Template for Teaching Inquiry

 Science Content and Conceptual Flow of the Lessons

Use this to plan an inquiry-based science program by providing short-term objectives for students:

1: Inquiring Minds  - Engage:

Students become engaged in the process of scientific inquiry.

Scientists learn about the natural world through scientific inquiry.

• Scientists ask questions that can be answered through investigations.

• Scientists design and carry out investigations.

• Scientists think logically to make relationships between evidence and explanations.

• Scientists communicate procedures and explanations.

2: Working with Questions  - Explore:

Students consider what makes questions scientifically testable. Students gain a common set of experiences upon which to begin building their understanding.

Scientists ask questions that can be answered through investigations.

• Testable questions are not answered by personal opinions or belief in the supernatural.

• Testable questions are answered by collecting evidence and developing explanations based on that evidence.

3: Conducting a Scientific Investigation - Explain/Elaborate: 

Students conduct an investigation in the context of a community health department. They propose possible sources of the health problem and describe how they might confirm or refute these possibilities.

Scientific explanations emphasize evidence.

• Scientists think critically about the types of evidence that should be collected.

Scientists analyze the results of their investigations to produce scientifically acceptable explanations.

4: Pulling It All Together - Evaluate:

Students deepen their understanding of scientific inquiry by performing their own investigation and evaluating one performed by another student.  

Scientific inquiry is a process of discovery.

• It begins with a testable question.

• Scientific investigations involve collecting evidence.

• Explanations are evidence based.

• Scientists communicate their results to their peers.

Some Inquiry Activity Links on Exploring Nature:
Animal Inquiry - Live Studies in the Schoolyard
Bird Inquiry - Your First Investigation
Seed Dispersal - An Investigation
What Grows Here? Inquiry-based Plant Activity
Dichotomous Key – Identify 44 Species of Trees
Simple Circuit Making Activity and Inquiry
Acid Rain Inquiry (Understanding pH)

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Science Inquiry by the National Research Council (off site):

The 5 features of science inquiry, students:

1. Engage in Scientifically Oriented Questions
2. Give Priority to Evidence in Responding to Questions
3. Formulate Explanations from Evidence
4. Connect Explanations to Scientific Knowledge
5. Communicate and Justifies Explanations

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Inquiry Vocabulary

It should be a goal of the instructor to foster the development of science process skills. The application of these skills allows students to investigate important issues in the world around them. Inquiry-based units will include many or most of the following process skills. These process skills should be incorporated into students? instruction as developmentally appropriate.

Classifying - arranging or distributing objects, events, or information representing objects or events in classes according to some method or system

Communicating - giving oral and written explanations or graphic representations of observations

Comparing and contrasting - identifying similarities and differences between or among objects, events, data, systems, etc.

Creating models - displaying information, using multisensory representations

Gathering and organizing data - collecting information about objects and events which illustrate a specific situation

Generalizing - drawing general conclusions from particulars

Identifying variables - recognizing the characteristics of objects or factors in events that are constant or change under different conditions

Inferring - drawing a conclusion based on prior experiences

Interpreting data - analyzing data that have been obtained and organized by determining apparent patterns or relationships in the data

Making decisions - identifying alternatives and choosing a course of action from among the alternatives after basing the judgment for the selection on justifiable reasons

Manipulating materials - handling or treating materials and equipment safely, skillfully, and effectively

Measuring - making quantitative observations by comparing to a conventional or nonconventional standard

Observing - becoming aware of an object or event by using any of the senses (or extensions of the senses) to identify properties

Predicting - making a forecast of future events or conditions expected to exist

Note: As an example, these processes are applied in the three key ideas in Standard 1, which outline scientific inquiry.
Inquiry may proceed in a cyclical pattern with students moving fro m Key Idea 1 to Key Idea 3 and back to 1 again.

*As presented by the State University of New York at: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/