Taxonomy of inquiry strategies
So jumping straight into pure inquiry scares you? Just a little more freedom than you really want to give your students? Not all inquiry is created equal, and this article describes a taxono... See More
So jumping straight into pure inquiry scares you? Just a little more freedom than you really want to give your students? Not all inquiry is created equal, and this article describes a taxonomy based on 300 activities. Eight different categories are described, including protocols, design challenge, product testing, black boxes, intrinsic data space, taxonomy, discrepant events, and modeling. A single activity with simple modifications might fit more than one category of the taxonomy. For instance, we might make the traditional egg drop a design challenge, but we could also investigate it as a modeling exercise (how does dropping the egg relate to dropping a landrover on Mars) or even a protocol activity.
If you are being challenged as you try to build inquiry into your curriculum, this article is a great starting point for understanding the many flavors of inquiry. Lesson plans are not provided, but excellent descriptions of each class is provided, along with an extensive bibliography.