Using Inquiry to Learn about Soil: A Fourth Grade Experience

In this article, we describe a fourth-grade inquiry unit on soil. The unit was designed and taught by preservice elementary teachers as part of a university science methods course. Using a student-driven inquiry approach to designing curriculum, the unit engaged fourth graders in learning about the physical properties soil, erosion, worms, and plants. Hands-on activities, literacy strategies, and informational texts and websites were used to build student learning.     

Doing Something about the Weather

Mealworms, yum yum! Insects are an exciting way for middle school students to acquire science process skills. A teacher eating a mealworm will certainly capture the attention of students, and explaining the common practice of insect eating among people in other countries is a great way to include culture in a science lesson. This article provides the teacher with basic information on: (a) how to set up and maintain a mealworm colony, (b) instructions on setting up an observational journal as well as a sample organizational template, and (c) a number of explorations and activities to do with mealworms.     

The Mixed Media Bag

This simple but effective laboratory exercise helps middle school students understand the concept of solubility through hands-on experience with a variety of liquids and solids. As they explore factors that affect solubility and saturation, students gain content mastery and an understanding of the inquiry process. The exercise also enables teachers to authentically assess student performance on several levels. The authors have discovered that students and teachers benefit from using such an interactive, hands-on approach.     

Leaf detective: using evidence of damage on mangrove leaves to measure the effects of different herbivores

Abstract

Herbivores are important to ecosystems because they transfer energy stored in plant matter to other organisms. However, when herbivores occur in high abundances, they can become pests and harm the plants that form the basis of food webs. Mangroves are saltwater tolerant trees found along most tropical and subtropical shorelines. Because mangroves live between land and sea, a wide range of herbivores and other organisms, such as pathogens and parasites, affect them. Many of these organisms leave distinctive marks on the leaves that they eat or infect; scientists can use those marks to help identify the organisms that caused the damage. In this activity, students will take on the role of “Leaf Detectives” and examine patterns of leaf damage on red mangrove leaves (Rhizophora mangle) to infer which organism(s) are harming the mangroves on fictional Lobster Island. Students will collect data from their sample leaves, summarize the results with a graph, and then make a conclusion based on the scientific evidence. By classifying and measuring different damage patterns on leaves, students will learn how different organisms affect plants and food webs, develop pattern recognition skills, and practice using the scientific method to make evidence-based conclusions.     

Gardening for Homonyms: Integrating Science and Language Arts to Support Children's Creative Use of Multiple Meaning Words

Curriculum integration can increase the presence of science at the elementary level. The purpose of this article is to share how two second-grade teachers have integrated language arts content as a part of science-language arts instruction in a garden-based learning context. One application was a teacher-designed Gardening for Homonyms lesson, which supported new ways of thinking about words and wordplay while developing science vocabulary related to structure and function, diversity of life, and interdependent relationships in ecosystems. This article provides the lesson and discusses its implementation in two second-grade classrooms. Examples of student work illustrate children's creative thought around and application of multiple meaning words. Pre-, post-, and extended posttest measures of students' ability to generate and to use homonyms demonstrate that this science-language arts integrated lesson can result in both short- and long-term learning. Applications and follow-up from the lesson over two subsequent years have engaged second and third grade students in study/inquiry about plant growth and life cycles while utilizing many facets of language arts, which have ranged from labeling an experimental design and writing predictions and results to conversing about digital “GigaPan” images on growing strawberries.     

How Animals Play Hide and Seek: A Game of Survival

Many topics in the secondary science classroom can be difficult to introduce to students in a manner that fully engages them, especially when presented using traditional teaching methods. However, with a little innovation and an emphasis on inquiry, even dry subjects can be presented in an appealing way. The authors developed an inquiry-based exercise that teaches students about flower anatomy and dissection. During this exercise, students investigate the morphology of simple and composite flowers using digital microscopes. Dissection of a simple flower results in a count of floral parts that is used to construct a floral formula. Students use appearance of structures to suggest function of sepals, petals, anthers, pistils, and components. Investigation of composite and bilabiate flowers introduces concepts of inflorescence and symmetry and asymmetry. Following self-guided inquiry by the students, the teacher uses a digital microscope, computer, and LCD projector to lead discussion of what was observed and to help assimilate important concepts.     

