Mike Peters was surprised to see his window slide open and was positively shocked when he saw two strangers climb inside. What transpired next could only be described as a despicable act of thievery. Mike watched with rapt fascination as the two thieves systematically began to remove the priceless Persian carpets, artwork, and jewels. Having stripped the room, the thieves climbed back out of the window. Incredibly, Mike went back to what he had been doing before the thieves arrived and did not do anything after the incident occured. Why wouldn't Mike, who was in perfect health, have tried to stop the thieves or at the very least call the police after they had left ?

Frame your questions! They will be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Mike Peters was a six month old baby!

 Which question helped you to come to this conclusion?  At what point did you feel that your hypothesis changed?  Was there a need for more information to reach the correct conclusion?

Inquiry Training Model

SCIENCE

An investigation was on in the city of Mumbai. Two cops walked into a room with no windows and found a dead man who had hung himself from the ceiling. However, they couldn't figure out how. There was no chair, table or any other furniture in the room. All they found was a puddle of water. How did he manage to hang himself?

Frame your questions! They will be answered by a ‘yes’ or ‘no’

He stood on a slab of ice and hung himself from the ceiling! By the time the cops had arrived, the slab of ice had melted and formed a pool of water.

Which questions were most effective? Which questions were not helpful? What type of information was needed but not obtained?

Let us explore another puzzle!

A man in a restaurant asked a waiter for a glass, a dinner plate, water, a match, and a lemon wedge. The man poured enough water onto the plate to cover it. "If you can get the water on the plate into this glass without touching or moving this plate, I will give you $100," the man said. "You can use the match and lemon to do this."

A few minutes later, the waiter walked away with $100 in his pocket!

How did the waiter get the water into the glass? Frame your questions!

 First, the waiter stuck the match into the lemon wedge, so that it would stand straight.  Then he lit the match, and put it in the middle of the plate with the lemon.  He placed the glass upside-down over the match.  As the flame used up the oxygen in the glass, it created a low pressure area, which sucked in the water through the space between the glass and the plate.

Thus, the waiter got the water into the glass without touching or moving the plate! He remembered that oxygen is used for burning!

Which questions were most effective? Which questions were not helpful? What type of information was needed but not obtained?