My middle school students have currently just begun a project building and designing their own paper rollercoaster built out of template pieces. I believe this is inquiry level 3, guided inquiry, because I provided them with the question...how can you build the "best" rollercoaster? My goal for using this question is to reinforce to my young scientists that they need to quantify what "best" means by using characteristics that can be measured. They need to come up with three parameters for what "best" means, setting three goals that their roller coaster will accomplish, such as speed, design, or size. I think I could have framed the question a bit differently to move this project up to level 4/open inquiry by restating the question..."We are going to build rollercoasters. What do you want yours to accomplish?" so that students come up with the question on their own. I would love to hear other ideas of how to increase the inquiry in this project for my students.

I teach 2nd grade and for the Science unit about habitats and animals and plant characteristics, we wanted to give students a big problem that they had to find a solution to. The big question was : How can you, as second grade students, help protect the bird species in our area? This is in a school in Colombia, where there are many bird species and they are an integral part of life and tourism. I would say this is a structured Inquiry because I presented the question and all the other information/activites: we presented the information about habitats, animals, amnd plants (students did do their own research though), we gave students opportunities to observe birds in their natural habitat, we had experts come in to talk to students, BUT at the end, students came up with their own solutions. Each students had to have an actionable plan for what they could do to help protect a specific bird species from the area.

A science teacher at our school does an egg-drop activity with her students that is open inquiry. Students are asked to design a container that will prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from the height of 5 feet. They are given choices of materials and work in teams. Then the eggs are dropped and theories are created about the best types of containers and then they try again. This activity leads to high curiosity and engagement.

As I do not teach science, I am unable to reflect upon a lesson that involves a spectrum of the leel of inquiry.  I am a sponsor of a conservation club for students in 7th through 12th grade.  I would like to guide the students away from "creating posters" to incourage recycling and get students to develop a curiosity about the world and the impact they personally have upon it.  During this time of COVID, we are meeting virtually, so getting students to engage is difficult.  My goal is to get students to make observations of whatever peaks their interest in their "sphere of influence".  My goal is to get the students outside and become curious about the natural world.  Thus, I am going to ask students to decide on a place to go within a 2 mile radius of their home with the spirit of curiosity--just make observations.  From those observations, whatever they may be, I plan on encouraging students to ask questions.  They will then share their observations with other members of the group, along with their questions.  Students will be encouraged to ask their own questions about the observations other students have made.  From here, I will ask students to pick a question they are interested in investigating and to set up their own protocol for how they think they can figure out the answer.  Students will share thier protocol with others and the other students will give feedback.  Once the students have thier protocol, they will "go out into the field" and collect their data---either qualitative or quantitiative, depending on their question and the protocol they will devise.  Students will meet after a couple of weeks to share their findings, any obstacles or difficulties they've encountered, or additional insights into their experimental design.  Students will give feedback and possible suggestions on how to "improve" their investigation.  Students will then be encouraged to decide when they will present their findings. Because this is a club without any standards attached and without curriculum constraints, the students are free to develop their own investigations without curriculum constraints or time deadlines.  However, due to the lack of structure and meeting in a virtual world, this might hamper what I would like to accomplish.

We have a pollinator garden outside my fourth grade class. In the late summer and early fall pollinators come and feast on the late blooms: zinnia, joe pye weed, goldenrod, aster. The students always wonder  which flowers the bees and butterflies like the best. I set aside time to sit quietly outside the garden with notebooks and they count the visitors to each type of flower. This is a structured inquiry because I guide my students toward the question and they are provided with the materials (notebooks, charts, garden flowers). The students use their data to decide which flowers the pollinators like best. This always leads to further questions: Do butterflies like different flowers than bees do? Would the flowers attract more pollinators alone in a garden of a single kind of flower? Do the various flowers work together to attact pollinators? I could lead my students toward guided inquiry through developing some of their questions about our garden and allowing them to come up with procedures they can use to test their questions.

