Revisiting the ‘unmixing experiment’ through argumentation

Abstract

This paper focuses on a series of activities for students at middle school to college level, designed to instill a sound understanding of fluids and the properties of fluids. The first activities investigate diffusion and molecular size and these are followed by tasks exploring viscosity and the factors effecting viscosity. Following this, there is an activity about laminar and turbulent flows, and finally there is a visually attractive and colorful activity using the base knowledge about fluids gained from the previous three activities. The main idea of this series of activities is to use the 'predict-observe-explain' strategy and to make use of explanations, from those that are very simple to complex phenomenon. The four activities require students to discuss the subjects, lead by provoking questions,and then make use of argumentation patterns in the final activity, where answers require claims, evidence, warrants, qualifiers and rebuttals.