Fostering Inquiry-based Learning in Labs Using Google Spreadsheets Instructors in lab courses often find it difficult to simulate and discuss all phases of scientific inquiry during a single class period. For instance, individual lab groups may not be able to replicate experimental trials sufficiently in the time allotted, requiring instructors to compile data sets across lab groups before students can properly analyze and interpret results.Google Spreadsheets can circumvent this logistical barrier by allowing instructors to crowdsource the data aggregation and “cleaning” during class. For example, Chad Hershock and Rachel Niemer, CRLT, teach a short-course for postdocs on college teaching in science and engineering. During a unit on converting traditional, “cookbook” lab exercises into inquiry-based activities, postdocs work in pairs to complete a sample lab protocol. Instructors simply monitor the data as it accumulates, responding to problems as needed.
Educational Network Association Read Article in Spanish Inquiry is a dynamic process of being open to wonder and puzzlement and coming to know and understand the world. As such, it is a stance that pervades all aspects of life and is essential to the way in which knowledge is created. Misconception Alert “Inquiry is not a “method” of doing science, history, or any other subject, in which the obligatory first stage in a fixed, linear sequence is that of students each formulating questions to investigate. Inquiry is a study into a worthy question, issue, problem or idea. There are several dimensions of inquiry: These are taken from the Inquiry Rubric Misconception Alert “Inquiry is not to be thought of in terms of isolated projects, undertaken occasionally on an individual basis as part of a traditional transmissionary pedagogy. There is a difference between Projects as conventionally understood in education circles and Project-based Learning that fosters inquiry. Reference (1) Wells, Gordon (2001).
Design-Based Learning (DBL) to Innovate STEM Education | Stanford University School of Education IT Our earthquake curriculum project We developed an earthquake curriculum to conduct design-based pilot studies all over the globe from Ethiopia to California in 5th, 6th grade classes and a multi-grade classroom in El Salvador. Learning about earthquakes is urgent and propitious with the recent earthquake catastrophes in Haiti and Chile. It is crucial to raise awareness in our young learners that an earthquake in one continent can have ripple effect damages to other continents. Within the design challenge, students worked in teams of 4 members to design and build earthquake resistant structures using only index cards, tape, and paper clips through couple of iterations. Throughout our pilot studies, students were enthusiastic, focused, and actively collaborating with their peers. Although we have briefly introduced the use of mobile phones as a documentation tool, it will be integrated formally into an empirical study we will conduct this upcoming summer. Sub Project
Inquiry-based Learning: Exploration How do I assess students' progress? Student outcomes from an inquiry-learning experience should focus on: Thus, the focus of assessment of inquiry learning should be on the following: The degree to which the processing of learning skills has been developed. It is extremely important that there be feedback from students to the teacher regarding the degree to which the above objectives have been achieved. The feedback from the teacher to the learner is very important as well. Feedback shared with parents is very important in helping them understand the progress of their children and in making them more aware of the important and useful outcomes of inquiry learning. Effective inquiry teachers are constantly assessing students. Some teachers use one-on-one assessment of students following the end of a study unit or a learning activity. Individual assessment can reveal the student's perception of the following: How the student views her individual effort.
Inquiry-based Learning: Explanation What are the benefits of inquiry-based learning? One of the important missing pieces in many modern schools is a coherent and simplified process for increasing knowledge of a subject from lower grades to upper grades. Students often have difficulty understanding how various activities within a particular subject relate to each other. Much more confusion results when the learner tries to interrelate the various subjects taught at school. Too little effort is devoted to defining important outcomes at the end of high school and planning backwards and across subjects. Specific content such as photosynthesis has much more relevance for the learner if set in a larger context of understanding the interrelationship of the sun, green plants, and the role of carbon dioxide and water. Within a conceptual framework, inquiry learning and active learner involvement can lead to important outcomes in the classroom.
The Inquiry Page Based on John Dewey's philosophy that education begins with the curiosity of the learner, we use a spiral path of inquiry: asking questions, investigating solutions, creating new knowledge as we gather information, discussing our discoveries and experiences, and reflecting on our new-found knowledge. Each step in this process naturally leads to the next: inspiring new questions, investigations, and opportunities for authentic "teachable moments." TWT: Inquiry-based Learning Strategy What is Inquiry-based learning? The old adage, “Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand” describes the core of inquiry-based learning. Inquiry is the process of seeking truth, information, or knowledge by questioning. Questioning! The process of inquiring begins with gathering information and data through applying the human senses: seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. Inquiry-based learning processes vary. How does inquiry-based learning encourage student learning? Memorizing facts and information is not the most important skill in today’s world. What does inquiry-based learning look like in the classroom? The following example elaborates on the five steps listed above: questioning, planning and predicting, investigating, recording and reporting, and reflecting. Additional Information on the Five Steps for Inquiry-based Learning Questioning, Planning and Predicting, Investigating, Recording and Reporting, and Reflecting.
What is Inquiry Based Learning? How to Study Help students learn to study well. We offer a number of great resources. View Study Skills Graphic Organizers Great printable graphic organizers for all subjects and grade levels! View Organizers What is Inquiry Based Learning? Inquiry based learning is mainly involving the learner and leading him to understand. Dictionary meaning of Inquiry is seeking knowledge, information, or truth through questioning. Very sadly, our traditional ways of teaching discourage the process of inquiry. Much mesmerizing information and facts are readily available, which needs an understanding of how to make sense out of it and turn it into useful knowledge. Inquiry based learning can be applied on all disciplines which has been confirmed through different researches. The teachers must organize their lesson plans according to the changing, interrelating, and communicating of knowledge. Go Deeper Into Our Inquiry-Based Learning Categories Equity in Education Basics
Difference betweeen Inquiry Learning and Taditional Approach How does it differ from the traditional approach? In general, the traditional approach to learning is focused on mastery of content, with less emphasis on the development of skills and the nurturing of inquiring attitudes. The current system of education is teacher centered, with the teacher focused on giving out information about "what is known." Students are the receivers of information, and the teacher is the dispenser. Traditional classrooms tend to be closed systems where information is filtered through layers to students. The inquiry approach is more focused on using and learning content as a means to develop information-processing and problem-solving skills. Assessment is focused on determining the progress of skills development in addition to content understanding. Inquiry classrooms are open systems where students are encouraged to search and make use of resources beyond the classroom and the school.
Enquiry/problem-based learning Whilst EBL has clear parallels with problem-based learning (or PBL), in that the solution of a ‘problem’ serves to shape the whole learning experience of the students, it is usually viewed as covering a broader spectrum of approaches. Further, as noted by the HEA Guide to Curriculum Design, ‘EBL is perhaps more open to divergent ways of thinking about problems, more open to exploring and understanding different ways of perceiving the world and less concerned with providing firm solutions to problems that do not have simple or unique solutions’. (Kahn and O’Rourke 2004). This is supported by Price (2003) who notes that both approaches share a number of philosophical premises: ‘Simply put, these are that you have a great deal to gain from active study that involves you in inductive and deductive thinking and which requires that you work closely with others, within small study groups, to make sense of the practice environment and the challenges that exist there.’ enquiry based learning;