Best Practices: Inquiry Science
Overview
Learn more about the best practices for inquiry science, a question-based method of learning science which is proven to motivate and help students understand science concepts more thoroughly.
Inquiry Science: Overview
Inquiry science is a question-based method of learning science which is proven to motivate and help students understand science concepts more thoroughly.
From the National Science Teachers Association Position Statement:
- Scientific Inquiry is how “scientists study the natural world, and propose explanations based on evidence.”
- It's also how students “develop knowledge of scientific ideas and an understanding of how scientists study the world.”
- Finally, “inquiry science is a powerful way of understanding science content - students learn to ask questions and use evidence to answer them.”
The digital science notebook, SNUDLE focuses on 6 Steps of scientific inquiry:
- Focus question
- Collect data
- Analyze data
- Build explanations
- Connect with and reflect on science concepts
- Present findings to the community
Your science notebook or curricula may have fewer, or more steps. That's OK! Science inquiry is the process of asking engaging, authentic questions and then planning, gathering data, and then analyzing and organizaing that data to answer, with evidence, that initial question. And then asking more questions, based on the findings!
Why is inquiry science important?
The challenge:
- Many students struggle to learn science. A 2009 national report card found that only 34% of 4th graders scored at levels of proficient or above in science (NAEP, 2009).
- Building explanations is challenging. While one of the most important parts of learning inquiry science is learning how to build strong explanations using data, this is particularly hard for students. Studies on middle school students found:
- Students struggled to understand what evidence is.
- Students often ignore evidence that goes against their current theory.
- When reasoning, students focus almost entirely on claims instead of being able to explain the evidence that supports their claim (McNeil et al., 2006).
What does the research say?
- Inquiry-based teaching increases science understanding. A 2009 look-back at almost twenty years of research found a “clear trend” that inquiry-based teaching increases student understanding in science (Minner, Levy, & Century 2009).
- Active, inquiry-based learning is highly effective. Teaching through investigations, emphasizing active thinking and drawing data-based conclusions are most likely to help students achieve. (Minner, Levy, & Century 2009).
- Student explanations are key: The quality of a student explanations is tied to their science performance overall.
Best Practices: encourage strong explanations and reflections
- Teach the difference between data and evidence.
- Model, model, model: show your students how to gather precise data, discover patterns and trends, and how to build strong explanations.
- Encourage scientific argumentation based on evidence to support strong explanations.
- Model and guide productive argumentation. Use supports like sentence starters or the “stoplight method” to help students productively argue with each other. (See Scientific Argumentation for more.
- Model good discussion techniques in whole-class discussions (see Developing a Scientific Argument for some suggestions) and encourage students to talk to each other rather than just answering teacher questions for a “right” or “wrong” answer.
- Teach good discussion norms including body language, respectful turn-taking, etc.
How to use SNUDLE to support the inquiry science process
Although sections of the inquiry process and building good explanations can be challenging for students, SNUDLE has many built-in tools to encourage students to use data to create strong explanations.
- Sentence starters: Encourage students to use and modify sentence starters. SNUDLE’s default sentence starters are aligned with the critical skills scientists practice at each stage of science inquiry.
- Did you… checklists: Model and encourage students to use the “Did you…” checklists. The embedded checklists are designed to support developing key science skills and practices.
- Sortable tables: Demonstrate and model how to use SNUDLE table features. SNUDLE tables have a sort button at the top of each column that allows users to sort and organize data. This is a great way to help discover patterns or trends in data!
- Drawing: Model, or have students model, how to use the SNUDLE drawing tool features, including freehand drawing, shape stamps, clipart, and text labeling. Model creating an image description, making clear the key information you want students to include in the descriptions of the drawings they create. Have students practice and give each other feedback on their images and descriptions.
- Uploading drawing files: Sometimes you or students may want to add a photo or worksheet image to SNUDLE. Model how to take a picture and then use the upload feature to add that to any response area.
Learn more about the research
Research on the importance of building scientific explanations and science comprehension
- Supporting Students’ Construction of Scientific Explanations by Fading Scaffolds in Instructional Materials . McNeil et al. (2006) study the power of scaffolded, or fading, to prepare students to construct scientific explanations.
- Testing one premise of scientific inquiry in science classrooms: Examining students' scientific explanations and student learning . Maria Araceli Ruiz-Primo, Min Li, Shin-Ping Tsai, Julie Schneider (2010) investigate the relationship of student use of science notebooks, building scientific explanations, and students' science learning.
Research on the impact of inquiry science on learning and engagement
- Inquiry-based science instruction—what is it and does it matter? Results from a research synthesis years 1984 to 2002 Daphne D. Minner, Abigail Jurist Levy, Jeanne Century