Observation Inspried Experimentation

Students observe a candy as it is placed in water. After observing students they generate questions which lead to another day of experimenting to address the questions they generated in the... See More

Students observe a candy as it is placed in water. After observing students they generate questions which lead to another day of experimenting to address the questions they generated in the first observation. This same procedure is followed again and leads to the last day of experimentation. This development of observations generating questions that generated experiments is what this author is calling inspired inquiry and it works well for this elementary group of students.

expanding teacher and student horizons

Previous reviewer, Adah, summarizes this article nicely. I found it interesting and helpful because of the teacher's admission to not knowing much about inquiry based learning, but trying it... See More

Previous reviewer, Adah, summarizes this article nicely. I found it interesting and helpful because of the teacher's admission to not knowing much about inquiry based learning, but trying it out anyway. The students in her class as well as her future students will benefit from her challenging herself and stepping into the unknown. This is an excellent example of science and teachable moments being anywhere and with any materials!