Mystery Bag

One activity from tonight's class that really stuck out in my mind and that I feel like I could use in my future classroom is the Mystery Bag Activity. Professor Smirnova started out by introducing us to the mystery bag, asking us to make inquiries about, ask questions about what could be in the bag, and eventually, we got to hold the bag and formulate a statement of what was in the bag. I think this is a great way to introduce the scientific method to students. I could imagine taking more time through each of the steps so that we could talk about more specific vocabulary such as hypothesis, experiment, and observations. If I was also teaching this lesson in order to teach the scientific method, I might use the activity for a whole week with a different mystery bag every day to get students in the habit of following the steps to find out what is in the mystery bag.

I would, however, end up showing my students what was in the bag in the end even though the principle concept is that scientific knowledge is uncertain. This could also be an activity that could be scaffolded from development "I Do", where I demonstrate through direct instruction on how to go through the steps of the mystery bag/scientific method. Then as guided practice "We Do" by going through and following the steps as a class. Lastly, I could have students create there own mystery bag from home and present to the class or in groups as independent practice "I Do". We could do Mystery Bag Monday so that every Monday someone is bringing in a mystery bag so that we continue practicing the scientific method throughout the entire year. I can also imagine creating a worksheet to go along with this activity so that there was consistency from week to week.