PIP Project Proposal

a) Every science class I have ever been apart of has had at the bare minimum twenty-five

students. With there always being in a large number of people in the science classroom,

growing up I did not get the opportunity to participate in many hands-on activities.

However, with my situation at Warner school, I am uniquely positioned to change my

narrative around the science class. I have always been a proponent of learning science

by doing, so with a class size of six students in my science 10 class, and fourteen in my

science 8/9 class, I have ample opportunity to try teaching science by doing rather than

by telling. For this project, I am seeking to answer the question, is teaching science by

doing an effective way to teach science within a small sized classroom.

b) The academic book, How We Teach science: What’s Changed, and Why It Matters by

(Rudolph, 2019), outlines numerous ways in which teaching science has in essence

stagnated over the past century. In the book Rudolph outlines a lack of emphasis on

“doing” science, and shortage of science in action within the classroom.

c) For this project, I am going to use an array of different methods that focuses on action-

based science. Some examples of this will be, labs, science demonstrations, research

projects, and other action-based activities. All of them with the purpose of seeing

science in action, rather than having me tell them about it.

d) The date for the professional inquiry project (PIP) will begin October twelfth and will

end on the last day of November. In that time, I will be showcasing a variety of labs,

demonstrations, and activities that both my science 10 class and 8/9 will be doing. In
 specific, the science 10 class will predominantly be focused on the biology unit, while

the 8/9’s will be split between environmental chemistry and fresh and saltwater

systems.

e) I have two main hopes for this project. The first is to try and foster student enjoyment

for the process and nature of “doing” science. Secondly, I envision there being a

collection of different resources that I found effective in student learning of science.

Furthermore, for my educational journey with teaching science, I want my PIP project to

help support me in engaging students through action-based learning, in the hope of

benefiting my teaching ability moving forward.

f) I plan on sharing this project before the symposium alongside my other practicum

students. The intended recipients will be my teacher mentor, principle, and any teachers

who are interested in my findings. I envision presenting my research at the front of the

classroom, and even giving a demonstration for one of the labs I did.