Pumpkin Investigation

Ms. Ruggeri was fortunate enough to have about 18 pumpkins donated to our ACE class this year. We decided to use them for an inquiry lesson. The class heard a story about a family who wanted to roast pumpkin seeds for Halloween. They headed to the farmstand, but then had to decide which pumpkin would have the most seeds. Would it be the largest, the heaviest, the one with the most ridges?

From here we let the class come up with their own questions to ask and we were impressed with what they came up with! Teams decided what they would investigate and created a Pumpkin Journal. Each team had to measure their pumpkins circumference and diameter and used it to calculate Pi. (C/D=Pi)

Asked and recorded three or more questions = 15 students

Recorded circumference/diameter data for 5 pumpkins = 14 students

Had a testable question in their journal = 15

Stated a hypothesis = 10

Stated a procedure that could be repeated = 11

Collected and recorded data in their journal = 9

Recorded a conclusion = 4 (we ran out of time on our last day, but believe this number would have been higher given more time)

All in all, this was a great open inquiry lesson and the students rose to the occasion and were eager to carve into those pumpkins!