WISTR: WESTCONN’s INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE TEACHER RESEARCH

Department of Education and Educational Psychology

INQUIRY IN

SCIENCE EDUCATION

Dr. Marcy Delcourt

Dr. Aram Aslanian

Dr. Edward Duncanson

INQUIRY IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

1. What is inquiry?

2. Types of questions

3. How to improve questioning

4. Science Fairs and how they started

5. Science lab rubric

6. Science activities

What is inquiry?

To be human is to inquire. Inquiry is the engine for independent, curiosity- and interest-driven, life-long learning. It is the ability to link experiences in order for learning to occur. However, inquiry is a process which of itself demands a very large succession of skills to proceed in growth from asking and answering questions of daily life to problem solving, to doing projects and investigations requiring substantial time commitments, to scholarly research in a specific domain. Shore, B. M., Aulls, M. W., & Delcourt, M. A. B. (Eds.). (2007). Inquiry in education: Overcoming Barriers to Successful Implementation. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Types of questions

Observations- asked as questions

Philosophical questions

Requests from simple facts

Complex thinking

Investigable questions

Types of questions

Observations: questions that can be rephrased from observations, turning comments into questions

Student: Look at that fish that has too much mercury.

Teacher: Can you describe how the fish behaves?

Types of questions

Philosophical questions: these have no correct answers, can be debated, allow students and teachers to gather evidence for discussions

Examples: What will be future applications of genetics research?How can the CDC control the spread of communicable diseases?

Types of questions

Requests for simple facts: these are knowledge and comprehension questions that should be answered directly

Examples:

What are toxins?

What is a communicable disease?

Types of questions

Requests requiring complex thinking: these require higher order thinking skills, applying earlier knowledge, analyzing information, putting new ideas together, assessing based on criteria

Examples:

Why does the Earth have only 1 moon?

Why are some lobsters blue?

Types of questions

Investigable questions: these have identifiable variables or constructs; a research question is feasible, clear, significant, and ethical

Example:

Is there a significant difference in the growth of fish between using food A or food B? (Grade 5 student, Norwalk)

Levels of thinking

Bloom’s taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation

Cognitive levels of questions: data recall, data processing, data generation

Types of knowledge: declarative, procedural, conditional

Cognitive levels of questions

Data recall: questions that ask students to respond with a descriptive statement

Recall, recite, enumerate, list

Cognitive levels of questions

Data processing: questions that ask students to use data to show relationships or cause and effect

Synthesize, classify, analyze, compare, contrast, evaluate data

Cognitive levels of questions

Data generation: questions that direct students to respond by using divergent thinking

Predict, theorize, apply a principle to a new situation

Types of knowledge

Declarative- basic facts; answers questions beginning with “what”

Procedural- refers to processes; answers questions beginning with “how”

Conditional- refers to circumstances; answers questions beginning with “under what conditions”

How to improve questioning

Write down higher order thinking skills (HOTS) questions in advance of a lesson

Ask only HOTS questions

Teach students to write and identify types of questions

Model asking HOTS questions in every lesson

How to improve questioning

Make all students responsible for answering HOTS questions

Use prepared materials that have higher order questions or verbs already on them in order to serve as prompts

Do the activity first in order to elicit curiosity and inquiry

Inquiry Models

The Concept Attainment Model

The Concept Development Model

The Synectics Model

The Suchman Inquiry Model

The Classroom Discussion ModelGunter, M. A., Estes, T. H., Schwab, J. H. (1990).

Instruction: A models approach. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Science fairs and how they started

1829- Science and Technology Exposition sponsored by the American Institute of Science and Technology (AIST) held in NY; showed Morse’s telegraph and Bell’s telephone; evolved into the International Science and Engineering Fair that is still held today

Science Fairs

1929- First Science Fair sponsored by American Institute of Science and Technology (AIST) and the Museum of Natural History1942- Westinghouse Science Talent Search (STS)1998- Westinghouse STS becomes Intel Science Talent Search (STS); over $1,250,000 in awards and scholarships

Mary Masterman of Westmoore High School, Oklahoma City, OK wins first place.

The Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) recently named its top ten winners at the annual Intel STS 2007 awards. Forty finalists were selected to travel to Washington, D.C. to participate in the rigorous judging process, meet with national leaders, interact with leading scientists and display their research at the National Academy of Sciences. For the first time in the history of the program there were an equal number of female and male finalists who represent 38 schools from 20 different states.

First Place WinnerMary Masterman, a 17-year-old Westmoore High School senior from Oklahoma City,

Oklahoma, was awarded a $100,000 scholarship for describing the spectrograph system she built. Mary machined her own parts, and aligned her own optics. Using lenses from a camera and a microscope as well as a laser for her light source, Mary was able to separate the individual photons scattered by the tested molecules, similar to the effects a prism has on light, and record their wavelengths.

She found she could attain fairly accurate wavelength measurements compared to published readings for household solvents and other objects despite using an inexpensive laser. The cost for building her spectrograph was only $300; quite an accomplishment compared to the $20,000 - $100,000 cost for commercial units.

"Even if you think that what you want to do is impossible, go ahead and go for it because you never know what you can accomplish."

Mary Masterman

First Place Winner

2007 Intel Science Talent Search

National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)

Science Fairs should be voluntary

The emphasis should be on the learning experience

Science fairs should supplement the educational experience not BE the educational experience

National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)

The emphasis should be on science process

It must be the work of the student

Mentors must have clear guidelines

Formats for Science Fair projects

Research report

Poster

3-D display

Model

Research presentation

Types of Science Fair projects

Observation of the environment

Demonstration of a basic scientific principle

Collecting and analyzing data

Controlled experiment

Presentation options

Judged presentations

Expo- can combine student work with competitions and commercial exhibits

Share fair- students swap ideas as they display their work

Class demonstration- student explain their projects to classmates

Example science lab rubric

Categories- purpose, procedures, data and observations, results, conclusions, written communication

Ratings- exceeds expectations, meets expectations, approximates expectations, not ready yet (For a copy of this rubric, contact Dr. Kenneth Martinelli, Instructional Specialist,

K-12 Science and Health, KenM@norwalkpublicschools.net.)

Science Activities

Life As We Know ItPeople tend to be on best behavior when they’re being watched. But what if the only eyes staring at them are on paper? In a University of Newcastle (England) lounge where paying for coffee was optional, researchers placed a picture of either flowers or a pair of eyes next to the suggested price list. Visitors donated almost three times more money when the eyes were posted. Apparently, even a 2-D witness was enough to deter some potential coffee-kitty cheapskates.

Life As We Know It

What is the dependent variable?What is the independent variable? What are the categories or levels?What variable needs to be controlled? This means that a variable needs to be constant (the same) for each level of the Independent Variable. What is the research question and the hypothesis?