In my fifth grade classroom we do experiments with evaporation and water vapor.  Generally at the beginning of the lessons we talk about some key vocabulary, students tell me what they know, and I give them the topic of our first experiment.  Typically we do an experiment that shows the water actually leaves the cup and goes out into the air.  This experiment is structured inquiry because I give them the materials and plan to find out what happens to the water when it evaporates.  We use a balance, have a cup on each end with the same amount of water.  One cup has a lid on it, and the other cup has the lid under it so they begin balanced.  By doing the activity in this way students are carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, and engaging in argument from evidence.  To make this activity more inquiry based I could let the students be the guides on how to set up the experiment.  Since they would need scaffolding with this level of inquiry I could lay out a variety of available tools they could use if they wanted.  In groups I could ask students to write or draw an experiment we could do to figure out what happens to water when it evaporates.  From there, I could have groups present their ideas and the class could talk through which design or designs they think might be the most successful at answering the question.  Each group would then pick one of the designs that the class agreed might be most successful.  By doing the activity this way students would also add planning an investigation and effective communication of information to the science practices they would be working on.

I am a former k-12 teacher and adjunct college instruction. I am currently a Park Commissioner and I am creating a citizen science program for our Parks Department. We hope to engage our community to get involved with Citizen Science projects including local students, seniors and citizens at large. I plan to start by initially implementing a Tree Trekkers tree identification project, River water sample testing and birding projects. This course is providing very beneficial information and insight for assisting in formulating and properly structuring the programs and processes we are working on launching. I anticipate all 4 levels  (confirmation, structured, guided, open) of inquiry will be utilized to some degree in each of our citizen science projects with probably an empasses initially on structured and guided inquiry which will include, observation, data collection and some analysis.

I am a retired teacher who is currently taking classes, like this one, that I hope will be useful in supporting children and their families in my neighborhood who have become at-home students due to the closure of schools in our district because of Covid-19. As I volunteer with these families, and learn the interests and needs of the elementary school-aged children (K, 3, 6 grades specifically),  I will have focus for inquiry science lessons based on the curiosity and questions children ask. With that said, I don’t have a specific inquiry lesson to analyze and modify. Because our homes all border a wetland, I will use our unique proximity to this ecosystem to create answers for the assignments in this class. ___________________________________ Topic for science inquiry: Animal coverings Confirmation Inquiry- Students confirm a principle through an activity when the results are known in advance. Students are provided with: question, procedure, solution. Question- I wonder if all the animals that live in our wetland have the same outer covering on their bodies? Procedure- Brainstorm a list of animals the child has seen in the wetland. Describe outer covering. and put into categories Solution- We can see that there are a lot of animals that live in the wetland. Not all animals have the same outer covering. General categories are: fur, feathers, scales, skin, etc. Structured Inquiry- Students investigate a teacher-presented question using student designed/selected procedures. Students are provided with: question, procedure Question/ procedure- categorizing. We discovered animals in the wetland have outer coverings. How can we organize these coverings into categories? Students decide how to group the animals on the list they generated in the first activity. Guided Inquiry- Students investigate a teacher-presented question using student designed/selected procedures. Students are provided with: question Question/ children decide how to answer the question. We found a way to group the animals by their outer coverings. Why does each group have that particular type of covering? Open Inquiry- Students investigate question that are student formulated through student designed/selected procedures.

One of my favorite beginning of the year activities is to work with worms and discuss a bit about soil science so that students understand we need healthy soil for plants before planting a classroom garden. For these activities we create a worm habitat together and then in small groups learn more about worm preferences (dry/most, dark/light, response to touch, etc.). After this, worms enter the habitat and reside for a few days. Throughout all of this students are hypothesizing, writing and drawing in their journals, making observations, tracking data, and more. I am currently teaching 4th grade and plan to use this experience at the beginning of the year to set the stage for youth to start thinking about and devising their original questions they wish to answer while doing their science fair projects later in the school year. I love the idea that students can conduct open ended inquiry throughout the year but many of the experiences will be short (in regards to time allocated) but the possibility of online learning may yield much better science fair projects than in previous years!

