Inquiry Unpacked
What does inquiry look like in the
classroom?
2. Why would one do inquiry?
3. What’s so hard about inquiry-oriented
teaching?
1.
1. What Does Inquiry Look Like?

Open Inquiry
 Hubble, Science Fairs, etc.

Structured/Guided Inquiry
 Let’s Make Craters
Let’s Make Some Craters!
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Part I: Free Exploration with flour only – use “rocks”
less than 2” across and don’t make a mess!!
Part II: Add a thin layer of regolith (dust) to help you
see the details. If your moon’s surface gets dirty,
switch to adding a thin layer of WHITE regolith over
the top.
Part III: Write a procedure to conduct the following:
Experiment #1: Does speed matter (don’t throw it!)
Experiment #2: What happens if you change what lands?
Experiment #3: Does mass matter? (nothing larger
than 2” in size)
Experiment #4: Does volume/diameter matter?
1. What Does Inquiry Look Like?

Open Inquiry
 Hubble, Science Fairs, etc.

Structured/Guided Inquiry
 Let’s Make Craters

Backwards Faded Scaffolding in Inquiry
 Galilean Moons, Galaxy Zoo

Collaborative Inquiry
 Tracking Sunspots
Tracking Sunspots
Learning about the Sun using real SOHO data
Adapted from an activity at: sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/classroom/docs/Spotexerweb.pdf.
If sunspots move, can we tell how fast
the sun is spinning?
What kind of data could we collect to answer
the question?
 How much data should we collect?
 What will we do with the data once we have
it?

In your classroom, a pair of students working on sunspot C
might make a grid that looks like this.
Sample data recorded
(numbers are approximate)
Group
June 22
June 23
June 24
June 25
June 26
June 27
June 28
June 29
June 30
July 01
July 02
July 03
A
-60
-45
-30
-18
-12
8
23
33
43
55
65
--
B
--58
-30
-23
-12
-7
5
17
23
42
56
70
C
-60
-45
-33
-20
-13
4
17
30
38
53
---
Analysis: Cleaning Up the Data
Review your data to make sure that the numeric
data matches the graphic data
 Determine how many degrees of longitude your
sunspot moves PER DAY?

 Special information: Since Earth is orbiting around the
Sun, at about one degree per day, your sunspot is
actually moving about one more degree per day that it
seems to. Add one degree/day to your calculation.

Determine: How long does it take the sun to
rotate USING YOUR DATA?
Thinking About Data Analysis
Were the spots always the same?
 Does everyone have the same answer?
 What do we do when the answers aren’t the
same?
 When is it fair to “average” the data? And
when is it fair to throw out the outliers?

1. What Does Inquiry Look Like?

Open Inquiry
 Hubble, Science Fairs, etc.

Structured/Guided Inquiry
 Let’s Make Craters

Backwards Faded Scaffolding in Inquiry
 Galilean Moons, Galaxy Zoo

Collaborative Inquiry
 Tracking Sunspots

Jigsawing
 Telescope Time Proposals
Jigsawing with Paul Francis
Paul says:
“In these exercises, I divided my class
into small teams typically of three
students). Each team is then given a
briefing paper, describing some facet of
a particular astronomical mystery.
 The teams have to wander around the
classroom, exchanging information with
other groups, until they can piece
together a complete solution to the
astronomical mystery.
 They can then present their solution and
win a prize.
 The exercises have been run
successfully in classes as large as 150
students, and as small as 12 students. I
see no reason why they should no work
equally well in larger classes still. They
have been run with students as young
as Year 10, and as old as grad
students.”

Planet Traxoline
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Each member of your group will received data from
Planet Traxoline.
This data was retrieved by probes and remote
controlled robots.
They took rock samples for chemistry and
temperature, and images of topography .
Fossils were also found
You must analyze your own data, share your
observations with your group, and report at the
ExtraPlanetary Institute meeting.
If you can create a report that makes meaning out of
ALL of the data, you win the Spock Prize!
1. What Does Inquiry Look Like?

Open Inquiry
 Hubble, Science Fairs, etc.

