Science Workshops
Based on the popular Writer's Workshops used in language arts, Science Workshops can be used to teach both science content and process.
By Jennifer Sinsel
“Today I wanted to talk to you about something I’ve noticed about our class pets, the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. They seem to always congregate in the right side of the cage, closest to the heat lamp. I never see any cockroaches over on the left side of the cage. It got me thinking about the behavior and preferences of these organisms, and I wondered if we might be able to learn something about them by observing and investigating their preferences – and whether we might draw any conclusions based on these observations. During Science Workshop today, I’d like you to choose one of the organisms we have in our class and think about how you might investigate one aspect of its behavior.”
So begins a mini-lesson conducted by a teacher to kick off a Science Workshop session in a fourth grade classroom. Based on the popular Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop models used by language arts teachers, Science Workshops can be used as tools to teach both content and scientific process. Like Reader’s and Writer’s Workshops, Science Workshops follow a basic model: a mini-lesson conducted by the teacher, student activity time, and sharing time (either oral or written). Students hold most of the decision-making power regarding what to investigate, and the teacher acts mostly as a facilitator.
In the above example, students choose a station based on which class pet they would most like to investigate. At each station, they might find a worksheet with instructions as follows:
Science Workshop – Hissing Cockroaches
Some materials you may find at this station:
- Hissing Cockroaches
- Construction paper (various colors)
- Food items
- Cardboard
Directions:
- Consider a question that you would like to answer. You may select a question from those below or you may develop your own question.
- Conduct your investigation.
- Write up your findings in the form of a lab report in your science notebook.
Some questions you may want to investigate:
- What colors do cockroaches prefer?
- Can cockroaches find their way through a maze?
- How do cockroaches behave when they are trapped?
- How do male cockroaches interact? How do females interact?
- Can cockroaches be trained?
- Will cockroaches walk uphill? How high will they climb?
- Do cockroaches prefer fruit or vegetables?
- Do cockroaches prefer open spaces or tight spaces?
- Investigate your own question!
Other stations have worksheets specific to the animals found there (i.e., lizards, worms, hamsters, etc . . . ). By the end of the session, students should feel empowered to make choices in their learning while gaining valuable science content and/or process skills.
Science Workshops can be utilized in virtually any content area. Here are other lesson plans that employ the Science Workshop model.
Science Workshop Lesson Plans:
This lesson asks students to use the Science Workshop model to investigate the teeth of early humans as compared to modern humans. A rubric for assessing Science Workshop performance is included.
Students form hypotheses and carry out an investigation in order to answer a central question: Does soap float? The focus of this lesson is on scientific inquiry, but it incorporates scientific topics such as sinking and floating and can easily be adapted to fit the Science Workshop model.
Students participate in a review discussion of the parts of a lever, resistance or load, fulcrum, and effort. Next, they complete activities at six experiment stations while collecting data that they share with the class. These stations can easily be adapted to fit the Science Workshop model.
Students explore questions in a scientific context. They consider what makes questions testable, an essential skill in being able to participate successfully in Science Workshop. After reading short scenarios, students come up with their own testable questions about the reading.
