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Guided discovery in science is an instructional approach in which students explore phenomena and investigate questions with structured support from the teacher. Rather than providing direct explanations, the teacher uses strategic questioning, scaffolds, and carefully designed activities to lead students toward key scientific concepts and relationships. This approach balances student exploration with intentional guidance, helping learners develop conceptual understanding, scientific reasoning, and inquiry skills while reducing frustration and supporting productive sense-making.
Examples
Examples
Physics: Students investigate Newton’s First Law by experimenting with objects on carts, making predictions about motion, and responding to guiding questions that lead them to discover how inertia affects an object’s motion.
Chemistry: Students explore reaction rates by mixing substances under different conditions and, through teacher prompts, discover how temperature or concentration influences the speed of a chemical reaction.
Biology: Students examine enzyme activity by testing how temperature or pH affects enzyme function, using guided questions to uncover the concept of optimal conditions for enzymes.
Earth & Space Science: Students analyze patterns of moon phases using observations or models, with teacher guidance helping them discover how the relative positions of the Earth, Moon, and Sun produce the observed phases.
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