Critical and Reflective Thinking

Context

This lesson was based on mechanical engineering and the design cycle of planning, building, testing, reflecting, and then making changes to the developing product.  

Students were challenged to build a marble roller coaster. They watched a video on a hydraulic-powered roller coaster and then discussed the physics behind these machines including momentum, G forces, and kinetic and potential energy. Students brainstormed what they would need to take into consideration while building. Their ideas included turn banking, friction, and starting from a high point to create enough momentum. They also talked about the constraints in terms of time (one class period), space (the whole classroom, chairs, table tops), and materials (marbles, pipe insulation tubing cut in half, masking tape, small wood pieces for supports if needed). Students then sketched a plan and built their roller coasters with a partner.

Over the course of one class period they built, tested, and adapted their designs. They then shared their roller coasters with other groups and reflected on the process of creation. The teacher asked questions that would gently point their thinking in the right direction, such as, “Have you considered all of the materials available?” or if a marble didn’t make it all the way down a track, “What would you add to that turn to give it more momentum?” If the marble went off the track, “What could you do to adjust the marble’s momentum?”

Students were given the opportunity at the end to test other groups’ coasters to evaluate their effectiveness. There were criteria given to students to provide some guidance through a point system, with credit given for overall length, number of loops, height, and other, unique features.

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Teacher Reflection

Students were on task and actively communicating throughout the activity. Designs started with a quick sketch, but these were adapted as the students tested their creations and problem-solved together. Some students skipped the sketching stage as they wanted to jump right into building the plan in their head. This resulted in a learning opportunity about the importance of planning.

Students were incredibly motivated by the freedom to create something so interactive. I believe that some of the best critical thinking happens when students are playing. In this activity, there wasn’t a separation between playing, creating, and thinking as they were all happening simultaneously. Having students reflect after the activity was important for cementing the purpose of the lesson and helped to enhance student understanding of how the design cycle works and the thinking required.

Activity Photos

  

Context

Students were asked to work in small groups to design and conduct an experiment that explored the effects of osmosis in gummy bears in salt solutions. The task required students to apply their knowledge of osmosis, cell transport, and semi-permeable membranes as well as their knowledge of the skills and processes involved in designing a scientific investigation.

This group made a hypothesis, selected tools and materials, developed a set of procedures for conducting the four-day experiment, and developed charts for recording observations and data. They then conducted their experiment, adjusting their procedures as necessary. They graphed and analyzed their data, considered sources of error, and generalized and drew conclusions based on their data. They used their generalizations to ask new questions and make new predictions, including whether the effects they observed would also be seen if they used potatoes instead of gummy bears.

After the experiment, each student completed an individual lab report. 

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Student Work Example

• Osmosis Experiment with Gummy Bears (PDF)

Context

Students watched the science fiction film "Gattaca" after studying genetics. The film's title is based on the first letters of guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine, the four nucleobases of DNA. This student wrote an essay in response.

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Teacher Reflection

He found the movie very interesting as it provided him with a different perspective on what he had learned in class. His essay describes how he felt the movie portrayed discrimination and prejudice in the futuristic society of Gattaca. He defended his analysis by using examples from the movie. He reported that he enjoyed writing this essay and that he did not find it hard to put his thoughts down on paper because he found the ideas in the movie interesting to comment on.

Student Work Sample

• GATTACA Essay (PDF)

Context

Prior to introducing the concept, a teacher asked students to try to determine a way to calculate the area under a curve on their own. They were asked to write down their ideas including what worked and what did not work.

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Teacher Reflection

This student looked at the problem and decided on an initial approach. When the process was identified as “not good enough”, the process was changed and re-evaluated based on the same initial criteria.

This student started by drawing the problem to get a better understanding. She noticed the general area under the curve was roughly triangular and thought of determining the area of the triangle. She also tried to think of it as a quarter of a circle. She graphed the quadratic equation and tried to find rectangles and triangles. But she realized that the Pythagorean theorem could not be applied to find the area of the “triangles” as the hypotenuses were curves rather than straight lines.

Finally, she tried to find the area by thinking about the mass of the graph in relation to the mass of the paper and the area as a proportion of the total. This is an unorthodox approach to area and not the method she will be taught, but it represents a serious attempt to generate and analyze approaches based on known mathematics concepts.

Student Work Sample

• Finding the Area under a Curve (PDF)

Context

The child had been playing at the playdough table for 10 minutes when she noticed some rocks and a bear. Her grandma pushed the playdough away and placed the rocks and bear in front of her.

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Activity Video

Teacher Observation

The child banged the rocks together and seemed interested in the sounds it made. After Grandma and others repeated, “It’s a bear”, the child confirmed her understanding and said, “A bear”. At one point, she put the bear in her mouth.

Context

A class was exploring Environmental Sustainability as it pertains to current resource management topics and problems facing Canada. Students were given time to research topics and create documentaries that explored the pros and cons of their respective topics (see project description). 

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Student Work Videos

Teacher Reflection

This project facilitated the development of research skills, collaboration and communication skills. Students had to look at both sides of the issue and consider the different stakeholders that might be impacted by their decisions. They were very engaged in the research component as well as the mock interviews that they incorporated into their videos. Students enjoyed the documentary film festival when all the groups were ready to show their finished work.

Context

As part of an optics unit, students made pinhole cameras. The teacher asked them to assess their work in a video, and provided the following instructions:

• Explain what worked (with respect to exposure time, lighting, positioning of camera, other information)
• Explain what didn't work (with respect to exposure time, lighting, positioning of camera, other information)
• Explain what you changed and why (this is the conclusions and changing variables parts of the scientific method)
• Explain what was going on with lighting and how it influenced your picture (was there enough getting in? too much light? was the shutter open for too long? shutter not open long enough? was light reflecting off the snow? was light reflecting off something in your camera?)

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Student Reflection Video

Context

A class participated in a focused study of architecture. After visiting the Vancouver Art Gallery’s “Grand Hotel” exhibit and exploring the central themes of that exhibit (e.g., public and private spaces, travel, and design), students were encouraged to respond to the subject of architecture in their own way. They utilized materials of their choice including found objects.

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Student Work Sample

Teacher Reflection

This student questioned and investigated the concept of the hotel and determined that it had certain functions, simultaneously acting as a public space and private refuge. Her choice of materials and the development of her piece came from an interest in some of the conventions of the hotel (e.g., windows, inhabitants, intimate private moments). The shape and arrangement of the pieces of film reinforce, or at least suggest, architecture.

This student chose to work outside her comfort zone of drawing and illustration. She used found materials and translated them from one context to another and altered what they signified.

Context

Students were given the challenge of creating an artistic piece inspired by something from the animal world but constructed from mass-produced objects.

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Teacher Observation

This student selected pop can pull-tabs, linking them together to create a snake. She reasoned that the pull-tabs, which are similar to links in a chain, could be fastened together in order to create a continuous structure. She re-contextualized the pull-tabs, transforming them from tabs, to links, to the “scales” of a snake. When she ran into some difficulty with the pieces adhering to one another, she decided to add a tiny drop of hot glue to each link.

Student Work Sample