‘Which cup is the best?’: Encouraging children to act like scientists when investigating the properties of materials

This paper describes an enquiry‐based science teaching sequence that was designed to teach about the properties of materials, and implemented with primary school children (aged 9 to 10 years) in Malaysia. The sequence consisted of three activities: ‘Naming the cups’, ‘Defining the properties of the cups’, and ‘Grading the cups’. The first activity aimed to develop children’s scientific literacy by encouraging them to observe and classify cups based on the materials that they were made of. The second activity aimed to develop children’s critical thinking skills, by enabling them to engage in processes such as grouping and classifying, analysing, visualising and synthesising information. The third activity aimed to challenge children’s understanding of the scientific method. The evaluation of the implementation revealed that the enquiry‐based science teaching sequence was successful in enhancing the scientific literacy and critical thinking skills of the children. The teacher’s facilitation of open discussion among the children, coupled with opportunities to correct their misconceptions, contributed greatly to the success of the sequence.