and we will create experiments and observations and do research to answer their questions.  Today was a jumping off point for their minds and was used to hook them into the unit.  It worked!

With squeals of delight and sayings, "This is the best SAGE day ever!" I knew it hit the mark.  Now, we begin the harder part of research and tying our findings to math and science.