Inquiry

Are all hands-on science activities “inquiry?”

“Inquiry is the science, art and spirit of imagination. It can be defined as the scientific process of active exploration by which we use critical, logical and creative-thinking skills to raise and engage in questions of personal interests. Driven by our curiosity and wonder of observed phenomena, inquiry investigations usually involve – Generating a question or problem to be solved – Choosing a course of action and carrying out the procedures of the investigation – Gathering and recording the data through observation and instrumentation to draw appropriate conclusions”

3 Key points: Based on a testable question Relies on evidence gathered by students using science processes Evidence comes BEFORE explanation (an inductive approach: students build the big ideas based on their data)

INQUIRY IS COGNITIVELY DEMANDING.

Scaffolding Inquiry Learning Build from Teacher structures everything To Student-structured inquiry

Scaffolding Progression 1. Cookbook approach: Question, hypothesis, materials, procedure are all laid out. The student basically follows the steps to confirm or demonstrate a known result. 2. Question, hypothesis and materials are given. Students design a procedure using the given materials. 3. Students are given a question but come up with the rest (hypothesis, materials, procedures, etc.) 4. Students come up with everything starting with the actual question they want to investigate.

Other Variations Provide the question or challenge and a range of possible materials that students can choose from to design their experiment.

THERE IS A TIME AND PLACE FOR OTHER TYPES OF HANDS-ON SCIENCE – DEPENDING ON YOUR OBJECTIVES AND THE NEEDS OF THE STUDENTS.

Guided hands-on activities and “cookbook” labs Useful for building specific skills that will be applied to other situations later. Instructions may not make sense to the learner; never quite cover all the variables; may get misleading results Can discourage independent thinking and “ownership” of the activity

Challenges and/competitions (problem provided) Can be very engaging for students Can encourage people to try things they might otherwise think they cannot do Can create anxiety and discourage sharing of information and ideas.

Open-ended inquiry Students have more control over their work; invent their own paths of investigation, learn from each other Outcome not necessarily predetermined Requires more facilitation and more time Important ideas can be missed Some students anxious without specific instructions