Exploratorium+Institute+for+Inquiry

= **Exploratorium Institute for Inquiry** = = = [|www.exploratorium.com/ifi] = What is Inquiry? =

Inquiry is an approach to learning that involves a process of exploring the natural or material world, and that leads to asking questions, making discoveries, and testing those discoveries in the search for new understanding. Inquiry, as it relates to science education should mirror as closely as possible the enterprise of doing real science.

=**How to Drive Inquiry in the Classroom.....**=


 * **//The inquiry process//** is driven by one’s own curiosity, wonder, interest, or passion to understand an observation or to solve a problem.
 * **//The process begins//** when the learner notices something that intrigues, surprises, or stimulates a question—something that is new, or something that may not make sense in relationship to the learner's previous experience or current understanding.
 * **//The next step//** is to take action—through continued observing, raising questions, making predictions, testing hypotheses, and creating conceptual models.
 * **//The learner must find//** her or his own pathway through this process. It is rarely a linear progression, but rather more of a back-and-forth, or cyclical, series of events.
 * **//As the process unfolds//****,** more observations and questions emerge, providing for deeper interaction with the phenomena—and greater potential for further development of understanding.
 * **//Along the way//****,** the inquirer collects and records data, makes representations of results and explanations, and draws upon other resources such as books, videos, and the expertise or insights of others.
 * **//Making meaning from the experience//** requires reflection, conversation, comparison of findings with others, interpretation of data and observations, and the application of new conceptions to other contexts. All of these serve to help the learner construct an improved mental framework of the world.



The Institute for Inquiry's approach is designed to enable learners to come to conceptual understanding of scientific ideas that are new to them. The Inquiry process is driven by the learner's curiosity and sustained by his or her sense of ownership of the process. __But curiosity and ownership alone are not enough to ensure that learners have productive experiences that lead to the deeper understanding of scientific ideas.__ A well-thought-out structure and guidance by a teacher gives shape and direction to curiosity within the context of a teacher's learning goals for science content, process and attitudes.



=Roles of A Teacher During Inquiry=


 * To plan for inquiry, teachers ...
 * determine the topic
 * carefully select materials that will exhibit phenomena related to inquiry's science content goals
 * To facilitate inquiry, teachers....
 * cultivate learner's abilities to ask productive questions
 * play the role of facilitators
 * must keep in mind the importance of learner __ownership__
 * encourage students to explore materials freely and to raise & record all of their questions
 * may help students find the right materials & set up a workspace if necessary
 * assist students by asking questions, making suggestions about materials or design of an experiment
 * must develop an understanding not only of what each group is doing but what and how students are thinking (during inquiry)
 * spends time with each group, watching & listening what students are saying to each other
 * To sustain inquiry, teachers ...
 * must not superimpose their own ideas onto student's inquiries
 * must __not__ give students the answer when they have the resources of figuring it out for themselves
 * To help learners understand science during and after their investigations, teachers ....
 * can ask group members to explain what they have done, what they are doing and what they are planning on doing next
 * may point out something that learners haven't noticed or recommend visiting another work station
 * must help students effectively use process skills of science (observing, questioning, predicting, etc)
 * must help students think about about what they have figured out and what evidence supports these conclusions
 * build on the experience and knowledge gains by the investigation groups during class discussions
 * give a broad overview of the major science concepts addressed in the session
 * may also show ways of applying the concepts to explain everyday phenomena that learners are likely to be familiar with