Modeling the States of Matter in a First-Grade Classroom

ABSTRACT

Scientific modeling along with hands-on inquiry can lead to a deeper understanding of scientific concepts among students in upper elementary grades. Even though scientific modeling involves abstract-thinking processes, can students in younger elementary grades successfully participate in scientific modeling? Scientific modeling, like all other aspects of scientific inquiry, has to be developed. This article clearly outlines how students in a first-grade classroom can develop and use scientific models to explain the properties and behaviors of solids, liquids, and gases in a unit on the states of matter.     

Investigating Human Impact in the Environment with Faded Scaffolded Inquiry Supported by Technologies

Teaching science as inquiry is advocated in all national science education documents and by leading science and science teaching organizations. In addition to teaching science as inquiry, we recognize that learning experiences need to connect to students’ lives. This article details how we use a sequence of faded scaffolded inquiry supported by technologies to engage students meaningfully in science connected to their lives and schoolyards. In this approach, more teacher guidance is provided earlier in the inquiry experiences before this is faded later in the sequence, as students are better prepared to complete successful inquiries. The sequence of inquiry experiences shared in this article offers one possible mechanism for science teaching supported by technologies as an exemplar for translating teaching “science as inquiry” into practice.     

Investigating Minerals: Promoting Integrated Inquiry

"Mineral Detectives!" is one of eighteen lessons in the Private Whys? integrated science unit, which uses a guided inquiry investigation to teach students in grades three through five about the role of minerals in our lives. The University of North Texas developed Private Whys? with funding from the Copper Development Association. This lesson can easily be implemented in the classroom, and the entire unit can naturally be integrated into existing elementary school curricula.     

Local Tree Mapping: A Collaborative,Place-Based Activity Integrating Science,Technology, Math,and Geography

This inquiry-based activity designed for the fifth through 12th grade allows students to engage in an outdoor, place-based experience, working collaboratively both in groups and as a class to accomplish the class goal of creating a local tree map linked to student-collected data about each tree. During Local Tree Mapping, students explore the local trees in the yard or neighborhood of the school, while learning basic skills in geographical information systems and Microsoft Excel. Through this activity, students gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the role of trees within the Earth's ecosystems, as they collect data on tree type, height, diameter, age, and the longitude and latitude of the trees. An extension activity is described in which students can enter their tree data into a carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions reduction calculator to determine how much CO₂ is sequestered by the trees in their research site. Local Tree Mapping provides an opportunity for students to gain inquiry skills in science, mathematics, and geography as they participate firsthand in the collection, analysis, and presentation of real-world data that can be utilized by the local community.     

Editorial policy and Notes for authors

Modern accounts of evolutionary mechanism pay little attention to the pattern and logic of Darwin's explanation, but recognition of the logic of Darwin's explanation has significance for our understanding of evolution and for our appreciation of the extent to which Darwin's concept of evolutionary mechanism accords with modern evolutionary thought. Also, Darwin's explanation exemplifies the concept of a scientific ‘law’ and thus is of considerable value in helping learners to understand the nature of scientific explanation.     

Examining Microscopic Organisms under Augmented Reality Microscope: A 5E Learning Model Lesson

As a fundamental strategy for all science curriculum, inquiry is of prime importance. In order to facilitate inquiry during science education in middle school, 5E learning model was applied in this study. Following 5E learning model during a lesson, students can engage in a topic after being served to mitigate cognitive disequilibrium or familiar with daily-life examples such as yoghurt fermentation, oven spring, etc. explore the topic making an observation or testing hypothesis, explain and relate their experiences scientifically, extend or elaborate their knowledge and then being evaluated. This study introduces a sample 5E learning model for middle school students at the ages of 10–12 in science laboratory with an augmented reality microscope MicrosAR to examine microscopic organisms based on inquiry-based learning.     

Teaching and Assessing Science Process Skills in Physics: THE “BUBBLES” TASK

In the following article, Dr. Seuss's children's books are creatively integrated with science activities through the creation of take-home activity kits. The kits provide families an opportunity to read at home while connecting the enjoyable experience to science content and skill development through associated activities. The kits should be constructed using easy-reading books and aligned to developmentally appropriate academic science standards. Most importantly, they should be designed in a manner so that all family members are participants rather than expecting the adults to teach the expected outcomes. The activity kits can be completed as stand-alone experiences for interested students, used by students who are ready for an additional challenge, or adapted for an entire classroom of students as part of a teacher's normal curriculum.     

