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This thread will give us an opportuniity to share some tools and strategies to make teaching "inquiry science" more doable for classroom teachers. Effective implementation of inquiry science demands a classroom culture of respect. There are many strategies and resources that can help develop this culture. What are people's thoughts on this?

One of the resources that was mentioned in an earlier post was the Responsive Classroom. I used a book from their program that was called the "The First Six Weeks of School" Dependent on your grade level, it laid out what you might do and how you would do something. For example, it described to me how to set up a Morning Meeting. There was a time when I thought this was a lot of hulabaloo for nothing. I used to I should be teaching content now. Boy did I learn from this expereince. My room was never perfect. We still had issues but they were maanageable and I had something to rely on to help me. One thing I did during Morning Meeting was I ususally read a aloud a picture book that had a connection to the science I was teaching. For example, I read alooud "The Magnetic Dog" when we were learning about magnetism and electricity. Dong this type of thing as a group helped to establish a classroom where kids felt safe to learn. Well I shared one idea...I am sure someone out there has a goood idea...

Inquiry in the elementary classroom is so easy to include!! Younger students are naturally curious and ask all kinds of questions. Just taking a minute to answer that question is using inquiry. For example, while on the playground a child comes running up with a dandelion which has gone to seed. The teacher can take it back to class and ask the students what they know about the dandelion. They mostly will say it is fun to blow the seeds away. This leads right into discussing how seeds are distributed from the flowers. Thus, the teacher has done a quick and easy inquiry activity.

I teach older elementary students - middle grades, but I love the natural curiosity that comes from this age group. Recently, my own son completed a project on what materials make the best growing medium for seeds. We purchased a bag of 15/16 bean soup and he picked out several beans of each type he wanted to test. He placed different growing mediums (things HE thought would be good) into ziploc bags and water them. He placed one seed of each kind into the different growing bags...sealed and labeled the bags, and then cared for his seeds...taking pictures, recording data - such as qualitative data on what he observed and quantitative data on things he could measure - and he even drew pictures... Over time he became quite attached to his plants - even took them to a football tournament. :-) This project was completed as part of a science class assignment, but he never enjoyed a "project" more!

Aloha All~ To help support the students natural curiosity, whenever we start a new topic, I give them a chance to add to our "what we want to know" wall. I give them each a piece of paper to write a question or wondering that they have about our topic. Then we put them into a bag, but we wont get back to them until the next day or a few days. "We are letting our thinking juices simmer." In the meantime I go through the questions and put in only the realistic and answerable ones. I dont mean to sound like im not giving all of the students a chance but because of time constraints I want the students to feel successful. I do make sure to choose different students. After we have "randomly" pulled the five questions or wonderings out we discuss our data or investigation, what we still need to learn, what we did learn and what we want to continue to learn about. Its hard working around time constraints being that schools have a variety of schedules. Getting everything in is a challenge sometimes. Being able to work through the obstacles and still make all of the students feel successful is wonderful. Aloha, Lia

Aloha All~ To help support the students natural curiosity, whenever we start a new topic, I give them a chance to add to our "what we want to know" wall. I give them each a piece of paper to write a question or wondering that they have about our topic. Then we put them into a bag, but we wont get back to them until the next day or a few days. "We are letting our thinking juices simmer." In the meantime I go through the questions and put in only the realistic and answerable ones. I dont mean to sound like im not giving all of the students a chance but because of time constraints I want the students to feel successful. I do make sure to choose different students. After we have "randomly" pulled the five questions or wonderings out we discuss our data or investigation, what we still need to learn, what we did learn and what we want to continue to learn about. Its hard working around time constraints being that schools have a variety of schedules. Getting everything in is a challenge sometimes. Being able to work through the obstacles and still make all of the students feel successful is wonderful. Aloha, Lia

Lia, I really like the focus on the questions. Often we ask students for their question but we often don't address them again. Just a thought. After students write the questions could you and the students go through and deide which of the questions are investigable and hich are best answered in a different manner. I think it is important for students to be able to distinguish between questions they can discover the answer to through expereimentation. What do others think? Kathy

I agree. I think it is important for students to be able to distinguish between questions they can discover the answer to through experimentation. I also believe that all questions that are asked, are valid. If questions that are asked can't be discovered through experimentation, they are then investigated through other avenues. I have students use their science text to investigate possible solutions/answers to questions, find, share, and read articles that may answer their questions and with technology available I also would allow "Google" searches. Reading and knowing ways to find alternative solutions are valuable skills to have. Funding for Science investigations have been very limited for our school. Often times, I have had to resort to doing the Scientific Process through watching video clips. I would have students do a hypothesis, watch the video as the data is being collected or presented, then I'd stop the video before the conclusion and have a discussion. Students would draw their own conclusion based on what they watched and then compare their answers to the one presented in the video. However, hand-on activities/investigations truly make the connections!

MAry-Jane I think you are very creative at using the resources available to provide your students with the best possible science experience. i commend you. I do have a question, maybe a comment... I ask students in grades K- 5 to make a prediction. we do not ask for a hypothesis until grade 6. We are also part of an assessment consortium and our state assessment asks for prediction not hypothesis. i think it will be interested to see what words are used in the Framework and the NGSS. Thoughts?? KAthy

Hi Kathy, In response to using the words prediction and hypothesis, I interchange these words. Hummm...I may be wrong in doing so. So if I am, please let me know!!! I believe that the students need to be exposed to the different expressions of the words we use in science inquiry (or any other subject): prediction, hypothesis, educated guess, what might happen if...?. If we expose our students to different ways of saying things, they then don't get stuck on a problem or question because it wasn't said the way that they learned it. I believe it's a way of expanding their vocabulary and understanding. Thanks for putting that thought out :O) MJ

MJ, I did some research and I do not think there is a a right or wrong to this inquiry. I think developmentally it is easier for younger children to make "predictions" vs "hypothesis" because a prediction (I think) is an educated guess based on prior knowledge and experience. After, discussing with colleagues and reading in the K-12 framework, I believe "hypothesis" is broader. When a hypothesis is made it is based on the experiences of more than one person, it involves models and theories and additional research. Kathy