WISTR: WESTCONN’s INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE TEACHER RESEARCH

1. WISTR: WESTCONN’s INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE TEACHER RESEARCH Department of Education and Educational Psychology INQUIRY IN SCIENCE EDUCATION Dr. Marcy Delcourt Dr. Aram Aslanian Dr. Edward Duncanson

2. INQUIRY IN SCIENCE EDUCATION • What is inquiry? • Types of questions • How to improve questioning • Science Fairs and how they started • Science lab rubric • Science activities

3. What is inquiry? To be human is to inquire. Inquiry is the engine for independent, curiosity- and interest-driven, life-long learning. It is the ability to link experiences in order for learning to occur. However, inquiry is a process which of itself demands a very large succession of skills to proceed in growth from asking and answering questions of daily life to problem solving, to doing projects and investigations requiring substantial time commitments, to scholarly research in a specific domain. Shore, B. M., Aulls, M. W., & Delcourt, M. A. B. (Eds.). (2007). Inquiry in education: Overcoming Barriers to Successful Implementation. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

4. Types of questions • Observations- asked as questions • Philosophical questions • Requests from simple facts • Complex thinking • Investigable questions

5. Types of questions Observations: questions that can be rephrased from observations, turning comments into questions Student: Look at that fish that has too much mercury. Teacher: Can you describe how the fish behaves?

6. Types of questions Philosophical questions: these have no correct answers, can be debated, allow students and teachers to gather evidence for discussions Examples: What will be future applications of genetics research? How can the CDC control the spread of communicable diseases?

7. Types of questions Requests for simple facts: these are knowledge and comprehension questions that should be answered directly Examples: What are toxins? What is a communicable disease?

8. Types of questions Requests requiring complex thinking: these require higher order thinking skills, applying earlier knowledge, analyzing information, putting new ideas together, assessing based on criteria Examples: Why does the Earth have only 1 moon? Why are some lobsters blue?

9. Types of questions Investigable questions: these have identifiable variables or constructs; a research question is feasible, clear, significant, and ethical Example: Is there a significant difference in the growth of fish between using food A or food B? (Grade 5 student, Norwalk)

10. Levels of thinking • Bloom’s taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation • Cognitive levels of questions: data recall, data processing, data generation • Types of knowledge: declarative, procedural, conditional

11. Cognitive levels of questions Data recall: questions that ask students to respond with a descriptive statement Recall, recite, enumerate, list

12. Cognitive levels of questions Data processing: questions that ask students to use data to show relationships or cause and effect Synthesize, classify, analyze, compare, contrast, evaluate data

13. Cognitive levels of questions Data generation: questions that direct students to respond by using divergent thinking Predict, theorize, apply a principle to a new situation

14. Types of knowledge • Declarative- basic facts; answers questions beginning with “what” • Procedural- refers to processes; answers questions beginning with “how” • Conditional- refers to circumstances; answers questions beginning with “under what conditions”

15. How to improve questioning • Write down higher order thinking skills (HOTS) questions in advance of a lesson • Ask only HOTS questions • Teach students to write and identify types of questions • Model asking HOTS questions in every lesson

16. How to improve questioning • Make all students responsible for answering HOTS questions • Use prepared materials that have higher order questions or verbs already on them in order to serve as prompts • Do the activity first in order to elicit curiosity and inquiry

17. Inquiry Models • The Concept Attainment Model • The Concept Development Model • The Synectics Model • The Suchman Inquiry Model • The Classroom Discussion Model Gunter, M. A., Estes, T. H., Schwab, J. H. (1990). Instruction: A models approach. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

18. Science fairs and how they started • 1829- Science and Technology Exposition sponsored by the American Institute of Science and Technology (AIST) held in NY; showed Morse’s telegraph and Bell’s telephone; evolved into the International Science and Engineering Fair that is still held today

19. Science Fairs • 1929- First Science Fair sponsored by American Institute of Science and Technology (AIST) and the Museum of Natural History • 1942- Westinghouse Science Talent Search (STS) • 1998- Westinghouse STS becomes Intel Science Talent Search (STS); over $1,250,000 in awards and scholarships

20. Mary Masterman of Westmoore High School, Oklahoma City, OK wins first place. The Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) recently named its top ten winners at the annual Intel STS 2007 awards. Forty finalists were selected to travel to Washington, D.C. to participate in the rigorous judging process, meet with national leaders, interact with leading scientists and display their research at the National Academy of Sciences. For the first time in the history of the program there were an equal number of female and male finalists who represent 38 schools from 20 different states. First Place Winner Mary Masterman, a 17-year-old Westmoore High School senior from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was awarded a $100,000 scholarship for describing the spectrograph system she built. Mary machined her own parts, and aligned her own optics. Using lenses from a camera and a microscope as well as a laser for her light source, Mary was able to separate the individual photons scattered by the tested molecules, similar to the effects a prism has on light, and record their wavelengths. She found she could attain fairly accurate wavelength measurements compared to published readings for household solvents and other objects despite using an inexpensive laser. The cost for building her spectrograph was only $300; quite an accomplishment compared to the $20,000 - $100,000 cost for commercial units. "Even if you think that what you want to do is impossible, go ahead and go for it because you never know what you can accomplish." Mary Masterman First Place Winner 2007 Intel Science Talent Search

21. National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) • Science Fairs should be voluntary • The emphasis should be on the learning experience • Science fairs should supplement the educational experience not BE the educational experience

22. National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) • The emphasis should be on science process • It must be the work of the student • Mentors must have clear guidelines

23. Formats for Science Fair projects • Research report • Poster • 3-D display • Model • Research presentation

24. Types of Science Fair projects • Observation of the environment • Demonstration of a basic scientific principle • Collecting and analyzing data • Controlled experiment

25. Presentation options • Judged presentations • Expo- can combine student work with competitions and commercial exhibits • Share fair- students swap ideas as they display their work • Class demonstration- student explain their projects to classmates

26. Example science lab rubric • Categories- purpose, procedures, data and observations, results, conclusions, written communication • Ratings- exceeds expectations, meets expectations, approximates expectations, not ready yet (For a copy of this rubric, contact Dr. Kenneth Martinelli, Instructional Specialist, K-12 Science and Health, KenM@norwalkpublicschools.net.)

27. Science Activities Life As We Know It People tend to be on best behavior when they’re being watched. But what if the only eyes staring at them are on paper? In a University of Newcastle (England) lounge where paying for coffee was optional, researchers placed a picture of either flowers or a pair of eyes next to the suggested price list. Visitors donated almost three times more money when the eyes were posted. Apparently, even a 2-D witness was enough to deter some potential coffee-kitty cheapskates.

28. Life As We Know It • What is the dependent variable? • What is the independent variable? What are the categories or levels? • What variable needs to be controlled? This means that a variable needs to be constant (the same) for each level of the Independent Variable. • What is the research question and the hypothesis?