Activity
Introduction to Scientific Inquiry
Introduce students with visual impairments to the process of scientific inquiry through an examination of the difference and similarities in types of seeds.
Objectives:
Introduce students with visual impairments to the process of scientific inquiry through an examination of the difference and similarities in types of seeds.
Suggested time
Two thirty-minute periods
Materials
- A braille copy of the process of scientific inquiry for each student
- an apple, orange, or peach for each child
- paper plates
- plastic knives
Procedure
- Have student take turns reading the steps involved in scientific inquiry.
- Give each child an apple to hold.
- Ask each child to write down the answers to the following questions:
- How many seeds do you think are inside?
- Do you think all apples have the same number of seeds?
- Do you think all the seeds are the same size?
- Help children cut into the apple and find the answers to the above questions.
- Discuss this process of scientific inquiry — observation, hypothesis, experiment.
- Repeat the process with an orange. Discuss whether information from the previous experiment helped them make more informed guesses to the questions.
- Repeat the process with a peach. Discuss the differences and similarities between the seeds found in different fruits or vegetables.
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