I teach 1st graders. One of the lessons I give is on the needs of plants. We use seeds (pinto beans), cotton balls, and small glass containers. We discuss the needs of plants - light, water, and an appropriate temperature for growth. One container receives water and warmth but is put in a dark cabinet without light. One container receives water and light but is kept in the refrigerator for most of the day. One gets warmth and light but not water. And the final container receives everything. The students tend to know what will happen to each seed in advance and see these results throughout the process so this would be a confirmation inquiry lesson. They develop the following science practices: asking questions, carrying out an investigation, and analyzing data. I should tweak the lesson (but not sure how .. need to think on this) so that it is structured inquiry instead of confirmation. I'd probably change the variables somehow (maybe just use various liquids and water the seed with them) and not discuss the results in advance with the children. This might make the lesson more open-ended and allow the children to ask the question and design the investigation. I also need to give them an opportunity to communicate their results with people outside of the lesson group.    

I am a STEM Teacher with access to a floating classroom, STEM lab, and large tract of nature for observation. Middle school students benefit greatly from the engineering design process. The order and content of each step is crucial so that students come to concrete solutions. The key is teaching that failure is an important part of this process. Failure is what shapes students designs to their performance. Engineering design projects are hands-on, creative, and experiential. Designing and implementing quality STEM instruction.

I am not a science teacher, but rather an ESL teacher of secondary students.  One of the challenges for my students is using academic language in their content classes.  I'm taking this course as a way of helping to learn the language necessary for successful participation in science classes and potentially the larger scientific community.  I think that teaching students ahead of time about the different levels of inquiry, the difference between engineering and scientific questioning and how and when these are used, and then teaching my students the language genres that are specific to both and how, why and when they are used would be the most beneficial thing for them going into any of their science classes.  I think that any lesson I design that ties into their science content area would be to teach them the language of inquiry up front, with examples, so that they feel confident using that language in their classes.  We can study models of this using real-life examples of others conducting inquiries, pick apart those models for language usage, and then work together to create our own inquiry using that language.

I am a non-formal educator as a Master Gardener where I use mostly structured inquiry to get students thinking about what they see and experience in the garden or natural world around them. I am also a formal Nutrition Educator but in that job I am required to strictly follow curriculum which only rarely uses confirmation inquiry. I am wondering how I could increase the use of inquiry in my teaching. Perhaps my best option is to encourage the teachers I work with to use more inquiry. One group of teachers I am working with is learning how to use hydroponic towers this summer. I would like to focus on ways I could support them with inquiry.

Investigating Photosynthesis This activity is about discovering what plants need for photosynthesis. My students usually know that we breathe out CO2 and that plants give off O2 - that there is a circle of life. They are asked to write down what they think plants need/consume/use and what they give off. Based on what they write, they are asked to give an equation for plant intake and give off. Ex. CO2 + water + soil + sunlight ----- O2 + food/fruit This activity would be considered Guided Inquiry because the next step gives them the question: Do plants use (consume) CO2 or release it when they are in light, photosynthesizing? The students then need to plan how they are going to investigate this - what's their plan for answering the question. How are they going to collect convincing evidence? How are they going to establish evidence of CO2? The students need to come up with a procedure and a data table. Students use a higher level of thinking because they are responsible for the design of the investigation. They need to be methodical in their procedure and figure out an indicator for CO2 (which involves researching). They are basically designing and conducting a controlled experiment, creating and using a data table, making observations, and then analyzing their findings. Their findings lead them to the concept of the activity and investigation of photosynthesis plus the higher level equation process from their original of CO2 + soil + water + sunlight  ------ O2 + food/fruit to plants use carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight to make glucose, oxygen, and water. This activity could lend itself to an Open Inquiry because the initial question of what does a plant consume/need/use and what does it give, easily leads to other questions (and usually does). Since this activity is after I have done plant and animal cells and their functions, which they are always excited about, a deeper expanding realm of questions seems to follow.

