Here We Go!

Finally, weeks upon weeks have been leading up to this moment. The time has finally arrived, the stage is set and its showtime. Time to survey the students. It has been a long time coming and I am going to break down the weeks prior to this day.

Of course I came up with a topic- Scientific Inquiry Instruction in the Classroom and its benefits. This idea worked perfectly here at MLC since scientific inquiry is a major criterion for their IB curriculum and the students take inquiry quizzes that help to mimic the strands seen on the CAPT test. Then a wrench was thrown (come to think of it, they do this on Survivor) and I had to think of my research through the lens of social capital. At first that was hard to do, but what's the fun if everything is so easy, right? I tell my students that ESPECIALLY when I do inquiry labs and well, I have to take my own advice. So I came up with some working definitions of the three components of social capital as you have read in a previous post and made a survey.

Now making the survey was hard. Forget the whole part of me trying to figure out formatting (I have had this Mac since the summer), but I really wanted my questions to ask what I wanted them to ask. I never thought I had to be so calculated during this step of this thesis process but I definitely needed lots of instruction and guidance. I got great feedback on all parts of this survey, from its presentation, survey items, and how to introduce this so I get what I needed. Well I was ready to hand out this survey but time seemed to pause here at MLC. I kept moving but I was the only one that was not stuck in the mud....it was CAPT testing time (cue gloomy music). I couldn't make a move, I couldn't hand out surveys, I couldn't even use the microwave because it might make to much noise. I understand that the students were stressed during this three week testing period, but SO WAS I! Finally CAPT was over and I was able to hand out my surveys, but I decided to go to the US Virgin Islands, well because I planned to almost a year ago, when I had no idea this was the fate of my future. Of course I had fun in the sun, saw dolphins by Buck Island, and drank fresh coconut water all day but all I could think was, maybe I should email the teachers and have them hand out the surveys, but I wanted to be there so I had to wait. I come back, my planes were super delayed and I lost my voice. I have to hand out the surveys.

Well today I handed out some surveys and will finish the rest tomorrow. The students and teachers were great and I was smiling so hard because the time is finally here. The weight of this survey has been lifted, but only for a few because now I have to input the data to Excel. But that is neither here nor there. Today after I gave my survey speech for the 3rd time I told the students "Thanks for your precipitation (I take Meteorology 101) oops I meant Participation, and I am starting on my next step which should be smooth sailing, but if its anything like those little hopper planes I took on vacation, it will be a bumpy ride.

Next Steps:
Organize and analyze data

Knee-deep in a pile of Research

As I get further and further into my study of scientific inquiry, its applications, benefits, and its true meaning, I realize that my thoughts and the people in education thoughts had to have come from somewhere. So this is where I am now in my thesis process:  literature review. Google Scholar and UConn Libraries are my best friends. What is so great about the Internet sources is the fact that you can click on who cited this article and then click on who cited that article and so on. And in about a few short hours of reading abstracts I have compiled a list of about twenty sources. I have collected articles that look at cognitive development and analytical thinking, processing skills involved for inquiry, student opinions regarding inquiry based labs, guided inquiry and many others.Will I use them all? Probably not and I will probably need to find more. 


My goal in the next few hours (days) is to extract information from these sources that can highlight and help prove my hypothesis. I have been looking at scientific argumentation and using found evidence to support my claims as recommendations for science literacy through inquiry-based classroom instruction. Might as well take my own advice and use evidence (found from educational researchers) to support my claims (Inquiry based instruction is beneficial). 


 I have recently purchased more ink to print out these articles since I cannot stand to read pages among pages on my computer screen and will slowly dig away at my mound of articles. Throughout this year I have become pretty good at annotating literature whether its putting stars, highlighting,or underlining and I will be looking for strong data that will help to explain my results from my survey(more to come about that in the future). I actually taught a lesson to my seniors about how to read a scientific journal and extract pertinent information from heavy duty writing. I am searching for that lesson plan now....


 So I have my favorite reality TV shows on DVR for later, got out my comfy clothes, have an array of highlighters handy and I am ready to work. The Hunger Games series and other recreational reading will have to wait. 

Eeek! Where Am I Going With This?

So I thought I had my inquiry project all mapped out from the initiation to the survey and then the implementation. I am now a tad off kilter. Where did I go wrong? Due to my pride I refuse to say I did anything wrong but I may be a little bit overwhelmed. This feeling was not there until I saw on Facebook that we had exactly 2 months or 60 days until graduation which meant this project has to be done WAY before that. I took a step back, met with some people, sent a few harassing e-mails to people I think can help me, cleaned out my gmail (which is surprisingly very calming), ate way too many carbs, and did a week of Pilates for Dummies. It all sort of helped as I came to the conclusion that this is a cycle where I have to refine, define, revise, add, subtract all parts of this project, especially in the planning part and realize that once that is all set, I simply have to collect my data and those numbers will help me do the rest. 


But when will the planning be done? I can only hope soon, but I need it to be perfect and if it can't be perfect I need these blueprints to be up to my standards= perfect.


I am at the stage where I have created a survey for my participants, ie science students at my high school placement, and working on it to create questions that really get to what I need to ask. I do not want to trick these students, I do not want to ask unnecessary questions, but I do want to ask questions that will help me to extract pertinent information. Looking at this project through the social capital lens (possible project title but for now I will call it PROJECT INQ) has indeed focused this study and I am getting more comfortable with its parameters. I have defined the pieces of social capital as follows:


Trust- Trustworthiness ins the science classroom between students and teachers. The teacher delivers the information but also needs to be able to instill confidence in students in the subject area and creates an environment that leads to success.


Networks- This is how students receive their information and can be greatly influenced by a variety of factors. These networks can be strong or weak however they are means to guide information in the social structure of the science classroom.


Norms- These are the behaviors and cultural manners that are seen throughout the classroom and shared among all grade levels that participate in science.


My next steps are to revise, refine, distribute my survey and input my data. I am not an Excel Wiz but by the end of this I just might be :)