Science begins with a question about a phenomenon, such as “Why is the sky blue?” or “What causes cancer?” and seeks to develop theories that can provide explanatory answers to such questions. A basic practice of the scientist is formulating empirically answerable questions about phenomena, establishing what is already known, and determining what questions have yet to be satisfactorily answered.
NSTA/NGSS- Asking Questions and Defining Problemshttps://ngss.nsta.org/Practices.aspx?id=1
PART 1 – Preparing yourself to create an Inquiry – based activity for your classroom.(https://youtu.be/N9cK_eto3HE)
Determine overall topic
Review content using colleagues, textbooks, online content, Youtube, etc- should be grade-appropriate
Find an inquiry activity with links to society and the environment; modify if needed
Activity should be safe to do in class
Materials should be low-cost and able to be assembled by the students
Divide class into groups(3 students per group is ideal)
PART 2 – Working Towards Open Inquiry (https://youtu.be/4QaKXn0mO44) -A scaffolded approach to Inquiry – Based learning:
Teach a foundation of basic content, with links to the society- why is this important?
Provide a 'hook' lesson- a story or activity that makes students want to know more
Begin with a structured Inquiry – provide students with a question or problem to solve, and a procedure to follow- students must arrive at a solution on their own. Structured Inquiry helps students become familiar with the materials and equipment, and to review basic content. This can be followed with
Guided Inquiry- Teacher poses a question to the class, and a problem to solve- students have to determine a procedure to follow and arrive at a solution. Guided inquiry enables teacher to propose creative scenarios that review content and link to society and the environment. Guided inquiry provides a strong balance between student freedom while working under constraints of materials and content
Open Inquiry: Once students are comfortable with the materials and methods, students come up with the questions they are trying to solve, the procedures to follow, and the solutions to arrive at. Open inquiry provides high intrinsic motivation.
PART 3 – 5 Skills Needed to Become an Inquiry Teacher(https://youtu.be/cwG_JvEpEuk)
Flexibility and patience- Students going down unexpected pathways of discovery are opportunities, not distractions; student questions can provide powerful teachable moments.
Be Flexible with Student deviations- students might use unexpected methods; don't necessarily redirect; teacher as facilitator
Encourage Open-ended Questions- try to stay away from closed questions that have only a single answer; what if a variable was changed?
Set up proper expectations- failure should not be discouraged, but rather an opportunity to stop, see what didn't workd, and come up with a solution
OK for teacher to not know all the answers- student generated questions can be powerful motivators
Success is in sparking curiosity and enabling students to feel good
PART 4 – 4 Student Inquiry Skills to Nurture and Assess (https://youtu.be/cwG_JvEpEuk)
Brainstorming a solution to a problem- Students are able to show that they can select a possible solution to a problem and make a plan for how they will implement a solution
Data Collection- Recording observations and results in the form of drawings, diagrams, photos, data tables, and graphs
Analyzing Data- Identifying patterns and trends in data. Provides an opportunity for assessment
Communicating Results- Students should be able to communicate what they have learned in various forms- traditional assessments, slideshows, videos, and posters
Assessment can take place in many forms, from traditional quizzes and tests to project-based assessments and media products
Phenomena/Discrepant Events: See Exploratorium Science Snacks https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks
A Discrepant Event (DE) is one that causes an unexpected contradiction in students’ prior knowledge and experience of a scientific event in support of conceptual understanding (Wetzel, 2008). Students use problem-solving and critical-thinking skills in order to explain the phenomenon. Inquiry-based instruction that uses such strategies as discrepant events has the potential for developing scientifically literate students (Beerer & Bodzin, 2004).
Examples of Discrepant Events:
https://sciencing.com/list-discrepant-event-science-activities-8018044.html
Inquiry- Ask the students, through a shared Google Doc or Padlet, to write as many questions about the topic as they can- 5 minimum.
Messing About: With limited directions, give the students a limited kit of materials, and let them just mess about with them, and get familiar with their properties. See video example of this at the college with MIT 2.00b: Intro to Toy Design
Literature: Read the students a selection from children's literature or non-fiction that discusses a problem of the lead character. See Novel Engineering
Video: Show a short video about a child who has a problem that needs to be solved- see From Dream to Design https://youtu.be/c-mwXGqtoLQ
Real Client: Bring in a real client that has a technical issue that needs to be solved- see 'What is Human-Centered Design' https://youtu.be/musmgKEPY2o
The Hook- Part II: One-Period Project: As Part II of the Hook, walk students through a one-hour version of a design or research project that models the process for the 'real' project.
Science and Engineering Practices: Asking Questions and Defining Problems
Bozeman Science Center
from Edelson, Daniel ,Addressing the Challenges of Implementing Inquiry-based Learning
Although inquiry offers compelling opportunities for science learning, there are many challenges to the successful implementation of inquiry-based learning. For example, researchers have documented that children have difficulties conducting systematic scientific investigations.
Data gathering, analysis, interpretation, and communication are all challenging tasks that are made more difficult by the need for content-area knowledge. While we entered this design process with some specific ideas of how technology could be used to address the challenges of inquiry-based learning, we found that these challenges appeared in many forms and that responding to them effectively almost always required the use of both technological and curricular design strategies.
We focus on five of the most significant challenges to the successful implementation of inquiry-based learning. The experiences described below demonstrate that the failure to address any of these challenges successfully can prevent students from successfully engaging in meaningful investigations and therefore undermine learning.
The five challenges are:
1. Motivation.
For students to engage in inquiry in a way that can contribute to meaningful learning they must be sufficiently motivated. The challenging and extended nature of inquiry requires a higher level of motivation on the part of learners than is demanded by most traditional educational activities. To foster learning, that motivation must be the result of interest in the investigation, its results, and their implications. When students are not sufficiently motivated or they are not motivated by legitimate interest, they either fail to participate in inquiry activities, or they participate in them in a disengaged manner that does not support learning.
2. Accessibility of investigation techniques.
For students to engage in inquiry, they must know how to perform the tasks that their investigation requires, they must understand the goals of these practices, and they must be able to interpret their results.
Scientific investigation techniques such as data collection and analysis can be complicated and typically require a level of precision and care that are not required of students in their everyday experiences. If students are not able to master these techniques, then they cannot conduct investigations that yield meaningful results.
3. Background knowledge.
The formulation of research questions, the development of a research plan, and the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, all require science content knowledge. In designing inquiry-based learning, the challenge is providing opportunities for learners to both develop and apply that scientific understanding. If students lack this knowledge and the opportunity to develop it, then they will be unable to complete meaningful investigations.
4. Management of extended activities.
To achieve the ultimate goal of open-ended inquiry, students must be able to organize and manage complex, extended activities. A scientific investigation requires planning and coordination of activity and the management of resources and work products. Students are not typically asked to manage extended complex processes as part of traditional educational activities.
If they are unable to organize their work and manage an extended process, students cannot engage in open-ended inquiry or achieve the potential of inquiry-based learning.
5. The practical constraints of the learning context.
The technologies and activities of inquiry-based learning must fit within the practical constraints of the learning environment, such as the restrictions imposed by available resources and fixed schedules. While this challenge may not have the same theoretical importance as the other four for advancing our understanding of the learning sciences, it has enormous practical implications for design.
A failure to work within the available technology or fit within the existing schedule in a school will doom a design to failure. Therefore, meeting the constraints of the environment is a critical consideration