#AEE412 Lab Reflection: Inquiry Based Instruction

I was super excited about this week's lab. Back in May on our annual Domestic Study Away trip, I had my first experience with Inquiry Based Instruction. While in Wisconsin, we had the opportunity to prepare and teach an IBI lesson in Ms. Rachel Sauvola's classroom. It was challenging but I really liked what IBI was all about. 

We just completed 2 weeks of instruction on IBI, including a visit with Ms. Krista Pontius and Mr. Michael Clark at Greenwood High School, further instruction from Ms. Pontius and Mr. Mark Anderson, and a chance to plan and teach an IBI lesson on our own! I chose to plan a lesson on electromagnetism and how electricity and magnets are related. I had a lot of fun planning this lesson and brushing up on my physics. I even had a couple of my engineering friends help me out to make sure I really felt confident with the material. During lab, we taught a 20 minute "slice" of our whole lesson. Here are my takeaways:

Gems

1. I was excited about what I was teaching, and I feel like my enthusiasm helped others get excited, too.
2. I was confident in the material I was teaching, which makes me think of last week's reading on classroom management. Being knowledgable in the content you teach is an important aspect to promoting a positive learning environment.

Opportunities to Improve

1. I definitely should have included more background material on magnets and how they're related to electricity. Sometimes I feel like I have a hard time determining what high schoolers should already know/be able to figure out.
2. While I had a very general plan for this, I should have really thought through what I would do if my students were lost and weren't able to figure out how to make an electromagnet. For example, I could have written down some effective questions that I could use to help get them there.

Thanks for reading! I would love to read about your experiences with IBI and some of your "pro tips"!