I have a wide variety of informal teaching experience, primarily in outdoor classrooms, and have used primarily confirmation and structured inquiry in many activities. Right now I primarily arrange and lead outdoor experiences for families and adults, but I am looking forward to developing a more robust environmental education program for the land trust I work for. I can see how implementing the many levels of inquiry will help expand participants' understanding of the world around them. One example of a structured inquiry activity we used once at camp was a large-group game called Predator and Prey. Students would be asked to relate their own definitions of the terms predator and prey and asked about what animals in the forest might be predators or prey. We would ask the students to name common basic needs that both predator and prey animals share (food, water, shelter, space). We would then discuss how often we observed predators in the environment versus prey animals, and discuss the concept of the food web pyramid. We'd explain that we would divide the group up into three different groups - mice, snakes and hawks - and ask about how big each of the groups should be based on the food web pyramid. Once split into groups, students would use a map to navigate throughout camp in order to collect tokens representing their basic needs. If a predator group encountered a prey group, a tag game would take place and those caught by predators would then transition into the predator group, then groups were required to disperse during a 1 minute grace time. After a period of time, we all reassembled, discussed experiences, tallied final numbers of each species, determined how many of each species did or did not obtain their basic needs, etc.  If allowed more time, I feel we could have extended this activity to use higher levels of inquiry, so that students could manipulate variables, test different predator/prey combinations and explore their own "I wonder" questions.

I am a middle school teacher (6th grade science and 7/8 Environmental Science) in an independent school. While I am lucky to have the resources that I do, I was also handed a curriculum to teach.  Carolina Biological's Smithsonian Series.  While they (and I) have been describing this curriculum as inquiry based, I knew from the beginning it really wasn't completely inquiry based, but I couldn't put my finger on why.  Now I can see that there is much to be done in making these lessons inquiry.  At best these lessons are confirmation level.  There are many different lab-based inquiries which include investigations on density, volume, mass, etc... but developmentally, I am tasked with helping them learn how to follow directions, read procedures, work with formulas etc.  In retrospect, I do let them mess up and figure out how to fix it... but their work is confirmation inquiry.  Moving forward, I would like to start looking at the skills in science and move away from the "scripted" curriculum so that I may include more discovery, self-wonder, and interest for students to answer their own questions.  In this world we live in now, it seems the perfect time for independent studies where I can focus on science skills while helping to empower my students to be life-long scientists because that is what they want to be. I think sometimes we get so caught up in making sure they are knowledgeable in content, even though blooms, marzano etc tells us this is the surface of learning and we need to dive down deeper into more analytical stages of brain use. I loved the idea of using portfolios and dialogue to evaluate rather than to test.

Describe the activity and state which level of inquiry the activity seems to be. I am definitely using all four levels of inquiry in my classroom. I teach at problem based learning school and we employ design thinking, collaborate on teams, lead ones own learning, and lead inquiry as some of our main competencies for all of the work that our students do in science and core classes. In addition to using inquiry, we design projects that overlap with the core courses so that we can team teach and develop one outcome or product to be scored by the team of teachers.

Like some of the educators that already commented, I am an informal educator and only have students for a short time. One of the topics that we teach, Owls and Owl Pellets, would fall into the category of "structured inquiry" since students are told in advance of what they might find in their pellet. Maybe one way to make it more inquiry-based would be for the students to first hypothesize about what an owl would eat, and how they might digest the bones. If they can't digest the bones, what do they do ? What could they do? And so forth!

I teach a unit on wetlands, part of that is exploring the services, functions, and values that wetlands provide while supporting students in understanding what erosion is, how it occurs, and the role wetlands play in preventing erosion. I could see how in creating a model of a wetland in a pan that is just soil I could provide a context for confirmation inquiry. Students would be able to make initial drawings/observations of the initial model. I could then use a turkey baster or camera dust remover to simulate wind and ask students to make observations of what occurs. I could then use a watering can to simulate rain so students while students make observations about what changes, and explanations of what is happening in the model. We would then engage in conversation about students questions and explanations about what is happening. In the process students would be engaging in the Science Practices of asking questions and defining problems, using models carrying out an investigation, constructing explanations and designing solutions while engaging in arguments from evidence. Depending on where we evolve to the investigation students may have specific ideas about what would prevent erosion in our model. This would then set the stage for the next investigation which would be a guided inquiry with a wetland model that include plants. Again students would make initial drawings, observations and predictions since we will be modeling wind and water again. Students would then have the opportunity to consider what was different in the outcome between the two models, while developing explanations for what created that difference. As a start to inquiry, I think this is simple enough to allow students to engage with the science content while building experience with inquiry, science journals and the discussions process. If I were doing it later in the year when students had more experience with inquiry investigations I could see supporting students in small groups to create these models which would allow them more opportunity to simulate erosion, observing impacts and developing solutions to this problem while considering the impact of erosion.

