The old instructions for the energy box read like a recipe. Often, this is also the way in which pupil labs are set up. Step by step, it is explained how to investigate an aspect of the school's energy use. Both the choice of research question and the method are completely fixed, only the result is open. This is called directed research.
It offers more learning opportunities to see the school as a case, allowing the pupils to ask themselves questions and think of ways to investigate the question and find answers for it. An open research.
In this action sheet, you find methods to formulate research questions. The sheet is made with the polar sciences in mind, but the methods we provide can also be used for other poles.
Types of research:
- Confirmatory (question and method by teacher, result known in advance)
- Directed (question and method by teacher)
- Guided (teacher question, pupil method)
- Open (question and method students)
How does it work?
It is not always easy to formulate a good research question on your own. Collaboration is key. Creative thinking techniques help you do this. At school, we are used to practising convergent thinking, looking for the one right solution. Divergent thinking, associating and combining are skills that come in handy now.
Then the selection takes place: is this a good research question?
How do you start?
Whats in the energy box?
Explore with the pupils the different devices in the energy box. Make groups of about 4 students and ask each group to become an expert on a measuring device.
- What does the device measure?
- Where can you use it at school?
- How do you use it?
- How accurate is it?
Each group prepares a short lesson about 'their' device. The pupils give this lesson to the other students. This is an example of confirmatory research.
Mindmap: energy use at school.
Find out the total annual energy consumption of the school (gas, fuel oil, electricity, ...together) and put this total use in the centre of the mind map.
Create a first branch on the mind map for each energy carrier (gas, fuel oil, electricity, ... with the energy use for that carrier). For each carrier, consider the energy service it provides (heating, lighting, etc.). This will be a new branch each time. Then, find out which devices are involved per energy service (boilers, fluorescent lights, computer, refrigerators, ...). Depending on the size of the school, you can also divide it into buildings. This way, the pupils get an idea of the amount of energy used at school and what it is used for. On this mind map, you can also define which energy use you want to investigate.
It is better to have enough ideas
some of which are wrong,
than to be right and
have no ideas at all.
(Edward de Bono)
Choosing a research area
Based on the mind map, the pupils choose an area of research.
Factors that may determine their choice:
- What do I find most interesting myself?
- What does my teacher or principal find most interesting?
- What is the main need of the school?
- About which area can I find the most information?
- What is most relevant to current events?
- In what area can I achieve spectacular results most quickly, etc.?
How to formulate research questions?
Answer a question with a new question.
You can also use this as a warming-up exercise to learn how to ask questions. This writing exercise is done with the whole class. Each pupil writes a question about energy use at school on a sheet of paper. (S)He passes this sheet to another pupil, who answers the question by writing another question underneath. The pupil folds the paper so that the first question can no longer be read, and passes the sheet to another pupil. This one answers the second question and folds the sheet again so that only the last question written is visible. Repeat this until every student writes a question on every sheet and gets his or her sheet back.
Going through all these questions can help formulate a research question more clearly.
The brainstorm.
With the energy metre, you can measure the energy consumption (kWh) or the power (kW) of a computer. Suppose for a moment that this is the theme chosen by the class. We use the class group to generate many questions about the energy consumption of the PC. Give each student 3 post-its and the assignment to write on each post-it a question about the energy consumption of the PC. When everyone has finished, gather the group around the board. Have someone read a question and stick it on the board. Then ask if someone can stick a similar or completely different question to it. This way, form different clusters of questions. Search with the class for a description of the different clusters and write this down. Now check at this higher level whether any clusters of questions have been overlooked. Complete them if necessary. Make a photo of the board as a report. Each group works with a cluster to formulate a research question. They also determine the desired research result: a description, an explanation, a judgement, an advice or a designing question (looks for solutions to a problem), ...
In addition to the energy metre, the energy box also contains an IR thermometer, a CO2 metre, an IR camera, a light metre, data loggers and a measuring tape.
What's a good research question?
The pupil groups exchange their research questions with another group. They evaluate the question on the basis of a number of criteria.
- Is the question clearly formulated?
- Is it a single question?
- Does the question lead to a known path or not?
- Does the question make false assumptions or not?
They write down their feedback for the owners of the research question.
The pupils make a report of their research. This can take different forms: a short presentation or a scientific article. Why not publish the main results on the school website or have them presented to the headmaster and the technical department?
These questions can be asked after a solution has been found:
- What was the main problem in this task?
- What strategies did we use?
- How can we summarise the problem?
- How important is the result and what do we learn from it?
- How can we fit this problem into what we have learned so far?
- What do we need to remember?
- Are there alternative ways to reach a solution?
- How can we expand, generalise and vary the problem?
Tip
The examples in this action sheet remain close to the technical content of the energy box. Opening up the theme to climate change offers the opportunity to formulate less technical research questions as well.
Did you know… that the first article on climate change appeared on November 7, 1902? It refers to a publication by Svante Arrhenius (known from chemistry class) from 1896. http://www.rsc.org/images/Arrhenius1896_tcm18-173546.pdf