Absolute Proof of Learning

This simple experiment is one that I would do in the first week of science class that proves that every student can learn. (At least I never had a student that did this and did not prove they could learn.) You make a pattern something like the one in the graphic. It is only important that it have several pieces of different colors, uses only triangular, square, or oblong shapes and that none of the shapes is too small. The number of pieces should be from about 5 to about 8, but if you are doing this for each student in a class, all of the patterns should be the same.

The pattern is best made our of card stock or printed on regular paper and then glued to card stock. The graphic shows the final pattern on top of a bordered piece of cardstock. This border acts somewhat like a childs puzzle which has a raised edge to contain the pieces of the puzzle. In this case the border defines the shape of the puzzle. I used large index cards for the border card and another for the puzzle pieces.

Cut one puzzle out carefully, place all the pieces in the proper positions on the border card in the proper locations and then turn each piece over and mark it lightly with the letter "D" for down. Now gather all the pieces and the border card and place everything into a plastic sandwich bag with a zip or seal lock. You now have one puzzle set. Now you need to make many more. Generally I would make one for each student in the class and then I would also make about 10 extra sets. (Note: You may want to put "D1" on each of these to indicate that this is the down side of every piece in set one and later when you make other sets number them accordingly.)

Although this can take quite a bit of time, remember that you will be able to use this for many years. For younger children you may want to use slightly less pieces to the puzzle, but the number should not be lower than 6. The pieces may need to be larger for younger children. You may have a printer that can print directly on to card stock and make this process easier and if you want to save on color ink, you could print out a black and white version of the puzzle and then color the segments with markers, but all the sets should be colored the same. If you have an overhead projector you might make one set of puzzle pieces as a transparency. If you do not have an overhead projector you could draw the puzzle pattern on the chalk or white board and color it appropriately.

You will tell your students that: "Today we will prove that everyone can learn." Tell them that when you pass out the puzzle patterns they are supposed to take all the pieces out of the bag and place them on the border card exactly like you have it pictured on the overhead or chalkboard with all the pieces in the up position. Then you would have them write their names, date, etc. on a blank sheet of paper and then skip a line and then write: Exp. 1, skip a line and write: Exp. 2 etc. for at least three experiments. Tell them that you are going to time them on their ability to put the puzzle back together exactly the same way as it is now, but that they should study the pattern for 30 seconds. (You now have to cover the pattern on the chalkboard or on the overhead projector.)

After they have studied the pattern for 30 seconds tell them to slide the pieces off the border card onto their desk and "mix" them up. Tell them it is important that they do a good job of mixing them up, but not to turn them over. You will need to be certain they do mix them up. Usually they will do a good job of mixing them up on this first time, later they may not. Tell them that you are going to say "GO" and they are supposed to put the puzzle back on the border card properly and you will be counting off seconds. As soon as they finish they are to write down how many seconds it took them to complete this first trial next to Exp.1 on their paper.

After you have done this one time, you will get them ready to do this a second time. This time tell them that it is very important to still mix the pieces up properly so that the experiment is not affected by cheating. You will have to be a bit more careful, because some will want to only slightly mix up the pieces, to get an advantage.

Each time they do this experiment they should get the puzzle put together faster, up to a point naturally, but in every case it should get faster than it was the very first time they tried and this then proves they can learn. Yes, it is only that they learned to put a simple puzzle together faster than they did at the start, but it is still absolute proof of learning.

Because some students may not do as well on the second or third times, they may feel they are not learning and it is important that you explain it is only in comparison to the first time and depends a little on how much they mix up the pieces. You could point out that if you had a very specific way of moving the pieces from their original position to a specific mixed "start" position, that the experiment would have a better overall design and would probably yield better results.

After you have done this three or four times, you are probably reaching the maximum times for this particular experiment, but now every student has to admit that they can learn something.