3.0+Rationale

=Rationale - =

===Many times children enter Middle School either ambivalent about science or totally disliking it. I believe this is caused by previous experiences with science which have been uninviting and difficult. The rationale for this TRB is that it will provide teachers with a beginning of the year unit which will excite students about inquiry science by creating an atmosphere in which they become true scientists!===

===In __How Students Learn, Science in the Classroom__, Donovan and Bransford state, “Opportunities to learn science as a process of inquiry (rather than simply having “inquiry times” that are appended to an existing curriculum) has important advantages. It involves observation, imagination, and reasoning about the phenomena under study. It includes the use of tools and procedures, but in the context of authentic inquiry, these become devices that allow students to extend their everyday experiences of the world and help them organize data in ways that provide new insights into phenomena.” Helping students take on the role of scientists through activities and investigations sets the tone in the classroom that curiosity and experimentation is respected and encouraged.===

===When students put on a lab coat, write the script and perform a laboratory tools infomercial, and carry out various experiments they are empowered to have fun with science. To possibly view it as an area in which they might one day pursue an interesting career. “One of the most important aspects of science – yet perhaps one of the least emphasized in instruction – is that science involves processes of imagination. If students are not helped to experience this for themselves, science can seem dry and highly mechanical. Indeed, research on students’ perceptions of science indicates that ‘they see scientific work as dull and rarely rewarding, and scientists as bearded, balding, working alone in the laboratory, isolated and lonely.’” (Donovan and Bransford, 2005) This TRB aims to change those perceptions and spark the students’ interest in science right from the beginning!===