Who what when where . . . . how?

I offered to help a student with a science lab Friday. I pointed out he'd have to tell me about the lab but I could help him write it up, as he needs to raise his grade in that class. He told me about the experiment: you take 2 potatoes and put 1 in water and and 1 in salt water. And they change. And that was pretty much what he wrote.

So, I ask, HOW did they change? Well in water they weigh more and in salt water they weigh even more. So I wrote: you put a potato in water, it weighs more, therefor it absorbed water. You put a potato in salt water, it weighs even more, therefor it salt water causes a potato to absorb more water than distilled water.

I pointed out that telling me it changed isn't enough - you have to tell HOW it changed. And I started thinking that this is where they fall apart. In transformations, they tell me it moves, but not where or how. In English, they say two characters are the same or different, but they don't expand the idea.

My lesson Monday is going to be on Venn diagrams and who, what, when, where, how and why. You don't always use all of those, but you need to use some of those everytime you are asked for a comparison, whatever the subject.

I learned that in the journalism class I took in high school, back when we wrote our school newspaper on clay tablets. (OK, kidding, but I did learn it in journalism class)

I think I'll start with the science experiment (since they all have science and all did the lab - and most are not doing well in their labs. Then we'll use Venn diagrams to talk about the difference between a huge dump truck and a VW. Maybe the difference between a dog and a flower. And then do some more transformations - first with a Venn and then the way we've been doing this.