Structured/Guided Inquiry
 Let’s Make Craters

Backwards Faded Scaffolding in Inquiry
 Galilean Moons, Galaxy Zoo

Collaborative Inquiry
 Tracking Sunspots

Jigsawing
 Telescope Time Proposals

So is everything Inquiry?
Let’s take a look at three
Astro classes…..
What do you see?
Is it inquiry?
Let’s imagine some ASTRO 101
courses
Celestial College
Betelgeuse College
Arcturus College
What is the teaching model/formula in
each class? Compare what happens
first, second, etc…
Let’s imagine some ASTRO 101
courses
Celestial College
Professor
•provides flow charts
showing evolution pathways
for low-, medium-, and highmass stars
•asks students to copy them
into their notes
•gives students a test that
includes matching items and
short answer questions.
Betelgeuse
College
Arcturus
College
Let’s imagine some ASTRO 101
courses
Celestial College
Betelgeuse College
Professor
•provides flow
charts showing
evolution pathways
for low-, medium-,
and high-mass
stars
•asks students to
copy them into their
notes
•gives students a
test that includes
matching items and
short answer
questions.
Professor
•gives the luminosity and
spectral class of 10
nearby stars, distant stars,
& bright & cool stars
•students plot the stars on
a HR diagram & trace
evolution of stars with
varying starting points.
Students complete a quiz
on the HR diagram.
Arcturus
College
Let’s imagine some ASTRO 101
courses
Celestial
College
Betelgeuse Arcturus College
College
Professor
•provides flow
charts
showing
evolution
pathways for
low-,
medium-, and
high-mass
stars
•asks
students to
copy them
into their
notes
•gives
students a
test that
includes
matching
Professor
•gives the
luminosity
and spectral
class of 10
nearby stars,
distant stars,
& bright &
cool stars
•students plot
the stars on a
HR diagram &
trace
evolution of
stars with
varying
starting
points.
Students
complete a
Professor:
•proposes to students that all stars in
the sky are alike
•asks students to organize information
on bright and nearby stars from their
text’s appendix to support or disprove
the proposition.
•helps students notice stellar
characteristics & patterns, guides them
to use vocabulary.
•assesses based on the completeness
observations and patterns identified
in journals.
Let’s imagine some ASTRO 101
courses
Celestial College
Betelgeuse College
Arcturus College
Professor
•provides flow charts
showing evolution
pathways for low-,
medium-, and high-mass
stars
•asks students to copy
them into their notes
•gives students a test
that includes matching
items and short answer
questions.
Professor
•gives the luminosity
and spectral class of 10
nearby stars, distant
stars, & bright & cool
stars
•students plot the stars
on a HR diagram &
trace evolution of stars
with varying starting
points. Students
complete a quiz on the
HR diagram.
Professor:
•proposes to students
that all stars in the sky
are alike
•asks students to
organize information
on bright and nearby
stars from their text’s
appendix to support or
disprove the
proposition.
•helps students notice
stellar characteristics &
patterns, guides them
to use vocabulary.
•assesses based on the
completeness
What is the teaching model/formula in each
class? Compare what happens first, second,
Discussion Questions
What are the steps in each?
2. How long does each take?
3. Which would be the most fun to be a student
in?
4. Which class would you rather teach in?
1.
Discussion Questions
continued…
5.
6.
Which is consistent with the nature of
science?
Which are teacher-centered, studentcentered, hands-on, and inquiry?
Inquiry is….
• Engaging with meaningful questions
• Using data as evidence
• Communicating/critiquing conclusions
7.
Which is teaching for understanding?
2. Why would one do inquiry?
Inquiry and “How People Learn”

What do we know about cognition: the
ways that people perceive, remember and
process information?
 Prior knowledge (Erlwanger, Au, Moll)
 Metacognition (Flavell, Brown)
 Social construction of knowledge (Vygotsky,
Piaget, Bruner)
 Meaningful Formative Assessment (Cowie &
Bell, Black & William)
 Active engagement (Bonwell & Eison, Redish)

What aspects of inquiry instruction match
what we know about cognition?
3. What’s so hard about inquiry-oriented
teaching?
Inquiry is not a natural act, as practitioner or
instructor.
We have misconceptions about inquiry
 There are practical classroom issues
 Asking a good research question is really
hard

