After brainstorming multiple questions, identifying which questions could be investigated, and guiding the wording, I


quickly realized that six- and seven-year-olds need a lot of scaffolding to form testable questions. Because of this, I suggested types of questions that were testable in our immediate surroundings (e.g., looking for earthworms in environments that are bright vs. dark, wet vs. dry, obstacle-rich vs. obstacle-free, cold vs. warm, or one soil type vs. another). Since my students were excited to compare soil samples during a field trip the preceding fall, I reminded them of the different types of soils and asked them if they’d be interested in looking for worms in soils from different sites that looked and felt unique. After more discussion, the question for this study became, Do foot-traffic-heavy, landscaped (with planted grass), or natural areas have more earthworms? For more information on developing productive questions with your students, check out the book, Inquire Within.11


Pre-exploration scouting Time: 30 minutes For my class’s study, I found three locations that met my stu- dents’ chosen criteria (foot-traffic-heavy, landscaped, and natural, respectively) located in a park near our school and all relatively close — approximately 50 meters — to one another. This simplified logistics and communication among groups. I took photos of each location to allow students to view them prior to making predictions. To maintain as many constant ele- ments as possible, I ensured that all three sites were relatively flat and had the same overhead trees (Populus tremuloides or Quaking/Trembling Aspen), similar nearby plants, and roughly the same exposure to rain and sunlight.


Lesson 5: Explore prediction (Q.U.E.S.T) Time: 45 minutes


After showing the students photos of each location to be tested, I pointed out the above-mentioned similarities in terrain, veg- etation, moisture, and light. I asked why they thought it was important for our study sites to have so many similarities. We discussed the importance of maintaining as many controlled variables as possible to better test the independent variables. For first-graders, I explained this in simpler terms: which parts of the experiment would stay the same, which parts would change, and why these two factors were important. Then the predictions began. One student shared, “I think there will be the most worms in the natural area because ...you


know… it’s natural and there won’t be any in the foot-traffic area because they would get smooshed on the trail. When people walk, the dirt pushes down and it hurts the earthworms.” The “foot-traffic” location was predicted by all students to have the fewest earthworms. Most students predicted the landscaped location would have fewer earthworms than the natural/ wild area, but more than the foot-traffic one. The natural area was predicted by the majority of students to have the most earthworms, since it would most likely have dead leaves, plants, tree debris (which worms eat), and looser soil (due to little foot traffic) to allow them to move. Students thought about the guiding questions and made their own predictions. After each prediction, students thought critically and explained their reasoning.


Lesson 6: Start action plan (Q.U.E.S.T) Planning


Time: 45 minutes “Can we go today?!” Once we discussed the need to create a plan (for getting prepared and organized), the students quickly understood the importance of this step. The students then quickly collaborated to create a plan for our field research day based on several guiding questions: How will we find our answers to our questions? What supplies will we need for our experiment? What will we need to dig holes? How will we keep track of how many earthworms we count? Is it important to conduct this experiment in the same way at each location? Is it important for us to know which soil sample is from each loca- tion when we bring it back to class? If so, how will we know? Students decided on splitting the class into three different groups: one third collecting and counting worms from each location, one third using color-coded buckets to collect soil


Green Teacher 121 Page 11


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