Boardman teachers organize new inquiry-based experiments for students

Glenwood Junior High school adds inquiry-based

By Bruce Walton

bwalton@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

Erin Jackson, an eighth-grader at Glenwood Junior High School, stood before the other students in Laura Kibby’s science class as the first to test her experiment this week.

For seven minutes, each student had to draw a picture of the planet Earth on the overhead projector.

When finished, the students attached their name and gender to their drawings and submitted them. This was Erin’s experiment to find out if boys or girls draw with more detail.

She and her class were beginning to move forward for their teacher’s new inquiry-based experiment projects.

Pursuing her master’s degree at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Kibby learned about the scientific process while on far-off excursions across the world through the Global Field Program from the university’s Project Dragonfly.

According to the university’s website, Project Dragonfly promotes inquiry-driven reform, reaching millions of people worldwide through learning media, exhibits, and education programs.

“You get to do hands-on stuff; you get to create your own questions, and you do exactly what I have the kids do,” Kibby said. “You make your own questions about your observations and what you want to find out, and they give you time to investigate that question.”

Kibby, along with teachers Scott Lenhart and Eric Diefenderfer, who also graduated from the program, will use the first nine weeks of the academic year on the inquiry-driven project.

Starting from this week through the next, students will test their experiments with willing participants. After testing and recording the results, the students will analyze the data gathered and then answer their own question based on their observations.

The inquiries themselves aren’t just for curiosity’s sake, Kibby said. The results students find will be used to approach friends or school staffers who can make their lives or jobs easier.

Student Jared Fullerman wants to answer the question of whether training with ankle weights can make athletes run faster. He’ll then share his findings with the athletes and their coaches on cross-country and football teams.

“There’s a lot of cross-country runners and football players,” Jared said. “They might want to see if their time can improve.”

The project also forces students to find other ways of learning the answers to questions using Google or Wikipedia. Kibby said inquiry-based experiments benefit learning techniques in ways her students are not accustomed. She said they can use these skills forever.

“It’s deeper learning, I believe,” she said. “Just me understanding [inquiry-based learning] makes me want to give them the experience to think how scientists really think and to understand that whole process.”