Some tools for
Inquiry learning in Science
NZC inquiry learning Wordle
What does inquiry learning look like
in a science classroom?
Primary Connections, 2007
Using the ‘NEED TO KNOW’ tool in
IBL
Scenario: the floods that affected Manawatu,
Rangitikei & Wanganui in February 2004.
What is my problem statement / question?
How will the growers (farmers) be able to
survive on their land?
• We need to write down everything we
know about flooding and farmers in the
“What do we know?” column. E.g. the
next slide
What do we know? What do we need to How can we find out?
know?
• houses flooded
• farms flooded
• crops ruined
• sheep + cattle died
• schools shut
• people had to take time
off work
• only 40% of people were
insured
• 100 year flood
sewage leaks
• roads, bridges etc are
damaged / destroyed
• milk train derailed
• mud stinks
• housing the homeless
• depression – emotional
cost
• The next step is to focus on those facts
which are ‘linked’ to your problem
statement - How will the growers
(farmers) be able to sutvive on their
land?
• These facts are in bold.
What do we know? What do we need to How can we find out?
know?
• houses flooded
• farms flooded
• crops ruined
• sheep + cattle died
• schools shut
• people had to take time
off work
• only 40% of people were
insured
• 100 year flood
sewage leaks
• roads, bridges etc are
damaged / destroyed
• milk train derailed
• mud stinks
• housing the homeless
• depression – emotional
cost
• Next step - take each fact (in bold) and
ask questions that are linked to that fact.
• E.g. flooded farm - look at the question
asked by the students in the next slide.
What do we know? What do we need to How can we find out?
know?
• houses flooded • how long will it take
• farms flooded for soils to be used
• crops ruined again?
• sheep + cattle died
• schools shut
• people had to take time
off work
• only 40% of people were
insured
• 100 year flood
sewage leaks
• roads, bridges etc are
damaged / destroyed
• milk train derailed
• mud stinks
• housing the homeless
• depression – emotional
cost
• Using the question “how long will it
take for soils to be used again?” we
can then proceed to look at how we can
find the answer(s) to this question. The
next slide demonstrates how this group
of students found their answer(s).
• Each method is also identified as a
science (T) or technology (T) aspect or
both.
What do we know? What do we need to How can we find out?
know?
• houses flooded • how long will it • interview older farmers (T)
• farms flooded take for soils to be • check out previous flood
• crops ruined used again? information (T or S)
• sheep + cattle died • carry out an investigation
• schools shut using different thickness of
sediments. (S)
• people had to take time
off work • interview Massey University
/ AgResearch staff about soil
• only 40% of people were information after floods (T).
insured
• 100 year flood
sewage leaks
• roads, bridges etc are
damaged / destroyed
• milk train derailed
• mud stinks
• housing the homeless
• depression – emotional
cost
What do we know? What do we need to How can we find out?
know?
• houses flooded • how long will it • interview older farmers (T)
• farms flooded take for soils to be • check out previous flood
• crops ruined used again? information (T or S)
• sheep + cattle died • carry out an investigation
• schools shut • what crops are using different thickness of
grown in this area? sediments. (S)
• people had to take time
off work • interview Massey
University / AgResearch
• only 40% of people were staff about soil information
insured after floods.
• 100 year flood
sewage leaks
• roads, bridges etc are
damaged / destroyed
• milk train derailed
• mud stinks
• housing the homeless
• depression – emotional
cost
What do we know? What do we need to How can we find out?
know?
• houses flooded • how long will it • interview older farmers (T)
• farms flooded take for soils to be • check out previous flood
• crops ruined used again? information (T or S)
• sheep + cattle died • carry out an investigation
• schools shut • what crops are using different thickness of
grown in this area? sediments. (S)
• people had to take time
off work • interview Massey
University / AgResearch
• only 40% of people were staff about soil information
insured after floods.
• 100 year flood • seek information from
sewage leaks Statistics NZ (T)
• roads, bridges etc are • interview farmers in the area
damaged / destroyed (T)
• milk train derailed
• mud stinks
• housing the homeless
• depression – emotional
cost
What do we know? What do we need to How can we find out?
know?
• houses flooded • how long will it • interview older farmers (T)
• farms flooded take for soils to be • check out previous flood
• crops ruined used again? information (T or S)
• sheep + cattle died • carry out an investigation
• schools shut • what crops are using different thickness of
grown in this area? sediments. (S)
• people had to take time
off work • interview Massey
University / AgResearch
• only 40% of people were • what is insured? staff about soil information
insured after floods.
• 100 year flood • seek information from
sewage leaks Statistics NZ (T)
• roads, bridges etc are • interview farmers in the area
damaged / destroyed (T)
• milk train derailed
• mud stinks
• housing the homeless
• depression – emotional
cost
What do we know? What do we need to How can we find out?
know?
• houses flooded • how long will it • interview older farmers (T)
• farms flooded take for soils to be • check out previous flood
• crops ruined used again? information (T or S)
• sheep + cattle died • carry out an investigation
• schools shut • what crops are using different thickness of
grown in this area? sediments. (S)
• people had to take time
off work • interview Massey
University / AgResearch
• only 40% of people were • what is insured? staff about soil information
insured after floods.
• 100 year flood • seek information from
sewage leaks Statistics NZ (T)
• roads, bridges etc are • interview farmers in the area
damaged / destroyed (T)
• milk train derailed • Call ‘insurance company’
• mud stinks and ask for typical policy of
• housing the homeless crop farmer. (T)
• depression – emotional • Search past history of
cost farmers insuring crops. (T)
• Completing the ‘Need to Know’ chart in this
manner allows you to follow a particular
‘thread’ to find answers of a question that links
to the problem statement.
