MESMERIZED: Bringing the Scientific Method to Life
Written by: Shea Payne
With an additional blog post link from Chandra Verbic of C. Jayne Teach
Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin solved a Mystery that Baffled
All of France
Written by: Mara Rockliff Illustrated by: Iacopo Bruno
Summary:
The day Ben Franklin first set foot in Paris, France, he
found the city all abuzz. Everyone was talking about something new. Something
remarkable, thrilling and strange. Something called Science!
But soon, the straightforward American inventor Benjamin
Franklin is upstaged by a compelling and enigmatic figure: Dr. Mesmer. In elaborately
staged shows, Mesmer, wearing a fancy coat of purple silk and carrying an iron
wand, convinces the people of Paris that he controls a magic force that can
make water taste like a hundred different things, cure illness, and control
thoughts! But Ben Franklin is not convinced. Will his practical approach of
observing, hypothesizing, and testing get to the bottom of the mysterious
Mesmer’s tricks? A rip-roaring, lavishly illustrated peek into a fascinating
moment in history shows the development and practice of the scientific
method—and reveals the amazing power of the human mind. (Via Good Reads)
Lesson Idea:
Teaching students the scientific method is a way of bringing
critical thinking and problem solving into your science curriculum. It sparks
the interest of budding inventors, curious questioners and kids who just want
to know how things work! The scientific method is found in every curriculum in
every state and can be easily incorporated into any grade level curriculum by
using this wonderfully creative and beautifully illustrated picture book.
In my 4th grade class we used this book to guide
a project based lesson on using the scientific method where we created
inventions that might be used to solve common problems in everyday life. The
students kept and inventor’s “notebook” (we used a section of our interactive
science notebooks) , where they recorded their steps through the scientific
method, their data, experiments, ideas, drawings and anything else they found
useful to help them complete their task. That information was then used to
design a final writing piece where the student walked the reader through
his/her scientific process from start to finish.
We began our lesson by reading the book and discussing how
and why Franklin felt compelled to prove Dr. Mesmer wrong. The book is
beautifully illustrated and very interesting, so my students loved it! As we
went through the book, we paid special attention to how Franklin went through
the scientific method to answer his own questions about Dr. Mesmer’s powers.
For homework that evening, the students were to come up with
two common problems that either they or their family faced. The next day, we
went through each student’s problems and we discussed if there was already an
inexpensive solution, if there was a way to solve the problem and how might we
go about coming up with a solution. This took a little time, and in fact, I
broke this up into two days. We narrowed it down to four problems that we
thought we could solve. Our problems were…
- How to keep your cats from eating dangerous houseplants
- How to keep your ear buds from getting tangled up in your backpack
- Fly repellant
- How to keep rugs from rolling up on the corners
The students then chose a problem that they wanted to work
on to create a solution or invention that would solve the issue. They were all
given the option to work alone or work with a partner or group. Every student
chose to work with a partner or a group. From there, we progressed through each
step of the scientific method, one step at a time, recording everything as we
went along.
When it came to conducting an experiment, the students
brought in their materials and conducted the majority of their experiment at
school. The only exception was trying the spray on a plant and testing it with
a real cat. That was done at home.
After the projects were created, the students took their
notes and wrote a final project draft from the first question to the end
product. They included a drawing and diagram of their final product. In two of
the projects, we had actual prototypes!
From the day we read the book to the day we presented our
projects, this activity took seven days. The students LOVED the creative problem
solving and I will definitely be using this lesson again!
About the Author: Shea Payne is a 4th grade teacher at The Discovery School @
Bellwood in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She enjoys spending time with her family,
sewing and looking for exciting new ways to teach her students.
Since this book was such a hit, another friend of mine also blogged about using Mesmerized in the classroom. Visit C. Jayne Teach to view Chandra Verbic's extensively thorough blog post titled: Mesmerized: Collliding Science and Social Studies through PBL
