One Million New Scientists . . . One Million New Ideas! Kansas 4-H SCIENCE Ready One Million New Scientists . . . One Million New Ideas!

What is Inquiry? Learner Centered Active Investigation Open Questioning “The critical element to inquiry is that the child seeks answers to questions and is not given answers” (Marek & Cavallo, 1997, p. 22)

4/21/2017 Experiential learning – focuses on the learning within the common experience What did you learn from this game experience? I will use what I learn about being a good team member on the playground . I learned how to catch a ball with a mitt this year One way to think about the experiential learning as a process that can encapsulate or surround the inquiry-based learning methods . Let’s use a non-scientific example to illustrate this - a baseball team which is a non-formal learning environment for youth in which we can see opportunities for intentionally provoking experiential and inquiry-based learning. Experiential learning methods focus the learner on the learning about the situation within which the he or she has chosen to be in. The hands on experiences of using the equipment (the ball, the glove, the bats, the bases, the field, the hat, running the bases, the totality of the situation) making the choice to play, practicing with other youth, playing games on a team, taking different positions on the field, winning/losing, and thinking about these experiences is clearly a potentially rich learning situation. The youth share with each other, peer-to-peer or facilitated by adults, what those experiences are like in the huddle, on the bench, over snacks, in the car. They process and reflect these experiences and then, with facilitation, generalize and apply the situation to other aspects of their lives. “I learn what happens when I encourage my teammates to do their best – I am seen as a leader on the team, someone that others can count on, I can use that skill in phy ed when we are choosing teams and playing games” Adults can provoke reflection and help to apply the learning by facilitating sharing, through coaching on skills, and by encouraging team members to talk with each other. In this baseball example, we can think of this as the experiential learning level. The learner changes as a result of the learning that happens in the collective or commone experience. 3 3

4/21/2017 Scientific Inquiry - focuses on the learner’s own questions about the specific phenomenon What combination of angle and speed of the bat will hit the ball into right field? The opportunities for thinking about scientific inquiry learning in baseball are plentiful because baseball, of course, is all about statistics, measurement, trial and error. The individual player, in relationship to one of the many phenomena that make up the game of baseball, can take an inquiry-based learning approach to deepening her understanding of the phenomena – an example of which is learning the physics involved in hitting the ball with a bat. In this case, the batter is questioning what angle and speed of the bat will hit the ball into right field. This is a fairly advanced level of questioning but is driven by the learner’s relationship to the phenomenon and his or her OWN QUESTION. The wonderful thing about testable questions in scientific inquiry is that, while some are testable and others are not, no one can take your question away from you. It is highly personal but can be shared by others. This older, more experienced batter has his own questions about this that are not the same as all other batters’ questions. He may find others who have the same question but it is fundamentally driven by what he already understands (whether accurate or not is another issue) about this phenomena and he is investigating, trying things out to better understand this phenomena. In this everyday example, we know that most baseball learners investigate rather informally and a lot of what can be accomplished is also based on physical make-up and ability. However, this everyday example gives us a way of thinking about the differences between the types of learning. Once he has strong evidence in relationship to his question, his question will change and evolve. His relationship to the phenomena has changed. Each discipline has its own approach to inquiry based learning. We are focusing on scientific inquiry. This example, and the distinction in the example between the two methods, is specific to scientific inquiry. (Prep for next slide) Let’s stop for a few minutes to read a vignette that I have pulled from work that I am involved in here in Minnesota. I’d like you to read the vignette and then complete the poll by selecting the response that best fits your reaction to the vignette. If you have extra time, I encourage you to enter comments or thoughts that you have in the chat box so that we all can benefit from your thinking. 4 4

Types of Inquiry Structured Guided Open

Structured Facilitator provides scientific questions and methods for youth to follow to answer the questions. Youth are expected to reach the same outcomes. Ex. Beginning science lab experience

Guided Facilitator provides one or more questions Youth design investigations in order to answer the questions Results may be different

Open Youth form their own questions Youth design investigations to answer their questions Youth reach their own outcomes or results

Experiential Learning Inquiry in Learning Leader Centered Learner Centered Experiential Learning Structured Inquiry Guided Inquiry Open Inquiry

Kansas 4-H SCIENCE Ready One Million New Scientists . . . One Million New Ideas!