Friday, July 8, 2011

Generating an Argument

I haven't really made use of the process describe in this week's reading. Typically what I've done is what is described by the same auther in "Argument-Driven Inquiry," NSTA Nov. 10. I have my students conduct an inquiry and generate there own data. We do quite a bit of this at my school. In regualr chemistry we have an enitre three week unit at the end of the year where they are using all the chemistry they have learned in solve various problems. I also have my students do an extend gravitemric analysis project in my accelerated honors class.

What I don't do a lot of is having students present their arguments. For the last three years I've had my acclerated honors students do a project in which each group researched a general category of generating electricity, prepare an argument, present and defend their position. Other groups could question/challenge their position. We concluded with a whole class discussion. I didn't do that project anymore and don't think I will in the future. It was very time comsuming and I don't think the students got that much out of it.

I'm going to look and see it I can find some high school level data sets that I could use in a generate an argument project. Data on the periodic table is not going to do it.

1 comment:

  1. First thing that popped into my mind regarding chemistry and electricity production. Sulfur emissions from coal? I would imagine that somewhere out there is a data set dealing with the different qualities of coal.

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