Film Canister Science

Byline: Andrew Ferstl and Jamie L. Schneider Opaque film canisters are readily available, cheap (usually free from a local film processing store), and useful for scientific inquiry in the classroom. Recently, we pilot tested an integrated science class for elementary education majors. The first goal of our integrated science class was to overcome the common elementary education major's aversion to science. A goal of this course was to use teaching methods and activities that preservice teachers could readily transport to future classrooms. We modeled how to teach science by having the preservice teachers do the activities that they will use in their class. We also modeled how a strand within the Physical Science Standards could be explored at numerous levels of development from lower elementary levels to middle and high school levels (NRC 1996). Because supplies are limited in many classrooms, we used film canisters in a number of inquiry activities, including a "black box" activity and several activities on sinking and floating properties related to density and to Archimedes' principle. As described, the activities in this article were written for preservice teachers. However, our intent for this article was to describe activities that could be used at elementary, middle, and high school levels. For instance, the black box and the initial floating and sinking activity could be used at the elementary level with modifications to the instructions and expectations, and the more mathematically based activities on density could be used at the middle and high school levels. Overall, these activities address Standards related to the nature of science, specifically to scientific inquiry; physical properties including mass, volume, density, and floating and sinking; and mathematic patterns and relationships (see Addressing the Standards, p. 50). Learning about science process Film canisters were first used in our class to help students discover ideas about the process of science. We took a well-known black box activity (Dickey 1995) and substituted film canisters as the black box (Figure 1). Students completed this activity on the second day of class. Students enjoyed the activity because they felt like they were solving a mystery. Through discussion, students realized that each group solved this mystery using relatively similar scientific approaches, including making observations and predictions/hypotheses, developing and using experiments to test their predictions, and drawing conclusions. Students also learned an important lesson: Scientific explorations do not always have yes/no answers. Careful and unbiased data analysis is essential because the unexpected is always possible. Figure 1. Black box activity. Objective Introduce the process of science. Materials and setup Each group has two opaque film canisters with something inside of each; an empty canister; and a clear plastic bag of items that could potentially be in the canister, such as a button, a piece of string, some cloth, and a needle. One of the canisters has an object that is in the plastic bag. This is a different object for each group. The other canister has an object that is not in the plastic bag. This item is the same for each group. Also in the room are mass balances. Student instructions The instructions are very basic and intentionally vague. We ask students to figure out what is in the canister without opening it. We also inform them that the plastic bag contains potential candidates for the item in their canisters. Students can use the empty canister to help them evaluate and guide their inquiry. Students are asked to record their testing strategies, predictions, observations, and conclusions in a journal. Instructor note Instructors can tailor this experiment to fit the ability of their students. Students usually overlook the adjective in the phrase potential candidates and instead tend to focus solely on the items in the bag. …