An inquiry based lesson that i thoroughly enjoy doing with infants is the gummy bear experiment.
Each child is given a gummy bear as a treat to begin the lesson but before they eat it they must examine it and discuss what they think might happen if the gummy bear is left in the classroom in a glass of water.
The children’s predictions are then recorded on a flip chart and three gummy bears are put into three separate cups.Two with water and one without.
When the lesson is revisited the next day the children will see that two of the bears has gotten much bigger. They discuss how this might have happened and revisit their previous predictions. Which bear didn’t grow and why?
One of the bears in water is removed from the cup and one can be left for a further day. The children can see on the third day that each gummy bear is a different size depending on how long it was left to absorb some
Water. They are especially fascinated the second day when they see how the water has changed the jelly. It really is a fun lesson for them.