SA NC Doing Investigations/Chapter 4

DOING INVESTIGATIONS: A RESOURCE BOOK FOR GET & FET MATHEMATICS & SCIENCE EDUCATORS

Ideas for investigations

Ideally learners should choose their own questions because a true investigation will follow a topic that is of interest to and stimulates the imagination of the investigator. In reality the educator may have to prompt learners or even assign questions. One hopes that by doing investigations learners will start developing a more critical eye for their own questions.

At the MSTotY workshop in March 2004, the participants were asked to brainstorm ideas for investigations and then to classify them according to a classification scheme. The purpose of the exercise was to gain a better understanding of what one might expect from investigations on these topics. The process of classifying ideas for investigations also gave the participants the opportunity to imagine the directions these ideas might take a learner and the potential pitfalls and complexities hidden in the topics. One can never determine these exactly because by the very nature of an investigation that we cannot, nor should not, be precise about the end point. However, if an investigation activity is to be well managed, educators had better try to gain some insight into the possibilities presented by a topic for investigation before agreeing to it. Obviously one's knowledge of particular learners must be taken into account.

A classification scheme for investigation topics

Is the topic from one or some of these disciplines?

Biology	Biol	Concerning living things including plants and simple animals
Physics	Phys	Concerning the macroscopic, physical world of our everyday experience
Chemistry	Chem	Concerning the reactions between substances and the energy that is lost and gained during reactions.
Geology	Geol	Concerning the physical features of and changes to the Earth
Mathematics	Math	Number and relationships

What is the phase level of the topic?

Phase

Int/Sen/FET

Intermediate or Senior Phase or the FET Band

Which of these categories does the topic fit into?

Investigation of effect on acceleration when mass is increased	Inv	Refers to study or research concerning a focused question in which one converges on one or some possible answers
Exploration	Expl	Refers to a study where, at the start, one does not have a definite focus, more of a data gathering exercise and there-after an examination of the data to look for points of interest.

... and which of these?

Theoretical	Th	A study where one deals with abstract ideas (e.g. an exploration of number patterns) or models of reality but not directly with the real thing itself
Practical	Pr	A direct, hands-on study of an object or objects.

... and which of these?

Observational	Obs	Observation, collection of data and a treatment of that data
Experimental	Exp	Where one deliberately changes something to see what happens measurements are taken before and after any change

Do I have any concerns about the topic itself of where it may lead?

Classifying science and mathematics investigations

Imagine learners are asked to come up with questions for their own investigations. You collect the questions in the class and the list looks like the example below. By classifying the ideas you can determine whether they are appropriate for the age and phase of the learners. For the purposes of managing the investigation you can determine what resources the learners will need and what sort of inputs you may have to make. The final judgment you must make &Acirc &shy and the analysis should help you make it - is whether the topic is feasible. To classify an intended investigation accurately you must discuss it with the learner. A discussion will help you to advise the learner if his/her intentions seem too ambitious and together you can agree on appropriate modifications or a complete re-think. This negotiation places you, the educator, in a much stronger position to monitor the investigation's progress.

As an exercise try to classify some of the topics suggested here. Most of the topics are appropriate to more than one phase but this will depend on the conceptual level at which learners attack the problems and analyse their results.

TOPIC	Classification
e.g. Height of water from sprinklers	e.g. Phys (Math) / Int or Sen / Inv / Pr / Exp /Eth
Analysis of beverages
Analysis of health juices
Ants, foraging and food
Bicycles and balance
Bird beak shapes and feeding habits
Choices of fabrics for items of clothing
Communication amongst horses
Computer memory
Dog food: manufacture and composition
Dogs' hair: distribution and thickness
Durability of paints
Edible flowers
Effects of coffee
Exhaust pipes and form of pollution control
Factors affecting dissolving
Freezing seawater: recovering fresh water
Fuels: paraffin, petrol, "Blitz" and spirits
Grasshopper wings
Heartbeats and heart rates
HIV/AIDS &shy what it is, what it does and how to prevent it
Hydraulics and temperature
Investigating toothpaste
Mirrors, reflection and radiation
Parachutes
Patterns in shells / flowers / Nature
Plant- and flower patterns
Pleasing shapes
Pool balls: analysing collisions
Rates of evaporation
Rates of melting and cooling &shy ice and water
Recall levels after reading aloud and reading silently
Recovery of salts from seawater
Relative dimensions of cats and kittens
Running and fitness levels
Seagull/garden bird habits / habitats
Seawater and skin itching
Seeds: what budgies eat and don't/can't eat
Sense of direction in animals
Shopping patterns
Sounds horses react to
Sunflower seeds and oils
Tartrazine's effects on teen-agers, toddlers and adults
The effects of fruit diets
The flight of soccer balls
Using seawater in drought
Water droplets
Why fruits change colour

These topics have already been classified according to their phase-appropriateness. Do you agree with the classification? Are any of the topics too advanced for the senior phase or too simple for the intermediate phase? Which topics could be investigated at either phase? Are any of these topics suitable for the FET band? How would you modify the topics for FET? What aspects of any topics would you ask an FET learner to concentrate on?

Intermediate Phase
`Breathe in oxygen & breathe out carbon dioxide'?
Calendar patterns
Cell phone tariffs
Compass patterns
Divisibility of numbers
Electronic mousetrap
Investigate number sequences
Net patterns
Number patterns from 1-100
Patterns in stars
Patterns in the presentation of food
Plants in our school garden
Polygons
Probabilities &shy heads or tails
Water pumps
Weaving patterns

Senior Phase
Applications of calculus
Automatic shoe polisher
Census 2004
Colours and hues
Disseminating information
Fuel consumption
Geometric theorems
Loci
Pricing patterns
Replacing the electric bulb
Savings and investments
Survey of teenage drinking habits
Temperature regulation and materials
The history of numbers
Toothbrush effectiveness
Trig Wheel
Weather forecasting

FET Band
Applications of calculus
Weaving patterns
Economics of fashion
Global warming
Etc.