Discrepancies Lead to Learning for 5th Graders

This article provides a lesson that introduces students to a discrepant event and then follows up with an engaging experiment. If you are grappling with ways to teach density or convection ... See More

This article provides a lesson that introduces students to a discrepant event and then follows up with an engaging experiment. If you are grappling with ways to teach density or convection currents, this lesson does both. The author engages the students by demonstrating how salt water melts ice cubes more quickly than plain water (Students expect the salt water to melt the ice faster; some of them will relate how they know salt is put down on roads in the winter to melt the ice.) After a discussion ensues, students are invited to record their observations. Next, students determine the variables and constants and learn about hypotheses and how to write them as “if…then” statements. Finally, the students collect their data for the experiment they designed and try to answer the original question, “Why did the ice cubes melt more quickly in the salt water?” The connections to a unit on weather abound with this simple lesson, and several process skills are being practiced. Student work samples are shown, and all of the worksheet templates are provided in the article via a link to the NSTA website.

Next Step?

Discrepant events grab students’ attention, but this article adds an additional twist to the process. The authors of this article follow the discrepant event up by having students design ex... See More

Discrepant events grab students’ attention, but this article adds an additional twist to the process. The authors of this article follow the discrepant event up by having students design experiments to explain the discrepant event. This takes the discrepant event from just watching a demonstration to inquiry about the discrepant event. The article describes the process in detail for one discrepant event. I would like to know more about other such discrepant events from the authors. Maybe they will publish more articles!