In this column, the focus is to “repackage” learning plans so they center on learning experiences at a higher level of thinking that offer more rigor. Each reflects an effort to upgrade a learning plan. This article deals with how a research endeavor can make “tough” material relevant at many levels using inquiry, energy, and the Periodic Table.

GRADE LEVELS: 9-12
MAKING ASSIGNMENTS CHALLENGING

When higher standards and close reading arrived on the scene three years ago, there was also a New York Times Bestseller entitled The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean (Little Brown and Company, 2010). This book has a funny, intriguing preface that would arouse curiosity in any high school student and is a perfect example of a rigorous read with an interdisciplinary focus. English Language Arts, Chemistry, and History teachers can collaborate using this book to examine the “relevance” of chemistry in our lives. This book examines how history was impacted by the discovery of each chemical element. Voila! Instant relevance, and this book can easily be “jig-sawed” (spilt up into separate pieces for coverage-sake).

Recently, when delivering professional development in a district, one librarian-teacher team shared a Chemistry Baby Book project they collaborated on. Having recently read The Disappearing Spoon, my thought was, “Why stop there? Did the element not grow into adulthood?”

The original assignment was for students to create a baby book for an element. But, the student never gets to synthesis with this assignment and they remain merely reporting the who, what, when, and how of discovery. Students remained merely “transferring” information creatively into an iBook. College- and career-ready students are capable of more than that. They are capable of sharing how atoms, with a specific number of electrons in their outer shell, have changed the world. They are capable of tracing history before and after the isolation of an element and finding out who birthed this gem and why they were so interested in something like a noble gas [krypton]? They are capable of seeing how chemistry itself may have been impacted by the discovery of a new element. They are capable of assessing whether the element caused more harm than good. They are capable of building an Evidence-Based Claim (EBC) to support their point of view and build that argument.

COMPELLING QUESTIONS

Here are a few examples of chemistry-centered compelling questions that may arouse a student’s curiosity:

• How does carbonation affect our bodies and why should I care?
• Are manmade food additives friends or foe? Why should I care about manmade food additives?
• Does the benefit of plastic out-weigh its’ dark side?
• How is my body chemistry a barometer for aging?
• How are drugs and chemistry used and abused?
• How has chemistry changed transportation?
• How has chemistry changed health care?
• How has chemistry changed the course of history?
• How has chemistry changed beauty?
• How has chemistry changed sports? (Etc.)
• How is our world made of different substances—natural and manmade?
• What if you were a scientist trying to find a new material for construction? Examine what has been used and what is available, and answer the question, What are possible new materials?
• How have inventions solved one problem, but created another?
• How have new materials given rise to new problems?
  *Note: At the elementary or middle school levels, these questions can be simplified.

THINK LIKE A SCIENTIST

For all of these investigations, students will have to brainstorm new materials, research what they are and find out the basics and beyond. They may need to look at “by-products” and associated costs, cause and effect, multiple viewpoints, history, compare and contrast, and more. They have to think like investigators. They may have to inquire, think critically, synthesize, and draw conclusions. They will have to make a claim and support it with evidence. They will have to think like a scientist.

Questioning plays such a vital role in research. While we try to brainstorm the best research Essential Question (EQ), or Compelling Question as the new C3 Social Studies Standards call it, students will need to come up with their “wonder questions.” If they don’t, we have to be ready with our “Guiding Questions” to aid their thought process. If students cannot do this, they will learn to by seeing thinking modeled. Educators need to “think out loud” so that students can “hear” the thought processes modeled. Research provides educators and students with this wonderful opportunity.

WORLD CHANGING

Both the new Next Generation Science Standards as well as the C3 Social Studies Standards (and the Common Core) talk about operating under inquiry, “building arguments” and “supporting claims.” Science teachers must be asked if they would like to have their students support an argument and build a claim—at least once a year. What the C3 Social Studies Standards want to see as a by-product of studying history (civic action) is akin to what science wants to see in budding scientists: change, innovation, discovery, and evidence-based claims which may change our world.

How can students be compelled to care enough about the subject matter so that they want to study it deeper? By repackaging material to make it more relevant to learners, can we make change in the world possible? It is time to inspire students to care about life and the future through learning. After all, it’s science that has frequently saved and changed our world.