Science Engagement Reflection

Well it has been awhile since I did my engagement activity...but here goes nothing. My engagement activity was skewering a balloon. I had some difficulties getting things organized in the morning, I assumed that there would be other people presenting the same day as me and I would go second. This wasn't the case and I had to scramble to get set up. I had a number of substance and objects to use with balloons. I wanted an activity that was inquiry based. So I gave the class the material and asked them to try and skewer the balloons after blowing them up. I had many hesitant partipants as they were scared the balloon would pop. Many of them did pop but many were successful. They each had their own theories about what substances worked and wouldn't work and experimented several times. I really enjoyed doing this activity. The best part was watching my peers faces as they tried to skewer the balloon... they were unsure if it would pop or not and would screw there faces up. I learned that inquiry based learning helps to maintain engagement. My peers were having a rough day maintaining attention and moved into discussing plans for the weekend and things that were going on. This was frustrating but at the same time I know that they are not in elementary school and this experience was aimed at that age level. Overall I think this experience went really well.