Of Scabs and Showers: Teaching Science In Middle School

Montessori Life, Spring 2004 by Cherath, Lata

In order to find activities to show connections between classroom study and everyday living, I search the Internet at several websites.

Montessori and Science

The Montessori curriculum-starting with the concrete at a young age and revisiting concepts appropriately through primary and elementary years and into middle school-lends itself beautifully to teaching science. At the beginning of each unit, I consider what I believe are the basic concepts for each student to master by the end of the unit. Example: when we are studying motion, all students are expected to be able to measure time and distance accurately, record data in lists or tables, and apply concepts to calculate speed.

I then present the "developing" goals. These are the concepts that they have previously been exposed to. Then I ask them to draw connections between what they are now learning and how it is linked to what they learned before. For instance, when they are learning about motion, they realize they need a reference point for determining if something is in motion.

Finally, the third step is to introduce another application or extension of the concept. Example: a crow is flying at a constant speed and accidentally drops a ball of bread it was carrying in its beak. A person standing on the ground sees the ball fall. I ask the students to think if the motion of the ball is the same with respect to the reference point of the crow and the person standing on the ground. As they draw the diagram they realize that depending on the reference point chosen, the path of the bread will appear to be straight or curved. Some of the students are immediately ready for this challenge. I assure all of them that they will see this concept many more times in the future.

Development of Critical Thinking Skills

An important objective of teaching science is to promote critical thinking. Science affords opportunities to be concise, precise and meticulous in investigations and assignments. Hands-on assignments are for the most part self-correcting, and students learn about human limitations and how to account for personal errors. They also learn about conducting multiple trials so as to lesson the range of error.

Experiments Make Lessons Concrete

In one first year middle school group I discussed the six steps of the scientific method. The students worked on the laboratory report template and were familiar with terms such as controls, variables, hypothesis, data table and conclusion. Now they were ready to do an experiment.

Despite all the didactic preparation, doing a lab was very different. I divided the group into groups of three and watched as they brainstormed what the controls should be, the variables and how many trials they should do. They used data tables to record data. They hypothesized and some groaned as they watched the results show their hypothesis was wrong.

Repetition helped them internalize these methods. By the end of the middle school, students were able to design controls. One simple experiment was to make a pendulum using different lengths of string and then hook metal washers onto it. They had to investigate whether it was the length of the string or the weight added to the string, which affected the number of swings of the pendulum.