Batteries, Bulbs and Wires

There is a considerable difference in the classroom of Ms Stone and Ms Travis in the way students explore the beginning of the unit on electricity.  Ms Stone's way of teaching represent the old traditional way of teaching while Ms Travis employs constructivist approach to teaching science.
Ms Stone did not even engage students in scientifically oriented question. She engages the students in exploration of electrical circuits on her own terms. She gives precise instructions, step by step. Students are not allowed to explore.  They just have to follow instructions. She introduces the definitions of the terms because she believes students will not be able to conduct their discoveries without knowing those scientific terms.  On the other hand, Ms Travis did not base the whole lesson on the electricity kit. She engaged the students to think about electricity by asking them what would they buy in  the supermarket if they wanted electricity. In this way she made students  express their frequent misconception that materials that produce or carry electricity are often thought of as electricity itself.  She first encourages the students to explore the flashlights and to take them apart. She poses a challenge to the students  by inviting them to explore how to use the wires with the batteries and  bulbs they found in the flashlight.  While students are engaged in this activity she only offers suggestion how to solve the problem but does not give them instruction. In their exploration some students succeed and some fail.  In Ms Stone classroom there was no exploration and inquiry. Students just followed the instructions and they all got the same results.
Ms Travis provides support to students by providing them suggestions so that  they don't get frustrated  by lack of success.  Students exchange their ideas how to solve the problem.  Students in Ms Travis offers students another variation to the problem.  They are supposed to use both batteries and  and the wire to light the bulb.  By the end of that day she asks students  to write their observations
of what they have done in the classroom that day. These writings are assigned as homework.  Students are engaged in further exploration tomorrow using the electricity kits. Students have to develop their own plans in order to get both bulbs to light at the same time.  Students share their explanations.  Ms Travis extends the learning by asking students questions they wish to investigate. She writes those questions on the board. The list of questions Ms Travis offered to the students were all related to their everyday experience with electricity at home.  Ms Stone did not provide personal connections  or a personal context for the electricity unit.  Ms Travis did the opposite by bringing the mock dollhouse .
Ms Travis believes that her students are capable of carrying out investigation on their own, while Ms Stone does not even allow the students to touch the materials until she gives them instructions.

Unfortunately, I have the experience of science instruction similar to the Ms Stone students.
Not only that in many cases we just had to learn the lessons, solve the mathematical problems, talk about the concepts but not conduct the experiments.  Ms Travis has diverse inquires going on in the classroom that all build on each other for students to synthesize understanding and knowledge of the class unit.  I would further read the whole book " Science Stories; Science Methods for Elementary and Middle School Teachers by Janice Koch to better understand science instruction as inquiry.
I would try to give the students as much freedom to explore their investigations and to come up with various questions they have curiosity and are related to the topic we would be studying. I would try to give suggestions to guide and relate those suggestions and engaging questions to their everyday lives so that they can better understand it.