The sixth graders came to science class the first week and encountered a Mystery Tube. At first, it appears simple: a cardboard tube with string coming out of it. But once you start pulling on the strings, the mystery begins! The strings move in strange ways, each one seems connected to all the others. The students worked together to use indirect observation to make a claim about what was inside the tube. They substantiated their claim by designing two dimensional (drawings) and three dimensional (toilet paper roll) models that behaved similarly to the actual tube. Students came up with so many different, but all possible solutions. As a class, we then discussed how there are many things in science we wish to study, but cannot observe directly because they are too big, too small, or too inaccessible. The ability to use behavior and indirect observations to draw conclusions about the structure of objects is important. And, of course, scientists are constantly creating models to explain the phenomena they experience. When we begin learning about atoms, students will be able to connect these experiences to the abstract world of these teeny-tiny things which make up our world and which have kept scientists interest since for centuries!
