Time is on my mind at the moment. We are discussing diffusion & osmosis in my biology class right now. So in an "ideal" teaching environment we could explore this topic for at least a month - do some experiments, discuss some applications to the "real" world such as desalinization plants and nicotine patches, and come away with solid scientific knowledge in physics, chemistry and biology. We could explore what makes a good experiment and work towards something better than the demonstrations easily accessible by google. However, we don't have that kind of time with the NC State Curriculum, even on a traditional schedule.
What we do have is two weeks (and that is generous). During our time on this topic, we have the PLAN test (a precursor to the ACT) and spirit week (similar to homecoming at the college level) which focuses on celebrating school pride. Both of these are VERY worthy distractions, but they wreak havoc on student attention spans which are notoriously short anyway. So between days of test anxiety and excitement over who has the best spirit day costume, I'm using the old egg trick to get their attention and then inspire them to design an experiment of their own. The problem is they have no real experience with inquiry science. So I give them a day in the computer lab to do some research on factors that affect diffusion. Many of them come up with the factors, but fail to explain HOW they affect diffusion. After a bit more guidance, they get another day in the computer lab to come up with an experiment. Soon I'm looking at day five and the experiments they have proposed are cookie cutter copies of stuff they have found online and they can't even tell me what variable is being tested. I don't mean this to sound so grumpy because I'd love to work through this with them, except I'm out of time. We need to move on to cell structure and so many other topics. It kills me that as soon as I have them really engaged, I'm out of time.
The kicker is that I am encouraged to teach this way, BUT I am not given the time to allow my students to make it meaningful for themselves. We are continually preached to about student engagement and what brain research says works in terms of ideas sinking in deep, and then the time to do this is taken away. Regardless, I will put in the time to make sure that every single student gets feedback on their ideas; that every single group has the materials needed to do their experiment (although I have to buy it out of my own pocket) and that everyone comes away with SOME understanding of what terms like concentration gradient mean. So when my test scores come back and my students have not met expected growth, at least I know they have experienced something related to how science works. The really funny thing is that they will remember the egg experiment, but still bomb the questions on the test because they don't remember WHY it shriveled up in the syrup OR they won't care enough to take the time to seriously consider the question.
