Questioning+and+Posing+Problems

//Do you know that questions vary in complexity? Can you use questions as a strategy to search and find solutions? Can you use questions in science to pose problems that can be solved experimentally? "The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill." --Einstein//
 * Questioning and Posing Problems**

When it comes to scientific experiments, or just experiments in general, I've always been so used to carrying out the steps of a procedure given to me that when asked to come up with my own question to investigate, and to write up my own procedure to investigate that question, I'm at loss for what to do at first.

When, in our Kinetics unit, we were given the task of designing and carrying out an investigation of our choice relating to one factor that affects the rate of a chemical reaction, my partner, Crystal, and I weren't sure how to start. Before coming up with a question (since we didn't have any to begin with), we looked over the different factors that we learned about that affect the rate of chemical reactions. For example, concentration, particle size (surface area), and temperature are all determinants on the rate of a reaction. Next, we looked over ways of measuring the rate of a reaction, for example measuring the change in the volume of a gas that results from the reaction, measuring the increase in the mass of a gas that results, measuring the time taken for the formulation of a solid product, etc.

After reviewing all of these things that we learned so far in the unit, Crystal and I decided that we were interested in the effect that the concentration of hydrochloric acid would have on the reaction between hydrochloric acid and magnesium. We had an investigative question! Though we had our question, we still had to write up a procedure, come up with a list of materials so that we could carry out our experiment, and so on. The first time we presented our procedure to Ms. Knowles for approval, we had to re-write some parts of it because the steps weren't specific enough. Through this, we learned that when writing up experimental procedures, the steps have to be as detailed and specific as possible, because though we knew what we wanted to do, if someone else were to carry out our experiment using our procedure, the instructions would have to be very detailed.

Our question alone wasn't very complex, but through writing up the procedure, materials list, and overall just putting together an experiment, we learned that, as Einstein said, the "formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution". Carrying out the experiment wasn't difficult, but through putting it all together, my partner and I learned the importance of posing questions, and devising ways to find solutions to those questions.

Click here to see our final lab report ("How does changing the concentration of Hydrochloric acid in a reaction between HCl and Magnesium affect the rate of the reaction?")

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