Guided Inquiry Instruction

           Guided inquiry includes a question or purpose that is designed by the teacher, but the students are in charge of establishing the methods of testing of the teacher posed question.  I decided to focus on the question, “How do surfaces affect the momentum of marbles?”  I chose this particular question because it directly relates to a structured lesson that I recently implemented in my classroom, where the students answered the question, “Does Height Affect Velocity?” I believe that this question could be a great way to move the students into guided inquiry because this question is a continuation of what the students previously did, therefore they will already have a great understanding of the prior knowledge needed for this experience.  For this reason I thought that this experience would benefit my students.

            I decided to use three different surfaces to engage in this experiment including tile, carpet, and concrete.  I created a slope with a ruler placed on a book that measured 6cm high.  I completed four trials with the large marble and four with the smaller marble. I placed a meter stick at the end of the ruler to measure how much impetus was gained by the marbles has after completing their journeys down the ruler.  I discovered that the flatter or smoother the surface, the more momentum gained. 

            I believe that attempting to choose surfaces and coming up with an easy way to test went very well for me.  The challenge that I experienced in this experiment was finding a leveled concrete area because the marble kept rolling sideways. There was also wind involved in affecting the momentum of the marble. 

            I could modify this experiment by using a variety of marble shapes adding the idea of mass into the equation.  For my class in particular, I would make this experiment for relevant to them by using toy cars instead of marbles I think this provides a more realist test.  I would also combine this activity that I mentioned earlier where the students tested velocity.  I think that would be a nice move from structured inquiry instruction to guided inquiry instruction.  Student should learn that the surface does affect momentum of a moving object.