Inquiry in the Classroom

As students grow and develop they should experience science as inquiry. Students who direct their own investigations into science and engineering phenomena will be better able to ask scientific questions and investigate aspects of the world around them. Guided by their teachers, students begin to develop their science knowledge.

Doing inquiry with students in the classroom is different than doing hands on science. Some hands on science is inquiry and some is recreating an experiment to attain known results. The goal of this resource is to help teachers do more inquiry with students in the classroom. Facilitating science inquiry is an art. Helping students to observe, asking the right question at the right time and helping students to plan investigations are all an important parts of creating an environment where real science is happening.

We hope you will utilize these resources as a starting point for inquiry investigations and will share with us your observations, knowledge and further explorations into science and engineering.

There are several fine books and other materials available describing the methods of teaching inquiry in the classroom.