What is Inquiry?

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Inquiry is one of the two methods we will be using to teach in the Science and Technology course this semester. Inquiry is a method of teaching where students build knowledge through asking questions, gathering dating and analyzing data. Inquiry is all about students solving a problem or answering a question by conducting research.

Inquiry has several characteristics:

  • It demands evidence
  • the use of logical and imagination
  • Explanations and predictions
  • Identifying and avoiding bias
  • Science is not authoritarian
In order to do Inquiry properly, you must know and follow the steps:
  1. Formulate a question or identify the problem
    1. What is being asked?
  2. Make predictions or a Hypothesis
    1. An educated guess about the end result.
    2. "I think that.." ,  " I inquire that..", etc.
  3. Collect and analyze, evaluate and interpret the data.
    1. What is the data?
    2.  Does it support your hypothesis?
    3. How can it be used to answer or solve the question/ problem at hand?
  4. Conclusion
    1. Your final answer after analyzing the data
    2. Does NOT have to match the hypothesis (can be wrong, hypothesis is only an educated GUESS)
  5. REPEAT!
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Inquiry is a great method to use in science because science is all about discovery, research and answering questions using data. However, you can use inquiry in all subjects!
  • Examples:
    • Math--> Investigation to find the answers to a math problem
    • Social Studies--> inferring like a historian, using primary sources to research the past
    • Reading/ELA--> making text based claims

See my next post to learn about the 5 E's of Inquiry!!!

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