Brittany Hensley Journal #2 September 20, 2012 On page 66 of Ready, Set, Science!

I read about a very exciting experiment titled The Mystery Box which was guided by kindergarten teacher Shawna Winter. She started out by presenting the children with two sets of varying kitchen utensils, and she carefully explained to them each name and material. Then she takes one whole set away and locks away one of the items into the Mystery Box while lining the other set up for the children to view. Once the experiment has been set up by the teacher she explains that the students will have to find out what is in the box by only asking questions. (She doesnt set any guidelines for types of questions so anything goes, and the children can actively brainstorm.) The teacher simply guides the questions and the investigation, she wants the students however to actively inquire about the objects. For example, when the first student Maya asks if it is a plastic spoon the teacher informs her that it is not so they can now remove the plastic spoon from the visible pile. She did this to incite in the students that all questions are good questions and get us a little bit closer to a conclusion. The classroom overall is involved in whole group discussion in which everyone is adding onto each others ideas and thoughts. The experiment addresses Strand 1: Understanding Scientific Explanations because the students were showing they had adequate knowledge to classify objects based upon use or material. They were not labeled when they were laid out and it was only discussed once so the students were able to use this information on their own.The Mystery Box experiment also addresses Strand 2: Generating Scientific Evidence because essentially the students were carrying on a scientific investigation through the questioning and classifying of the tools they

were given. This particular activity had the children asking questions, taking the answers, and then being able to rule out the appropriate options. At the end the students were able to conclude that the broader questions gave them more items to rule out and they had the evidence at hand to prove this. The experiment addresses Strand 3: Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge because from this experiment the students should have a better understanding on the inner workings of scientific questioning. They should take from the Mystery Box that even questions that werent leading to the conclusion provided valuable information. The students were actively making sense of information learned by the asking of their questions, when they could rule out a tool they reframed their thinking to come up with another question. Finally, we know that the experiment addressed Strand 4: Participating Productively in Science for the obvious reason that the students were playing active roles in their own learning with the end results any teacher would want!