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Communicating Ocean Sciences

Session 4: Building Towards Inquiry

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Session 4 objectives Become aware of how inquiry science looks in the

elementary and middle school classroom Gain experience with kit-based curricula Experience inquiry-based, hands-on ocean science

activities used in elementary school classrooms Determine which grade level you would like to teach

during the course See examples of the kinds of materials that are

available for use when designing your own lesson

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Quick write

• For a K-12 student, what do you think the most difficult part (or stumbling block) of the inquiry process might be? Please refer to one or more of the inquiry processes discussed in the reading.

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Introduction to the essential features of inquiry science

You will be participating in a 3rd grade, hands-on, inquiry-based activity

Purpose: doing this activity will help you get familiar with what an elementary school inquiry-based activity might look like

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Crayfish Investigations

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Crayfish Investigations

Inquiry Journal

Crayfish Investigations

Observations: “I notice”

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Crayfish Investigations

Sketching the Crayfish Touching the Crayfish

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“I wonder”--generating the questions

Share your “I wonder” list with your small group

Write questions on sentence strips; tape on wall

Categorize your questions Teacher adds questions if students

don’t include some key questions independently

Categorize the entire class’s questions on the wall

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What happens next?Rules for Investigations Determine criteria for investigations--what

can you actually investigate? Small group discussions regarding what

would make good rules Whole class discussion with teacher

recording student comments Teacher circles rules that everyone agrees

on Class and teacher go through sentence

strips to find questions that fit and don’t fit the rules

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Class Rules About What We Can Investigate

1. Animals are not harmed in any way.2. The question isn’t too big--it can be answered by just

one investigation and within one class period3. The materials needed are easy to get, inexpensive or

already available in the classroom4. The investigation is a what-happens-if, comparison or

measuring question, not a why or how5. The question is interesting to the investigator6. The question is important (or relevant) to the crayfish in

its real life7. The question isn’t a “Lookup” question8. The question can be answered by something you can

do in this classroom

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About the Class Rules

If a question or investigation fits within the class rules it is investigable

If a question does not fit within the class rules it is not investigable

Just because a question is not investigable in this class does not mean it could never be investigated

Students copy the class rules down (page 5)

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Looking at our questions?

Travel around the room with a partner to pick 2 questions with the following criteria: One is a “Lookup” question One is not investigable according to the

class rules

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The Lookup Questions

Students use resources to learn more about crayfish --> more information for their own investigations

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Which questions can we answer from the wall?

Using the information they just learned and prior knowledge, which questions can they now answer from the wall?

Students record answers together in their journals (page 5)

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Our questions to investigate!

Students pick the question they would like to investigate They may have the chance to turn non-investigable

questions into investigable ones if possible Students stand in front of the category in which their

question is located Students discuss the question they selected with other

students who have chosen that category Students at each category decide together which question

they would like to investigate

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So, you chose a question… now what? Students write down the question they have

chosen in their inquiry journals. Questions may need to be revised to make them more focused. (page 6)

Students also describe their hypothesis (page 6) Students explain if their questions fit the Class

Rules About What They Can Investigate and then explain why (page 6)

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So, you chose a question… now what?

Why is your question interesting? Relevance to crayfish? Feelings about the inquiry process? (page 7)

Materials and procedures (pages 8 and 9) Students would continue with the

investigation

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Essential Features of Classroom Inquiry• Learners are engaged by scientifically oriented questions• Learners give priority to evidence, which allow them to

develop and evaluate explanations• Learners formulate explanations from evidence to

address scientifically oriented questions• Learners connect their explanations to scientific

knowledge• Learners communicate and justify their proposed

explanations

Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards, p. 25

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Essential Feature Variations1. Learner engagesin scientificallyoriented questions 

Learner poses aquestion  

Learner selectsamong questions,poses new questions 

Learner sharpens orclarifies questionprovided by teacher,materials, or othersource

Learner engagesin questionprovided byteacher, materials,or other source

2. Learner givespriority to evidencein responding toquestions

Learner determineswhat constitutesevidence andcollects it 

Learner directed tocollect certain data 

Learner given dataand asked to analyze 

Learner given dataand told how toanalyze

3. Learnerformulateexplanations fromevidence 

Learner formulatesexplanation aftersummarizingevidence

Learner guided inprocess offormulatingexplanations fromevidence

Learner givenpossible ways to useevidence to formulateexplanations

Learner providedwith evidence

4. Learner connectsexplanations toscientificknowledge 

Learnerindependentlyexamines otherresources andforms the links toexplanations

Learner directedtoward areas andsources of scientificknowledge 

Learner givenpossible connections

5. Learnercommunicates andjustifiesexplanations

Learner formsreasonable andlogical argument tocommunicateexplanations

Learner coached indevelopment ofcommunication

Learner providedbroad guidelines touse sharpencommunication

Learner givensteps andprocedures forcommunication

More ---------------Amount of Learner Self-Direction --------------- LessLess ------------- Amount of Direction from Teacher or Material --------- More

Essential Features of Classroom Inquiry and Their Variations

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Shifted Cookbook

Sense of freedom and focus when asked to design own data sheets

“Another Worksheet”

We didn’t know what we were looking for so there was a broader range of what we could discover

Gives results before you even have the experience

Higher order thinking skills required Didn’t have to think, just look and write

Detailed descriptions, analysis and summarization

Record, list, describe

I wound up writing more than I expected Four lines on the worksheet equals four sentences

Student ownership--empowering Teacher ownership--”When the teacher tells you what to discover you don’t have ownership”

Discovery oriented Kids don’t want to be told what to discover

Kids have to think for themselves Not asked to think, just do

Anticipation kept us involved “Oh, do we have to do all this work?”

Teacher Identified Benefits of Shifts Toward Inquiry

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What about what we do in the classrooms?

• Why do you think that they are not full open-ended inquiries?

• What do you think inquiry-based means?

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Kit Carousel

• Look for evidence of the Learning Cycle, learning objectives, and inquiry

• Think about which grade you would like to focus on

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Quick Write

• What are your overall impressions of the kits and curricula?

• What was the most intriguing activity to you and why?

• What grade level do you want to focus on?

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Homework

Reading from course reader:

Bransford & Donovan (2005). Chapter 9: Scientific inquiry & how people learn.