If the notion of taking students fishing to learn the skill of measurement seemed a bit too far-fetched (see: Cultivating Joy in Learning, Part II), there are other options of situated learning available. One of the best examples I’ve utilized over the arc of my career comes from the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) in Berkeley, California. A program called Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) has published over sixty guides featuring interactive STEM learning for students across the continuum of pre-school through high school education. A unit titled “Bubble-ology” is designed for students in grades 5 – 9, but can easily be modified to fit grades K – 4 as well. The unit invites students to explore the science of soap bubbles. From a “Joy in Learning” perspective, Bubble-ology includes all of the features Resnick (2017) and his colleagues recommend: Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play.

In short, Bubble-ology situates students as STEM-ologists as they investigate, calculate, draw conclusions, and substantiate their conclusions with experience-based evidence. Students are challenged to be and become scientists as they engage in many of the science and engineering practices identified as essential by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS): Asking questions and defining problems, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, and engaging in argument from evidence. The practices are applied to cross-cutting concepts from NGSS (patterns, cause and effect, and scale, proportion and quantity) and situated in disciplinary core ideas from Physical Science and Engineering, Technology, and the Application of Science.

The module begins by challenging students to investigate the properties necessary in order for an object to be a bubble-maker. Next, the concept of utilizing standard units of measurement is situated in a quest to determine which dish-soap solution makes the biggest bubbles. Students are challenged to blow and measure the diameter of three bubbles for each dish-soap solution under investigation. Next, they calculate the average bubble size for each solution they’ve tested and work together to calculate a grand average (average of averages) for each soap. Other activities within Bubble-ology include, “The Chemistry of Bigger Bubbles,” “Bernoulli’s Bubbles,” “Predict-a-Pop” and “Longer Lasting Bubbles” (Barber, 1986). Years ago, I extended the module to include a grand finale: putting teachers and students inside giant bubbles using the ideal bubble solution that evolved out of the bubble-ologists’ investigative endeavors.

Bubble-ology is one of the most meaningful ways I’ve found to introduce students to the concept of measurement and the process of calculating averages (as well as distinguishing between mean, median, and mode). Learners of all ages are motivated to measure the bubble ring left when their bubble pops. Whether measuring with a standard ruler, an inch-worm ruler, or unifix cubes, students are eager to see how big their bubble was and quick to challenge one another’s thinking if and when measurement errors or outliers occur.

I began using this curriculum as a middle school teacher in 1996 and continued using it – with modifications – all the way through undergraduate teacher education. In the final example, teacher candidates experienced the lessons as students first, then facilitated them with fifth grade students as an introduction to the teaching profession. In each case, students of all ages enjoyed the challenge of creating bubbles, engineering the ideal bubble recipe, and working collaboratively to put one another inside giant bubbles.

I offer Bubble-ology as an example of a readily available way to add joy to learning — and a situated understanding — of what might otherwise seem like mundane concepts: measurement, diameter, variables, controlled variables. Bubble-ology situates academic content in a highly engaging and interactive context. It provides a foundation on which future content-based lessons can lean upon, knowing that all learners have a shared and situated base of prior knowledge. Students will no doubt need to practice the skills of calculating averages and/or measuring the diameter of circles across other contexts, but introductory meaning has been made in a manner that is interesting, engaging and purposeful to students. The process of challenging students to employ the skills they learned within Bubble-ology across other contexts is itself a learning experience, helping students develop metacognitive awareness of the value of connecting past learning to new challenges.

I have included information below on how to order a Bubble-ology guide directly from GEMS. I have also listed STEM skills addressed by Bubble-ology, as well as a brief bibliography of children’s literature that supports interdisciplinary learning throughout the Bubble-ology unit.

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To order a copy of the Bubble-ology Guidebook from Great Explorations in Math and Science, click here. If you are interested in other guides published by GEMS, click here.

Academic Skills/Standards Addressed by Bubble-ology include, but are not limited to:

Science:

Making Observations
Recording Data
Experimenting
Classifying
Drawing Conclusions (using evidence)
Controlling Variables
Data Display (graphing)

Technology:

The Nature of Technology

Engineering:

Design a Bubble-Maker
Developing recipe for idea bubble solution

Mathematics:

Measurement (standard or non-standard units)
Average/Mean
Median
Mode
Bar Graph
Line Graph
Geometry (diameter, sphere)

Children’s Literature that supports the Bubble-ology unit:

Fiction:

dePaola, T. (1996). The bubble factory. NY: Scholastic.

Hulme, J. (1999). Bubble trouble. NY: Scholastic.

Mayer, M. (1973). Bubble bubble. Columbus, Ohio: Gingham Dog Press.

O’Connor, J. (1997). Benny’s big bubble. NY: Grosset & Dunlap.

Schubert, I. (1985). The magic bubble trip. Kane Miller Books.

Non-fiction:

Burton, J. & Taylor, K. (1998). The nature and science of bubbles. Milwaukee, WI: Gareth Stevens Publishing.

Shores, E. (2011). How to make bubbles. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press.

Taylor, B. (2013). I wonder why soap makes bubbles and other questions about science. NY: Kingfisher.

Citations:

Barber, J. (1986). Bubble-ology. Berkeley, CA: LHS GEMS.

Resnick, M. (2017). Lifelong kindergarten: Cultivating creativity through projects, passion, peers, and play. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Situated Learning