As a non-formal educator, it is rather challenging sometimes to be able to do a full inquiry lesson as most of the groups I teach I get 30-minutes to 1-hour with the students and generally don't have them again. Upon reflection, most of my lessons I feel are confirmation inquiry. Example: Each year I teach 4th graders rocks and minerals after they have had a trip to the local gem mine. I take items for students to test different rocks and minerals, I already know what each rock and mineral is but the students are not told what they are, they however have a multiple-choice list to select from. I discuss with them the rock cycle, and how they can test for the hardness, luster, cleavage, and streak. Students are divided up between stations to rotate around and try to figure out what the rocks and minerals are that they were given. Changes to make this lesson structured inquiry is to allow students to bring and test the rocks they collected from the gem mine field-trip and have a reference book, have them take blank paper and pencil around to the testing stations with them to note their findings at each station then help them to determine their rock or minerals that they found at the mine.

Last year the first lab I did with my lower level freshmen biology students used fortune fish, those thin red fish that may curl in hands somewhat and then reveal a "fortune".  This was used in a guided and eventually somewhat open inquiry.  I gave each student a fish, had them place them on their open hand and then describe the result (so that part obviously was teacher-guided).  Then I asked why the fish curled or did not curl.  Then students speculated why and I told them to come up with a factor they could test to see what the cause was.  They came up with a wide variety of explanations and used materials in the classroom to test their hypotheses, some using water, some placing the fish on their desks, some placing the fish on other body parts, etc.  We saw varying results and then researched online to determine the actual scientific explanation.  This was not true inquiry because it was not truly open-ended but it was a first day activity, meant to be relative quick and easy, yet intriguing for students.  Students were able to wonder about the cause and then come up with a hypothesis to test.  In the future I think I could pick a topic that was not so cut and dry to allow for more open-ended investigation.  Maybe taking students outside, having them formulate an "I wonder" statement about their choice of topic, create a hypothesis to test, and carry out an investigation.

I work in a Nature Center and lead just one hour nature programs for kids of all ages. It is very difficult in this setting to teach specific procedures and to see progress, as we don't have the same group of kids each time. I do have a topic that I really enjoy teaching that I believe often falls under structured inquiry or guided inquiry, depending on the day, and that topic is seeds! I talk with the kids about how it's important for seeds to get distance from the parent plant for their survival and the survival of the species, then we speculate on how the seeds could travel. While we don't write anything down because of the time constraints, we discuss a question, go out into the park to gather up seeds of all types, think about how each of the seeds could travel, and then test the "hypothesis." Or if we cannot gather seeds, I would provide them with the materials, which would be the structured inquiry approach. I enjoy the first scenario much more because they get to find the test subjects and decide on the procedure to test out their hypothesis. If I could do this program, and others like it, with a little more time I could have them write down their questions, hypothesis, and data in a journal. However, I could do a much better job communicating this scientific process verbally instead of the more unstructured flow I typically lean toward.

• My main work involves helping students to take care of the school garden, as an after school activity and not formal science teaching. However, there are plenty of opportunities for observations and discoveries when the students are outside interacting with plants and animals. For example, one time we saw a praying mantis on the tree trunk, and each one can give a guess about what it's doing there. Later we saw a mass next to it, and trying to guess what the mantis was doing with it. Some said it was eating it, some said it was pooping, some said it was laying eggs. We went on to think of ways to find out what the mass is. This is a very simple activity, and I would say this is in the range of guided inquiry, as the students were supplied with the question of: "What is the mantis doing?"
• The practices the students develop are: observations, hypothesize, devise ways to test hypotheses.
• I can modify lessons like this by having the students come up with their own questions ("I wonder..." questions), and together decide to choose which one to pursuit. This would support the science practice of posing questions and communication.
• The lessons everyone has described below are all very interesting, and I will try to keep them in mind so I can use the ideas once the opportunities come up in the garden. Because my 'lessons' are very spontaneous, I'm just wondering if anyone has suggestions about how I can go about helping the students to pursuit their investigations further/deeper.

