Asking QUESTIONS and Defining PROBLEMS
"Asking questions is essential to developing scientific habits of mind. Even for individuals who do not become scientists or engineers, the ability to ask well-defined questions is an important component of science literacy, helping to make them critical consumers of scientific knowledge."
Introduction to Asking Questions and Defining Problems
Asking questions is essential to developing scientific habits of mind. Even for individuals who do not become scientists or engineers, the ability to ask well-defined questions is an important component of science literacy, helping to make them critical consumers of scientific knowledge.
Scientific questions arise in a variety of ways. They can be driven by curiosity about the world (e.g., Why is the sky blue?). They can be inspired by a model’s or theory’s predictions or by attempts to extend or refine a model or theory (e.g., How does the particle model of matter explain the incompressibility of liquids?). Or they can result from the need to provide better solutions to a problem. For example, the question of why it is impossible to siphon water above a height of 32 feet led Evangelista Torricelli (17th-century inventor of the barometer) to his discoveries about the atmosphere and the identification of a vacuum.
Questions are also important in engineering. Engineers must be able to ask probing questions in order to define an engineering problem. For example, they may ask: What is the need or desire that underlies the problem? What are the criteria (specifications) for a successful solution? What are the constraints? Other questions arise when generating possible solutions: Will this solution meet the design criteria? Can two or more ideas be combined to produce a better solution?What are the possible trade-offs? And more questions arise when testing solutions: Which ideas should be tested? What evidence is needed to show which idea is optimal under the given constraints?
Key Features
Questioning involves developing and revising explanatory questions about how and why phenomena happen.
Both teachers and students are critical players in asking productive questions
Questioning helps identify what the phenomena needs to be investigated
What it is NOT
The questioning practice is not about teachers asking students vocabulary definitions of science terms; it is not about asking factual or yes/no questions.
The questioning practice it is not about students asking the teacher to clarify when they misunderstand ideas or directions.
The questioning practice is not just the first step in the science unit. It goes beyond only asking, “What do you want to know about X?”—though this could be incorporated successfully in the unit.
The questioning practice is not a form of a trivia game. If students can simply search online for the answer, then it’s not an interesting question for investigation.
K-12 Progressions for Asking Questions and Defining Problems
SEP_AQ.pdfInstructional Strategies for Asking Questions
Source: Instructional Leadership for Science Practices
Ask students to share ideas of scientific questions about a specific topic. Emphasize that scientific questions should be questions that can be answered using data from investigations.
Provide examples and non-examples of scientific questions. Ask students to work in groups to sort the questions.
Model the writing of scientific questions. Demonstrate that since scientific questions can be answered using data from investigations the question should contain two variables.
Provide fill-in-the-blank questions for students. (Example: How does the ___________ affect __________?)
Have students identify the variables in scientific questions (i.e. underline the independent variable, circle the dependent variable). Scaffold if necessary by doing several as a whole class and then having students practice with their own (or peers’) scientific questions.
Provide opportunities for students to work together to write scientific questions that will be used for in-class investigations. Encourage students to critique each other’s ideas and pose questions to each other as part of the discussion.
Have students ask scientific questions they have about a demonstrated phenomenon. Remind students that scientific questions are answerable by doing experiments.
Ask students to explain how they would go about answering a scientific question.
Learn more about Asking Questions and Defining Problems
Bozeman Science Video - Practice 1 - Asking Questions and Defining Problems
The Wonder of Science Graphic Organizer: Asking Questions - Google Draw or PDF
Science Practices Continuum - Tool for guiding and evaluating science-practice based instruction
Instructional Resources:
Podcast: Storylines and Driving Question Board with Holly Hereau