Procedures
Data Entry
Data Analysis
Curriculum
Materials
Water Quality Home
How to Do Research

Contact Us

Science Inquiry - What is it and How Do You Do It?

Click here for the NW Regional Educational Lab's Science Inquiry Model Web site.

Learning the science process skills...a key to doing science inquiry.

Asking Questions...

Observing...


Experimenting...

Measuring...

Collaborating...



Comparing...



Recording...



Journal writing...

Analyzing...

Students in Brewster investigate the water quality of the Okanogon River

What is the best way to teach the Science Process Skills so students understand basic inquiry?  Most science teachers and educational professionals agree with the Northwest Regional Educational Labs statement "...that investigative science is a highly effective way to teach science.  In this way, students build their scientific understanding and investigative skills through active inquiry, connecting their previous knowledge with new ideas and evidence."

Inquiry science itself can be hard to describe;  one meaning refers to the way students are taught science.  To engage them in activities in which they develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as how scientists actually study the natural world, is a good description of Inquiry Based Science instruction.

Doing water quality studies lends itself to inquiry science, as students are  engaged in open-ended, student centered, hands-on activities.  They have a central question they are trying to answer, such as "Is this stream or river healthy enough to support salmon?" or "If this stream or river is polluted and unhealthy, what are the causes and what can we do?"

Alan Coburn from the Department of Science Education at California State University in Long Beach, California has described several different approaches to inquiry-based instruction:

• Structured Inquiry:  Students are given hands-on problems to investigate as well as the procedures, and materials, but are not informed of expected outcomes.

• Guided Inquiry:  The teacher provides only the materials and problem to investigate.  Students devise their own procedure to solve the problem.

• Open (student initiated) Inquiry:  This is similar to guided inquiry, but students also formulate their own problem to investigate.  Open inquiry is very similar to doing real science.

A teacher must know their students well to know what approach to Inquiry they should take.  High school students should be able to handle open, student initiated inquiry more often than middle schoolers, who will be able to handle more open and guided inquiry than elementary students.  Building up to open inquiry is a gradual process:  use structured and guided inquiry, emphasizing the science process skills, for the majority of student activities, especially at the beginning of the year when the teacher and students are getting to know each other.  As the year progresses move into open inquiry as students further develop their science process skills.  If your school has a science fair, this is an excellent way to encourage an open-inquiry investigation.  Elementary students learn quite effectively using hands-on, inquiry based materials when guided by an experienced teacher.  Most middle school students are concrete thinkers and can not do well using inquiry to explore abstract concepts.  High school students are more abstract thinkers and are moving from the concrete to the more abstract as they progress through high school.  

Water quality studies help students ask questions which can be answered directly;  materials and situations are familiar to students, and the activities fit the students' skills and knowledge because the teacher knows their students.

The teacher is the key to the successful Inquiry Based Science classroom.  A certain element of control is given to the students over what they will do, and how they will do it.  This gradual release of responsibility develops throughout the year, and empowers students to be a scientist in their own right.

Alan Coburn sites research that identifies the following teacher behaviors that promote inquiry-based learning:

• asking open-ended or divergent questions

• using wait-time when asking questions

• responding to students by repeating and paraphrasing what they have said without criticism

• avoiding telling students what to do, praising, evaluating, rejecting, or discouraging student ideas or behaviors

• maintaining a disciplined classroom

Make changes to your teaching slowly. Good science teaching involves a lot of patience, and time!

Below is a helpful chart listing the Science Process Skills and the behaviors used  by students and scientists when engaging in these behaviors.  Help your students become scientists!  These behaviors are key to doing good Inquiry Based Science.  Prior to field studies, students need to know the basic science process skills, especially how to do good, reliable observing.  Mastering these observation skills are very important, as they are key to gathering good and reliable data.  Help your students focus on the use of their senses to gather both qualitative and quantitative data.  There are several excellent curriculum guides for teachers to use in helping students hone their science process skills while doing simple activities:

• Science Process Skills:  Assessing Hands-On Student Performance for grades 1-6 by karen L. Ostlund 

• Teaching Science Process Skills in grades 5-8 by Bailer, Ramig and Ramsey

•  Learning and Assessing Science Process Skills in grades 5-8 by Rezba, Sprague, and Fiel

  The above are available from the NSTA Science Store or Amazon.com.

Back to top

For questions about this website please contact Sherry Schaaf, WVC Water Quality Coordinator at sschaaf@esd114.wednet.edu

Updated Fall, 2003