Connecting the Dots between Consumer Protection,Skepticism, and Science

The concept of relevance is an obvious component in the success of classroom science investigations, but it is also one of the tenets behind the numerous media advertisements that bombard our senses on a daily basis. The authors decided to capitalize on the similarities between process-based science and the world of advertising by initiating consumer protection investigations with a side venture into the commercial world of Madison Avenue. Advertisers use many strategies in an attempt to convince consumers to buy their products. By analyzing the strategies used in a sales pitch, one begins to recognize that data can be manipulated, facts can be skewed, and visuals can be controlled to enhance product performance. Such analyses require students to look deeper and seek answers beyond the surface of presented information, superficial declarations, visual discrepancies, and verbal innuendo. In other words, such analysis is all about deciphering claims and evidence, making it analogous to science. The antithesis of this procedure, synthesizing a sales campaign for a real or imagined product, is the application of these process skills. In sum, if students can create a successful advertising campaign by using their data, then they understand the art of data manipulation and may, therefore, become better consumers.     

Open-Ended Study of Our Changing Earth

“At Washington School, Evanston, Illinois, the children themselves are proving that the ‘underachiever’ and the ‘slow learner’ may become obsolete as a classroom problem.”     

The Monkey and the Hunter

Learning about the water situation in other regions of the world and the devastating effects of floods on drinking water helps students study science while learning about global water quality. This article provides science activities focused on developing cultural awareness and understanding how local water resources are integrally linked to the quality of the world's water supply. After reading and discussing a case study highlighting one water situation facing the people of Kenya, students explore water sanitation and testing methods, including solar pasteurization and the Colilert test for total coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli. These investigations are relevant to inquiry-based water quality labs for high school biology, chemistry, and environmental science.     

Cognition and Student Learning through the Arts

In recent years, an increasing number of studies have suggested connections among cognition, social and emotional development, and the arts. Some of this research indicates that students in schools where the arts are an integral part of the academic program tend to have an academic advantage over students for whom that is not the case. This study examines factors in schools and at home that contribute most to the variance in student learning and achievement, particularly as they relate to the arts, using a sample of more than 8,000 students in grade 5. The findings suggest that in-school arts programs alone may have less of an impact on student achievement than previous research has proposed. Parental influences likely have more of an effect than school on most children, and efforts to involve parents in the arts with their children may be more productive than simply providing arts programs in schools.     

High-school students in university research labs? Implementing an outreach model based on the ‘science as inquiry’ approach

In this study we designed, implemented, and evaluated an outreach programme for high-school biology students rooted in the ‘science as inquiry’ approach. Accordingly, students learn about science from experts in the field, as well as through in-class exposure to the history and philosophy of science. Our sample consisted of 11th graders (n?=?497), ages 16–17, attending advanced biology classes. Our goal was to determine whether this programme had a significant effect on students’ understanding of the ‘nature of science’ (NOS) and on their attitudes towards science. Using a controlled pre-post research design, we asked participants to complete a Likert-like questionnaire. Also, we conducted post-programme semi-structured interviews with 35 of the participants. Results show that completion of the programme significantly enhanced participants’ NOS understanding and improved their attitudes towards science. Participants expressed a deep level of NOS understanding and explicitly stated that the field visits to experts’ labs had changed their attitude towards science. We believe that our outreach programme can be adapted for teaching other sciences and for societies worldwide, as long as there is access to university laboratories and researchers willing to interact with young citizens and potential future scientists.     

Sweet Science for ALL! Supporting Inquiry-Based Learning Through M&Ms Investigation for English Language Learners

This article describes a series of inquiry-based lessons that provide English language learners (ELLs) with opportunities to experience science and engineering practices with conceptual understanding as well as to develop their language proficiency in elementary classrooms. The four-lesson sequence models how various types of instructional strategies for ELLs can be embedded through science lessons with thoughtful consideration of ELLs’ diverse cultural backgrounds. The cross-curricular science lessons provide ELLs with opportunities to apply and enhance their mathematics, reading, writing, and communicating skills while investigating the properties of M&Ms.     

The Mixed Media Bag

This article provides basic information on how a common species of earthworm, Eisenia fetida, can be used in the biology classroom as well as a discussion of how to establish and care for a vermicompost bin. We discuss ideas for inquiry activities with the organism and provide a sample-guided inquiry that demonstrates how a long-term, theme-based unit involving earthworms can address a wide variety of content from the National Science Education standards.