1. PLATON: Promoting Learning Approaches
for the Teaching of Natural Sciences
Inquiry Under the Microscope:
Training Activity for Inquiry Component 3:
Wondering about how something works
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

2. An asteroid is approaching Earth and could possibly destroy it
An asteroid is approaching Earth and could possibly destroy it. How do you save the planet?
Unlike what is suggested in the Armageddon movie, the best way to avoid the impact is to send a mission to the asteroid and have part of the asteroid painted white. This way, part of the asteroid will absorb more energy from the Sun compared to the part that is painted white, making the asteroid to turn putting Earth off its course.
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

3. What will happen if bees go extinct?
Bees are critical pollinators: they pollinate 70 of the around 100 crop species that feed 90% of the world. Honey bees are responsible for $30 billion a year in crops. We may lose all the plants that bees pollinate, all of the animals that eat those plants and so on up the food chain. Which means a world without bees could struggle to sustain the global human population of 7 billion. Our supermarkets would have half the amount of fruit and vegetables.
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

4. What would happen if all the world's oil stock went dry?
Unless we gradually develop more and more technologies that rely on renewable sources of energy, civilization as we know it would change rapidly. Major wars could break out, and mayhem could spread among populations especially in large cities.
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

5. What you should look for in a hypothesis
Are there any common patterns? Did you use keywords?
Any completely wrong hypotheses? How would you handle that in class?
How did you use existing knowledge or experience?
Is there a logic behind the hypotheses, any arguments or a preliminary explanation to back-up the hypothesis?
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

6. Wondering about how something works
INQUIRY COMPONENT 3
Wondering about how something works
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

7. Wondering about how something works
Traditional Practices
Students do not make a hypothesis, instead, teacher directly proceed with presenting the new law/principle/concept.
Showing preference to a type of response and discomfort to another.
Students do not have the ample time to formulate their own questions and hypothesis to investigate a topic further, but a direct explanation is provided instead.
Allowing students to make some hypotheses but immediately correct students’ responses by telling them which ones are correct and which ones are false.
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

8. Wondering about how something works
Why is there a need to change?
It is often the case that students are reluctant to make a question and a following hypothesis to which they don’t know or they are not sure what the answer is. Additionally, they rarely use their imagination and creativity to come up with solutions on certain tasks assigned to them. This is mostly due to the fact that students rarely get to make hypotheses in the everyday classes and feel uncomfortable with making a wrong one. Thus, it is imperative to help our students understand that the starting point to learn about anything new is to make an assumption – something to get started with – and try to find out if it is correct or not.
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

9. Wondering about how something works
Inquiry Practices
HELP YOUR STUDENTS LEARN TO WONDER
Make a reference on the importance of having students ask questions.
Help students make a hypothesis by using proper questions: What do you think about…? How do you think this works? Why…? What is your opinion about…? What is the impact of…? How can you find more about…? Make sure your questions cannot be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Encourage your students to make hypotheses based on the prior knowledge recalled.
Always be open to any hypothesis. Help students understand that there are no wrong hypotheses; a “wrong” hypothesis (e.g. one that will be rejected after it has been tested) is an important part of a scientific procedure.
Guide your students to form proper hypotheses using certain keywords (if…. then, I assume that…., Given that….. then). Their hypothesis should be an initial explanation for the question posed.
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

10. Wondering about how something works
Inquiry Practices
Be open and eager to learn together with the students. If you want to excite your students about learning and investigating something new, you have to be excited yourself to begin with.
Keep students’ hypotheses available at all times (post them online or on an interactive board for example, somewhere that you can access them at any time).
 In cases of introducing a completely new subject where no prior knowledge is available, try to use analogies that will help the students make some predictions about the subject at hand or present scientific observations and experiments that lead scientists to question their current theories. For example, when trying to explain the way seismic waves travel to the inner layers of the Earth use an analogy with a rock being thrown in water. If you want to explain that light behaves as particles and a wave at the same time you can use an analogy with “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”.
Make sure you don’t transfer your own thoughts and beliefs (don’t make the answer obvious).
Formulating questions should take about 10 minutes.
10%
Lesson timeline
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

11. Wondering about how something works
Some more inquiry tips
Intrigue your students to wonder on their own about how something works instead of asking them questions directly. Let them think of their own questions first.
Help your students understand that a meaningful hypotheses needs to have three main characteristics:
1. There needs to be a meaningful chain of thoughts
2. Any hypotheses needs to be supported by one or more arguments
3. Arguments supporting a hypothesis need to be based on prior knowledge and experiences.
Look for these characteristics in your students hypotheses and refer to them when discussing one.
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

12. Wondering about how something works
An example
X “Photosynthesis is an essential process. All living things need oxygen to survive. Today we are going to focus on the relationship between sunlight and the process of photosynthesis. Read this text and observe this diagram that shows how plants use the energy from the sunlight to produce glucose from carbon dioxide and water and we can discuss it afterwards”.
√ “Based on the concept maps you created, it appears that you consider the process of photosynthesis to be related with the energy from the sunlight. How important is sunlight for the process of photosynthesis? Are we sure that there is a relation between those two things? How do you explain it? What is the question you want to answer?”
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA

13. Materials prepared by Eleftheria Tsourlidaki, Ellinogermaniki Agogi in the framework of the PLATON project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
Promoting Innovative Learning Approaches for the Teaching of Natural Science
PT01-KA