A Bit of the Background

I guess since our class started our blogs a bit after class had began, some updating on what we have been doing since then is needed. From the very beginning of class, we have done several small experiments that have helped further our understanding of what inquiry is, how to build a constructivist classroom, and of course, these experiments always strengthen our own classroom community. Here is one example:
This experiment was done on my first day of class (I started late). We got into pairs and were given a balloon, a bowl, and an infinite supply of various other random objects. The goal was to make a basket of sorts for our balloon and then add items to the bowl to make it float at the same height as the pink balloon. Sounds easy enough but it certainly proved to be quite a complex task! In the end though, we learned an incredible amount of information, from how the change of temperature in the room affected the helium in the balloons, to the effect of classmates moving (or even breathing!) too close, and of course, it helped us learn the value of teaching hands-on lessons.