Learning Science Through Inquiry Frequently Asked Questions About Inquiry Workshop 1 | Workshop 2 | Workshop 3 | Workshop 4 | Workshop 5 Workshop 6 | Workshop 7 | Workshop 8 Contributing Authors: Christine Collier - principal of the Center for Inquiry, a K-8 magnet/option school in the Indianapolis Public School district Judith Johnson - associate professor of science education at the University of Central Florida; associate director of the Lockheed Martin/University of Central Florida Academy of Mathematics and Science Lisa Nyberg - assistant professor in the education department at California State University, Fresno Virginia Lockwood - staff developer and consultant, District 2 New York City 1. Inquiry teaching is allowing students’ questions and curiosities to drive curriculum. 2. In an inquiry-based classroom, students aren't waiting for the teacher or someone else to provide an answer — instead, they are actively seeking solutions, designing investigations, and asking new questions. 3. top 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Inquiry-based Learning: Explanation What are the benefits of inquiry-based learning? One of the important missing pieces in many modern schools is a coherent and simplified process for increasing knowledge of a subject from lower grades to upper grades. Students often have difficulty understanding how various activities within a particular subject relate to each other. Much more confusion results when the learner tries to interrelate the various subjects taught at school. Too little effort is devoted to defining important outcomes at the end of high school and planning backwards and across subjects. Specific content such as photosynthesis has much more relevance for the learner if set in a larger context of understanding the interrelationship of the sun, green plants, and the role of carbon dioxide and water. Within a conceptual framework, inquiry learning and active learner involvement can lead to important outcomes in the classroom.
Enquiry/problem-based learning Whilst EBL has clear parallels with problem-based learning (or PBL), in that the solution of a ‘problem’ serves to shape the whole learning experience of the students, it is usually viewed as covering a broader spectrum of approaches. Further, as noted by the HEA Guide to Curriculum Design, ‘EBL is perhaps more open to divergent ways of thinking about problems, more open to exploring and understanding different ways of perceiving the world and less concerned with providing firm solutions to problems that do not have simple or unique solutions’. (Kahn and O’Rourke 2004). This is supported by Price (2003) who notes that both approaches share a number of philosophical premises: ‘Simply put, these are that you have a great deal to gain from active study that involves you in inductive and deductive thinking and which requires that you work closely with others, within small study groups, to make sense of the practice environment and the challenges that exist there.’ enquiry based learning;
Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning If kids can access information from sources other than school, and if school is no longer the only place where information lives, what, then happens to the role of this institution? “Our whole reason for showing up for school has changed, but infrastructure has stayed behind,” said Diana Laufenberg, who taught history at the progressive public school Science Leadership Academy for many years. Laufenberg provided some insight into how she guided students to find their own learning paths at school, and enumerated some of these ideas at SXSWEdu last week. 1. Laufenberg recalled a group of tenacious students who continued to ask permission to focus their video project on the subject of drugs, despite her repeated objections. 2. Laufenberg’s answer: Get them curious enough in the subject to do research on their own. “Rather than saying, ‘We’re going to study immigration,’ I took them through a process where they become interested in it themselves,” she said. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Related
Design-Based Learning (DBL) to Innovate STEM Education | Stanford University School of Education IT Our earthquake curriculum project We developed an earthquake curriculum to conduct design-based pilot studies all over the globe from Ethiopia to California in 5th, 6th grade classes and a multi-grade classroom in El Salvador. Learning about earthquakes is urgent and propitious with the recent earthquake catastrophes in Haiti and Chile. It is crucial to raise awareness in our young learners that an earthquake in one continent can have ripple effect damages to other continents. In the future, we expect our future leaders to collaborate to understand the natural phenomena and embrace ourselves to prepare and respond together. Within the design challenge, students worked in teams of 4 members to design and build earthquake resistant structures using only index cards, tape, and paper clips through couple of iterations. Throughout our pilot studies, students were enthusiastic, focused, and actively collaborating with their peers. Sub Project
What is Inquiry Based Learning? How to Study Help students learn to study well. We offer a number of great resources. View Study Skills Graphic Organizers Great printable graphic organizers for all subjects and grade levels! View Organizers What is Inquiry Based Learning? Inquiry based learning is mainly involving the learner and leading him to understand. Dictionary meaning of Inquiry is seeking knowledge, information, or truth through questioning. Very sadly, our traditional ways of teaching discourage the process of inquiry. Much mesmerizing information and facts are readily available, which needs an understanding of how to make sense out of it and turn it into useful knowledge. Inquiry based learning can be applied on all disciplines which has been confirmed through different researches. The teachers must organize their lesson plans according to the changing, interrelating, and communicating of knowledge. Go Deeper Into Our Inquiry-Based Learning Categories Equity in Education Basics
Investigating Animals: Using Nonfiction for Inquiry-based Research ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you. More Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals. More Teacher Resources by Grade Your students can save their work with Student Interactives. More Home › Classroom Resources › Lesson Plans Lesson Plan Overview Featured Resources From Theory to Practice Young children are fascinated with the world around them, showing intense interest and curiosity about animals and their lives. back to top Animal Inquiry Interactive: Students can use this online to tool to help them focus and organize their research about animals. This lesson focuses on teaching primary students doing research with nonfiction, informational material how to document their discoveries. Further Reading
Fostering Inquiry-based Learning in Labs Using Google Spreadsheets Instructors in lab courses often find it difficult to simulate and discuss all phases of scientific inquiry during a single class period. For instance, individual lab groups may not be able to replicate experimental trials sufficiently in the time allotted, requiring instructors to compile data sets across lab groups before students can properly analyze and interpret results.Google Spreadsheets can circumvent this logistical barrier by allowing instructors to crowdsource the data aggregation and “cleaning” during class. For example, Chad Hershock and Rachel Niemer, CRLT, teach a short-course for postdocs on college teaching in science and engineering. During a unit on converting traditional, “cookbook” lab exercises into inquiry-based activities, postdocs work in pairs to complete a sample lab protocol. All the pairs then enter their data into a single Google Spreadsheet, so that the class compiles a robust class data set in real time, without any cutting and pasting across files.
Inquiry-based Learning: Exploration How do I assess students' progress? Student outcomes from an inquiry-learning experience should focus on: Thus, the focus of assessment of inquiry learning should be on the following: The degree to which the processing of learning skills has been developed. It is extremely important that there be feedback from students to the teacher regarding the degree to which the above objectives have been achieved. The feedback from the teacher to the learner is very important as well. Feedback shared with parents is very important in helping them understand the progress of their children and in making them more aware of the important and useful outcomes of inquiry learning. Effective inquiry teachers are constantly assessing students. Some teachers use one-on-one assessment of students following the end of a study unit or a learning activity. Individual assessment can reveal the student's perception of the following: How the student views her individual effort.