The week before we carried out our inquiries, we were given a planning sheet where we came up with a question and a design for our inquires. Our professor said that we were able to choose our own question which was quite exciting. I worked in a group with four other classmates and we decided that we wanted to see if the color of the meal worm's food (corn meal) would change the color of the worm. We also had to do research to make sure that food dye is not toxic for the meal worms. After researching the topic, we saw that the investigation had been done many times and that food coloring was not toxic for the worms. After we had our question approved by our professor, we completed the planning sheet. We had to think about how we could collect data, what type of data we could collect, and how often we were going to collect the data. We also had to list out the steps of our investigation so we knew what we were doing and so it is able to be repeated by other scientists.
For a week, the students came into the classroom, observed the meal worm and wrote in their science notebooks. The students were all very excited about the investigation and took much interest in it. At the end of the week, they were sad to see the meal worm go. They made one last observation and we discussed what we found. Some of the students saw the meal worm changing colors on the top of its head (I did not see this). Other students did not see the color change either. They made their conclusions about the investigation and I took the meal worm back to my science class.
When we got into my science class, we had to create a poster to present our findings of the investigations, like scientists do. We were given a half hour to create our poster. While we were discussing our data, we found that only the blue meal worm changed colors. You could clearly see the blue. The green (mine), red, yellow, and the control meal worm all did not change colors. When we finished our posters, we held a science conference in class. We went around to the different projects and talked to classmates about their findings. While we were presenting our research, we had the blue meal worm in a 2-way microscope to see the color change. Half way through the presentation, we decided to put my meal worm in there as well to see the contrast. Upon doing so, we saw that the green meal worm was changing colors! My students saw this, but I was unable to. I saw in shock. This showed me that we have to use the right materials when doing investigations, otherwise, we might miss some important information.
At the end of the conference, my professor told us that we were welcome to keep the critter cages and the meal worm. I was so excited. This meant that I could continue the LTI with my class! (And they were excited when I brought it back to class). Overall, I really enjoyed working on this inquiry and I learned a lot throughout the process.
What I learned:
- Choice is a big factor on inquiries. It generates interest and showcases students creativity.
- Use the right tools for inquiries and investigations
- Students should be able to choose their own materials, and they should be set up in a central location
- Teacher should be there to guide students, not tell them what to do