If you want to lecture and explain what happened, they will listen. If you want them to watch a video related to the topic, they will watch. If you want them to break into groups and solve the problem themselves, they will work in groups. In the field of science, one of the best resource books for discrepant events is Invitations to Science Inquiry by Tik Liem. Dr. Liem has passed away, but many who attended science meetings will remember his jammed packed sessions where even the most die-hard science teachers would whoop and holler, laugh and cheer as he regaled the group with one discrepant event after another.
Discrepant events are fun and exciting to do.
They cause the students to sit in absolute amazement and, of course, the students go home with a great sense of pride knowing that their teacher is even better than David Cooperfield in causing people to ponder and wonder-which are the seeds for learning. Every subject has its discrepant events. In language arts, there are palindromes . These are words, phrases, and sentences that spell the same backward or forward. Perhaps you have been to one of several science centers and seen a large-scale model of the probability device shown below.