Remember your list of inquiry
experiences and conceptions?
Some Misconceptions about Inquiry
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Research = book report
Rejecting a hypothesis is bad
Science requires lab equipment/lots of funding
Inquiry requires data-collection (on-line data doesn’t
count)
There is a set linear method of scientific inquiry
 (Inquiry is experimental, with controls, variables &
hypotheses)
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Generating scientific questions is the easy part;
analyzing data is the hard part
Typical instructor and student
concerns (complaints).
Yes, we mean you.
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Takes too much time
I have too many students
My students have too low an aptitude
This kind of instruction hurts smart students
Can’t you just Google the answer?
Content is “watered down”
It is difficult
There is no answer key
They might ask a question that I can’t answer!
What if my hypothesis isn’t right ?!?
Asking a good research question is
really hard!
Remember asking research questions with
Gemini and Hubble? Which set of questions
was easier?
 Why?
 What does this imply about teaching people
the art of doing research?
 Let’s try again:

How Much Do Natural Systems Change
Over Time?
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Hours of Daylight
Percentage of
Surface Covered by
Snow/Ice?
Temperature
Pollution
CO2
Ozone (03)
Cloud Cover
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Plant Coverage
Rainfall
Wind Patterns
River Water
Discharge
Earthquakes
Population (Humans
or other organisms)
Others?
You have to do a SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT!!! What is your research question?
II. Data, Data Everywhere, But Not a Dot to Plot
Hours of Daylight
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/
Rain, Snow, Temperature, Wind, Pressure
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/mppsearch.html
Percentage of Surface Covered by Snow/Ice
http://gis.ncdc.noaa.gov/website/ims-climatls/index.html
Browse at http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0046.html
Archive at http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SNOW/
Or http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ussc/pagemap.html
Temperature
http://www.temperatureworld.com/ or
http://gis.ncdc.noaa.gov/website/ims-climatls/index.html
and you can draw boxes to zoon
Pollution
Map Archives at http://airnow.gov/
CO2
http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/ccgg/iadv/
Ozone (03)
http://www.ozonelayer.noaa.gov/data/data.htm
Cloud Cover
http://gis.ncdc.noaa.gov/website/ims-climatls/index.html
and select OTHER
Plant/Vegetation Coverage
http://gisdata.usgs.net/website/ivm/viewer.php
Rainfall
http://hdsc.nws.noaa.gov/hdsc/pfds/index.html
River Levels
http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/
Wind Patterns
River Water Levels or Volume
Lightning
orhttp://thunder.nsstc.nasa.gov/lightning-cgibin/lis/LISSearch.pl?type=HTML?
Earthquakes
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/
Volcanoes
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/update.html
Human Population
http://www.census.gov/
Traffic Congestion
http://www.stolasgeospatial.com/traffic.html
Sea Level Rising from Global Warming
http://flood.firetree.net/
NASA Images from Space
http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/efs/categories.htm
Great Meta Collection of Real-Time Weather Data
http://www.weatherimages.org/index.html (include index.html
on this address)
And of course, Google Mash-Ups
http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/#top (check out right
hand column)
All Research Questions Are Not Created Equal
Consider these questions inquiry proposed by students—do you think they
would be fruitful and productive things to investigate as a scientific inquiry?
Why or why not? How could they be improved?
 How many days in a year?
 How many hummingbird species feed near the school?
 How does the pH of the school yard soil change over a month?
 Which plants look different the day after it rains?
 Are the number of acres burned by wildfire each year increasing?
 Does it rain the same number of days in July every year?
 Is the amount of plankton in the ocean related to the fluctuating
sea surface temperature?
 Are there more car accidents in Tucson during the full moon?
In general, what do you think makes a lousy inquiry question?
In general, what do you think makes a great inquiry question?
What is the essence of a good research
question?
Noone knows…..
At first, it’s easier to spot a bad question:
1. “A theoretical.”: Doesn’t connect to preexisting
knowledge
2. “Who cares?”: What would you do with the
answer if you could find it?
3. “Duh!”: The answer to the question is obvious.
4. “Black box.”: Input….output…don’t know what
happened….
Resources

Colburn, A.- What Teacher Educators Need
to Know about Inquiry-Based Instruction
 http://www.csulb.edu/~acolburn/AETS.htm