SA NC Doing Investigations/Chapter 4

Ideas for investigations
Ideally learners should choose their own questions because a true investigation will follow a topic that is of interest to and stimulates the imagination of the investigator. In reality the educator may have to prompt learners or even assign questions. One hopes that by doing investigations learners will start developing a more critical eye for their own questions.

At the MSTotY workshop in March 2004, the participants were asked to brainstorm ideas for investigations and then to classify them according to a classification scheme. The purpose of the exercise was to gain a better understanding of what one might expect from investigations on these topics. The process of classifying ideas for investigations also gave the participants the opportunity to imagine the directions these ideas might take a learner and the potential pitfalls and complexities hidden in the topics. One can never determine these exactly because by the very nature of an investigation that we cannot, nor should not, be precise about the end point. However, if an investigation activity is to be well managed, educators had better try to gain some insight into the possibilities presented by a topic for investigation before agreeing to it. Obviously one's knowledge of particular learners must be taken into account.

A classification scheme for investigation topics
Is the topic from one or some of these disciplines?

What is the phase level of the topic?

Which of these categories does the topic fit into?

... and which of these?

... and which of these?

Do I have any concerns about the topic itself of where it may lead?

Classifying science and mathematics investigations
Imagine learners are asked to come up with questions for their own investigations. You collect the questions in the class and the list looks like the example below. By classifying the ideas you can determine whether they are appropriate for the age and phase of the learners. For the purposes of managing the investigation you can determine what resources the learners will need and what sort of inputs you may have to make. The final judgment you must make &Acirc &shy and the analysis should help you make it - is whether the topic is feasible. To classify an intended investigation accurately you must discuss it with the learner. A discussion will help you to advise the learner if his/her intentions seem too ambitious and together you can agree on appropriate modifications or a complete re-think. This negotiation places you, the educator, in a much stronger position to monitor the investigation's progress.

As an exercise try to classify some of the topics suggested here. Most of the topics are appropriate to more than one phase but this will depend on the conceptual level at which learners attack the problems and analyse their results.

These topics have already been classified according to their phase-appropriateness. Do you agree with the classification? Are any of the topics too advanced for the senior phase or too simple for the intermediate phase? Which topics could be investigated at either phase? Are any of these topics suitable for the FET band? How would you modify the topics for FET? What aspects of any topics would you ask an FET learner to concentrate on?