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Sep. 27, 1997 Week Three Reflections We have completed the third week of instruction in the new semester. My sixth and seventh grade students have been working with experiments from the FOSS Variables kit. Week before last, they experimented with pendulums. I had them write up their conclusions, and discovered they really hadn't kept very good records of their results, and most of them had a hard time making much sense of what they had done. We reviewed their data, and I had them reconstruct a record of their results. Then I asked them to rewrite their conclusions. I am hoping this experience will help train them to keep better records next time. We began a second investigation, called Lifeboats. In this experiment, the students make small boats out of paper cups of varying capacities. Through experimentation, they discover that the number of "passengers" a boat can carry is directly related to the boat's capacity. I intend to introduce the record-keeping system for autonomous investigations in the context of this guided investigation. That way the students will get a chance to see how the forms work, and understand what I expect. I hope to also present students with the list of investigation kits, and see where their interests lie. I called all the parents, and reached about half. I have been emphasizing organization of their binders into sections. I collect and grade this work each Friday. Some of the students, fresh from elementary school, are very poorly organized. I hope the binder system will help them take control of their work, and make it easier for me and their parents to keep track of how they are doing. I am sending home a page-long description of how their notebooks are supposed to look. I hope to meet many of the parents on Tuesday, at Open House. My school hosted the first district science teachers' Walkabout last week, which was a big success. We had more than fifteen teachers, including several brand new ones, and a number of more experienced ones. We have a nice core of really enthusiastic experienced teachers, willing to share. A few people were quite interested in the investigation kit model I am trying out, so we may expand our circle of inquiry in Oakland. Anthony