• Once answers are known they then become
part of the ‘What do we know?’ column and
more questions might be generated by this
new knowledge.
• Using this ‘tool’ keeps the learner focused as
their questions all link back to the original
problem statement!
• Using this ‘tool’ provides the teacher with a
window into the learner’s thinking with
regards to how they go about finding an
answer.
SOLUTION(S): CLIP-ON lanes and “double-decking” are
options being considered for Centennial
Highway between Pukerua Bay and
Paekakariki. (Dominion Post 3 May 2004)
What was the ‘scenario’ ?
What was the ‘problem statement / question’?
What was in their ‘NEED TO KNOW’ template to come to the
solutions above?
In groups of 3, complete you own ‘NEED TO KNOW’ template
for the problem statement you wrote above.
What Key Competencies have you
demonstrated today?
• Thinking
• Using language, symbols & texts
• Managing self
• Relating to others
• Participating & contributing
The KCs fall naturally from good inquiry
based learning.
Problem solving grid
eg Integration of NZC into my subject – link to student outcomes/”give it context”
List subject Choose 5 subject Generate 2 Generate criteria for
problems problems solutions evaluating solutions
SWOT Analysis
for the process of introducing NZC into a secondary school
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Threats
Questioning and Bloom’s taxonomy
Questions are at the heart of
inquiry learning.
• In the traditional classroom, the teacher is frequently the questioner.
In an inquiry classroom, the teacher asks questions that are more
open and reflective in nature. Dennie Palmer Wolf, in THE ART OF
QUESTIONING, published by Academic Connections in 1987,
suggests that there are four major types of questions:
• INFERENCE QUESTIONS.
• INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS.
• TRANSFER QUESTIONS.
• QUESTIONS ABOUT HYPOTHESES.
INFERENCE QUESTIONS.
• These questions ask students to go
beyond immediately available
information. For example, a high-
school photography teacher held up a
black-and-white portrait of a machinist
taken by Paul Strand and asked,
"What do you know by looking at this
photograph?" Through careful
questioning and discussion, his
students realized the image contained
hints that implied a whole network of
information: clues to content (where
and when the photograph was taken),
technique (where the photographer
stood, where the light sources were
located), and meaning or attitude
(what Strand felt about industry and
workers). To push beyond the factual
in this way is to ask students to find
clues, examine them, and discuss
what inferences are justified.
INFERENCE QUESTIONS
in a science context..
• These questions ask students to
go beyond immediately available
information. For example, a high-
school Science teacher could
show a class these images of
Mars and ask, "What do you know
by looking at these photographs?"
Through careful questioning and
discussion the students realize
that the images contained hints
that implied a whole network of
information: clues to content
(where and when the photograph
was taken), technique, and
meaning or attitude. To push
beyond the factual in this way is to
ask students to find clues,
examine them, and discuss what
inferences are justified.
INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS.
• If inference questions demand that students
fill in missing information, then interpretive
questions propose that they understand the
consequences of information or ideas. One
day, when her English class was struggling
to make sense of Frost's poem "The Silken
Tent," a teacher asked, "Imagine if Frost
compared the woman to an ordinary canvas
tent instead of a silk one. What would
change?" Faced with the stolid image of a
stiff canvas tent, students suddenly realized
the fabric of connotations set in motion by
the idea of silk -- its sibilant, rustling sounds;
its associations with elegance, wealth, and
femininity; its fluid motions. In a similar spirit,
during a life-drawing class, a teacher
showed his students a reproduction of
Manet's "Olympia" and asked them, "How
would the picture be different if the model
weren't wearing that black tie around her
neck?" A student laid her hand over the tie,
studied the image and commented, "Without
the ribbon, she doesn't look so naked. She
looks like a classical model. With the ribbon,
she looks undressed, bolder."
INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS
in a science context.
• If inference questions demand
that students fill in missing
information, then interpretive
questions propose that they
understand the consequences
of information or ideas. For a
physics class trying to make
sense of this photograph of a
jet fighter breaking the sound
barrier one could ask the
students how this image would
be different if the plane where
flying in space … or under the
ocean.
TRANSFER QUESTIONS.
If inference and interpretation
questions ask a student to go
deeper, transfer questions
provoke a kind of breadth of
thinking, asking students to
take their knowledge to new
places. For example, the final
exam for a high-school film
course contained this question:
"This semester we studied
three directors: Fellini,
Hitchcock, and Kurosawa.
Imagine that you are a film
critic and write a review of
"Little Red Riding Hood" as
directed by one of these
individuals."
TRANSFER QUESTIONS
in a science context..
If inference and
interpretation questions
ask a student to go
deeper, transfer
questions provoke a kind
of breadth of thinking,
asking students to take
their knowledge to new
places. We could ask
“how might our school
day be different if we
moved to Antarctica … or
the Moon?”
QUESTIONS ABOUT HYPOTHESES.
• Typically, questions based on
what can be predicted and tested
are thought of as belonging to
sciences and other "hard"
pursuits. But, in fact, predictive
thinking matters in all domains.
When we read a novel, we gather
evidence about the world of the
story, the trustworthiness of the
narrator, the style of the author, all
of which we use to predict what
we can expect in the next chapter.
Far from letting their students
simply soak in the content of
dances, plays, or fiction, skilled
teachers probe for predictions as
a way of making students actively
aware of their expectations.
Chemistry
(from J. Brunner 1966 “ A theory of instruction”)
Macroscopic
Practical demonstrations
Submicroscopic Symbolic
Particles Equations & calculations
A thinking model
What?
How? Why?
An integration continuum
• Integrate within a subject
• Correlation between subjects
• Thematic approach involving a group of
subjects
• Integration through practical resolution of a
problem
• Student centred model IEP