Generating and Testing Hypotheses - Chpt. 11

It's interesting that, as the concepts get more complex, the book tends to focus on detailed explanations of illustrative projects. I can see our students trying far less complex versions of some of these. I like the idea of the spreadsheet investment illustration. However, since we are dealing with little kids, it would be interesting to use smaller numbers that they could relate to more easily. For instance, a student in our school won a $500 prize from the City of Freeport. The teacher could actually use his example, which classmates are aware of, to make the example truly real world. Unfortunately, I think he's already spent most of the money, but that could make the lesson even more meaningful (in a painful way). While the lesson here is worth learning, and technology increases the ease of testing the hypothesis, relevancy is a key component for communicating complex ideas to young students.

In reviewing the web resources, I found most to be heavy in text. This is a stumbling block for early elementary. I recall a Tom Snyder ecology software "game" from long ago and the difficulty my 5th graders had just doing the pre-reading before beginning the fun technology part of the study. Of course, web resources are so numerous that, hopefully, lessons can be constructed in such a way that teachers can lead the students through the more difficult parts, so they can see that there is enlightenment at the end of the tunnel. I've tried to find the reference, but think there was an exercise mentioned in which students predict what would happen if one segment of a food chain was eliminated. This would be an unverifiable hypothesis, but, with some research, could be fascinating. For instance, we have two things considered pests in our area: mosquitoes and bats. We know that bats eat huge amounts of mosquitoes, so what would happen if we were able to eliminate this insect? Or, perhaps worse, what if we completely displaced bats from our area? Of course, neither of these questions might be considered to be of great import, but the kids can definitely relate to both. Our school dealt with a bat infestation last year, and we practically have to bathe in repellent just to walk across campus. The kids would have a great time hypothesizing and looking further for supporting evidence of their opinions. The information, no doubt, would be found in a web resource.