Questioning+and+Posing+Problems

**Questioning and Posing Problems**  **One example of questioning and posing problems this year was illustrated by the end-of-the-year project we had to do. The project required us to investigate any topic related to chemistry of our choice. We could either do a research project or an experiment. I decided to do an experiment. The most important part of the project however was deciding on a topic to choose: I did not find this very hard because there was one thing I was really interested in ever since I was little; that thing was flubber. I always thought it was fascinating in a very childish way and seizing the opportunity to not only investigate this fun toy but also get a grade on it, I decided to base my research question on flubber. I chose to question how changing the amount of a substance in the composition of the flubber (borax) would affect the elasticity of the flubbers. I wondered if by changing the amount of borax, would I end up making the flubbers more elastic, or less elastic? I liked the project a lot in that I was allowed to choose the question I wished to investigate. Ultimately, it was a smart question to choose because it allowed for a very easily-controlled experiment and data that could be easily interpreted. As a child, I always liked questioning the world around me and how things worked and why. I have a natural curiosity for getting to the answer of phenomena and the "truth" of how everything works. As a result, throughout my life, I've never stopped questioning and posing problems to everything around me because I dearly wanted to know how and why things happen. This project was fun for me because it was really loose in terms of what we were allowed to do, so I could basically ask and investigate a question of my choosing that I was really interested in. The project only fortified my curiosity in things as I question what errors in my procedure could have resulted in the unexpected data I gathered. Questioning and posing problems is very natural for me and it's what drives me to do most of what I do.**