Discovery Box

I believe that Discovery Boxes are a great thing to incorporate into the science classroom. It gives students the opportunity to explore and discovery their own learning.

For example, I’ve chose erosion as my topic for my discovery box because students can manipulate sediments and be able to see erosion at first hand. Erosion can contain complex subject matter, but within these discovery boxes students can experiment and use inquiry based learning to discover erosion.

This discovery box is excellent because it includes all forms of sediment and water. The students will use dirt, sand, rocks, water, ice cubes, heat and wind to experience first hand how erosion forms. With this discovery the students can learn and explore more about our land and how it has formed over time due to erosion.

I would use the discovery box in the duration of a geology unit. I don’t believe that students can learn about our land forms and environment without being exposed to hands on experiments; in this case, to form their own erosion. I would utilize the discovery box of erosion after the engage stage where the students will simply vocalize what they know about how landforms develop and erosion is created. After developing curiosities, the students will then be able to utilize the discovery box to solidify their knowledge and discover facts.

I find that this particular discovery box would fit perfectly into the explore stage after the engage step in the learning cycle. The erosion box would be good for the explore stage because the students will have the opportunity to apply their curiosities to a hands on experience. Using a constructivist approach is crucial in complex subjects such as erosion because students often learn much more from exploring themselves to discovery answers to their questions.

The discovery box of erosion would also fit into the elaborate stage where they also experiment and discovery answers to their curiosities throughout the learning process of the unit. Whether the box is placed in the engage or elaborate stage, the box is a useful tool for the students to see erosion right in front of their eyes.