You Digging It? IBI Lesson on Soil Texture

You Diggin It? Inquiry Based Instruction is tough. Why, because it's different! Because it forces the students to take ownership and lead the classroom discussions and learning. Because the class might end up going in a different direction than the instructor had anticipated. Because IBI requires a lot of planning.

But then again, in many ways I am starting to think that IBI is awesome because it is different, because it challenges and stretches students, because it is unexpected and exciting. Perspective right, perspective.

So, this week I facilitated an inquiry based lab on Soil Texture with my students. The students, at this point will have learned about the properties of sand, silt, and clay, were introduced to the soil triangle, and have previously discussed surface area of the different particle sizes and how this affects soil properties. Thus, this lab consisted of students determining their own hypothesis, materials list, and set of procedures to determine the soil texture of the sample. Tools and soil samples were provided so that the students could see some possible materials, and create their procedures based off of the available items and their previous knowledge.

This was tough! I will admit that I can certainly see that students would push back on this lesson. The second day of this lab would consist of the students sharing whatever procedures they came up with to the class. Then the students would get two different sets of procedures to use the soil ribbon method for determining the soil texture. Students would then choose one, compare it to the procedures they had written the previous day, and then conduct the experiment to determine the soil texture.

I had a lot of fun facilitating this lab with my students. They challenged me with how high school students would react to this sort of inquiry lab, and I think that I handled it pretty well. As the facilitator of learning, I kept the energy high, and while the lab did not go as I had planned, we as a class learned together.

 

 

GEMS:

 

- This week I think I kept the energy positive and made sure to encourage students during the difficult laboratory exercise

 

- I tried to say "I appreciate your hard work" and "great job using all 45 seconds to complete this" versus just saying "great job." I want to foster a growth mindset and not a fixed mindset.

 

- It was good having the students generate a list of what is important for an experiment (Hypothesis, materials, procedures, etc.) versus just giving them the handout.

 

- I was a little hesitant at first, but I decided to be very transparent with the students. I told them this is hard, but it's helping you to understand this better.... still not 100% sure this was the right way to go, but watching the video I think it helped with rapport and students attitudes.

 

- I came over when things were getting heated! Ha ha I laughed at myself because at one point I walked over and said "I am sensing some frustration here!

 

 

Opportunities for GROWTH:

- I had a lot of oral directions this week! Maybe add written directions for the interest approach to the ppt slide so that students can read it and hear the directions. Additionally, maybe have it written somewhere to ask at least 1 student a question before asking me.

- Time wise, I decided to skip the portion of the lab where I would give students a post-it to write their initial question after hearing about the experiment so that we could review questions together... this might have clarified the directions for them.

- At times, I could have introduced a power clap or something of that nature instead of saying "good job"

- Questioning... I think that my questions are getting better (more intentional) but I am not leaving enough WAIT TIME.... wait for it... just a little longer... they might get it... just hang in there a little longer... ok now you can rephrase the question!

-  For this lab, the students should have to notify me when their procedures are done so that I can review them before they start experimenting.


Overall, I think that the lab was a success. I did not feel super confident after finishing it, probably mostly because 30 minutes wasn't enough time. However, my students said they enjoyed it and two wrote down they wished they could have finished the lab. That was really nice to hear.

I am looking forward to altering the lab just a tad, and implementing it next semester in the Environmental Science Unit for the Introduction to Agriculture Class. Oh boy, IBI here we come. Let's DIG in.