Name Monica Camacho
Submitted on 10/10/2005 8:26:24 PM
Topic: PS
Guillermo,S.F. (2000). Teaching and Assessing Science Process Skills in Physics-The "Bubbles" Task. Science Activities, 37, 31-37.
Summary
Bubbles! When I was a young girl, because I still am a girl at times, loved to play with bubbles. I never really explored the chemical and physical phenomena of bubbles. Not until I read this article, that I discovered a way to teach future students the chemical and physical phenomena of bubbles which I wished I took a notice long ago. This physical science activities takes students to a hands-on, challenging activity related to the ideas of force and motion. This activity allows students to explore three soapy solutions and come up with an experiment on the basis of which one of the three soapy solutions makes the longest-lived bubbles, and which one of the three soapy solutions makes the shortest-lived bubbles. The soapy solutions are labeled A,B,and C, and the students are given 5 methods to blow the bubbles out such as, wire ring, straw, Baster, inverted funnel, and a syringe. This activity allows the students to explore the methods before starting the experiment. In preparing the activity, Guillermo states that students should be aware of the physical factors in the experiment. Students should be aware of the bubble internal air pressure, and shaking of the bubbles that may affect the stability of the soap film. Once these factors are noted students begin the experiment. The article lists two tables for the teacher to follow. In the first table, it lists the preparation of equipment and use of five methods of making bubbles. The second table lists the characteristics of different methods of making bubbles. The materials differ in their effectiveness in making bubbles of the same size, but this allows a well-controlled experiment in which soapy solutions are not mixed, which makes the experiment more challenging. The article also notes for students to keep a notebook of their findings. Therefore, the article made a prompt for the teacher to follow in guiding students on what to write in their notebook. It gives two questions for the students to experiment on. The first question is, "Which soapy water makes the longest-lived (most durable) soap bubbles? The second question is, "Which soapy water makes the shortest-lived (least durable) soap bubbles? Then, the notebook provides space for students answers. The prompt also gives the teacher direction of how students should discover the results, and what questions to ask students after the experiments have been conducted.
Reaction
This article is a great inquiry lesson for teachers to teach the concept of force and motion. This activity is a great way at learning how students can formally instruct an experiment based on a question being raised. It also gives teachers a chance to analyze students notebooks and find how students thinking skills are different from each other. The only thing that I am concerned with in this article is that why did the author put five methods of making bubbles into the experiment? I would think that putting different methods of making bubbles into the activity would cause another experiment. The experiment was to test which soapy solutions makes the most durable soap bubbles and which soapy solution makes the least durable soap bubble. By adding five different methods instead of one constant method of blowing bubbles is a cause of another experiment. The experiment would test on which of the five methods being used makes the most durable bubble and which would make the least durable bubble? Other than that, the article does raise higher-thinking skills.