California Educator

Hold on to your handouts "Why do things bounce back when they collide?" Mina J. Blazy asks her eighthgrade science students at Deser t Springs Middle School. Students are given a track, an energy car, silver marbles and rubber bands and told to explore, discover and create. They are not given handouts, even though they will later be given a laboratory handout designed around Newton's laws of motion. "If you give them the handout first, they feel like they have to answer the questions and they become stuck," explains Blazy. "Then no critical thinking takes place. But if you give them manipulatives or an experiment before you give them the handout, they have the ability to think critically. And they can come up with their own questions based on my questions. But first I let them play and they don't even realize they are experimenting on their own." The students are discovering Newton's second and third laws of motion, using the equipment while changing the force and the mass of the energy car. They are also having fun. " There are no wrong or right answers in science," Blazy reminds them. "Our job is to experiment and test. If the answers are inconclusive, students and scientists continue to test until there is a valid explanation." Blazy, a member of the Palm Springs Teachers Association, wants students to go beyond memorizing formulas. The goal is for them to ask questions and seek the answers. "When students learn how to learn, they become lifelong learners. When educators use a form of critical thinking in the classroom, students become engaged, and there are few behavioral problems. "A lot of students want to answer the questions on a piece of paper and be finished. If I ask them how to find Newton's third law of motion at the beginning of the school year, most students have developed the habit of using only the textbook or don't realize that there are other sources for finding information. They don't know how to look outside the box. It is absolutely amazing to watch their face beam with gratification when they discover the concepts the same way Newton or any other scientist found the concept." Some of her students have figured it out: For every action there is a reaction, and the forces of action and reaction always act in opposite directions. When she believes that the essential questions have been discussed verbally and the students can complete the task with little or no guidance, students are then given handouts and begin to work on a more formal lab. "I think that a lot of politics is pushing testing so much that teachers feel they have to make a choice between the pacing guide and allowing students to become critical thinkers," says Blazy. "But I think we can do both." To visit Blazy's website, go to web.mac.com/ mblazy/minablazy. Mina J. Blazy, a Palm Springs Teachers Association member, helps her eighth-grade science students at Desert Springs Middle School go beyond memorizing formulas to become "lifelong learners." june 8-21 June.09.indd 11 2009 | www.cta.org 11 6/4/09 1:57:25 PM

• Cover