Where Does the Rain Go? I most often work with homeschool or community groups in a fairly rural area. This was  a mixed age group that only met once/week, so the activities were demonstrated at the building & property where we meet but then students applied to their own houses & properties. This project was part of a larger interdisciplinary unit (geography, literature, science, nature studies) that includes mapping and watersheds using Holling C. Holling's Paddle-to-the -Sea as a literary tie in. The focus of this portion is on surface water flow with the 'Big Question' of “if a raindrop lands on your house, where will it end up?” We did this in the spring when we were likely to actually see surface water flowing ;) Week 1: we predict & map (and if raining actually observe) the flow of water that lands on the roof (which has some dormers, a lower porch, etc) to the ground. Students repeat for their own house. Week 2: same for where to the water from different sections of roof go once it hits the ground (puddle or flow elsewhere?) We follow potential paths for flowing water to the roadside ditch out front and the stream out back. Students repeat at home. HW includes paying attention on the drive home to where the ditch goes and whether they go over any bridges that might be the same stream as the one out back. Week 3: adventure day! We wade down the stream (over many fallen branches!) to the nearest bridge. We switch to actual road maps/satellite views to follow the stream to Cayuga Lake. Students repeat at home (to nearest lake or major river). Week 4: Using maps & atlases, we continue following the route of our raindrops from their local watershed to the Atlantic Ocean. Students compile their map series (rooftop, property, local watershed, Atlantic watershed). Classtime is structured inquiry: the Question is posed and a procedure outlined. The HW can fall between structured and guided inquiry. Some students just copy the procedures as we did in class, others amend or add other procedures – many start exploring (literally & with maps) on their own before we do in class. And there have been creative experiments with pingpong balls thrown/water hosed onto roofs/into ditches etc to confirm flow predictions if rain is scarce... Scientific practices: Asking questions & defining problems, developing & using models (maps), planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting observational data, constructing explanations and communicating information (maps)

During our Web of Life unit, we learn about several different types of decomposers:  mold, fungi, and worms. One inquiry based lesson that we complete as part of this unit is a lesson on Mold Terrariums.  For this lesson, I provide students with the question that they will be investigating:  Which environmental conditions inhibit or speed up mold growth.  I also provide students with the basic structure through which they will investigate this topic;  Students are put into groups; each group is given a paper plate, a Ziploc bag large enough to hold the plate, duct tape, and different types of foods (We used bread, banana slices, apple slices, orange slices, and a slice of American cheese).  To show students how to set up their investigation, I create the control for the class-I show them how to slice up and arrange the food on their plate; how to label the outside of their bag and how to insert the plate inside the Ziploc bag and use duct tape to seal the Ziploc bag to prevent air exchange as well as odor exchange.  As I do this, I explain that I will not be manipulating the environmental factors in any way, so that we can see how these food naturally mold.  I then explain to students that they will be manipulating one environmental factor to see whether it inhibits or encourages mold growth.  We discuss some possible environmental factors they could add to the food, for example, I mention salt-we then discuss how people have used salt for a long time to slow down the decomposition of their food, and we discuss why this works.  In the past, we've also discussed how heat and refrigeration might also slow down mold growth.  After students have a good idea of what we are doing, it time for them to brainstorm as a group several different (at least 4-5) environmental factors they can manipulate. I do provide some, such as red pepper flakes, salt, a refrigerator, the classroom heater, etc. which they can try, but I also allow students to come up with ideas on their own.  I will provide them with these materials as long as they are able to articulate why they want to use this material (whether they believe it will inhibit or quicken mold production) and why.  In the past, students have used glue (They felt it would create a barrier around the food and seal out air interchange, thus inhibiting mold growth), soap, maple syrup, spit/licking the food, putting it in the dark, and soap to name a few.  We then share out our lists of environmental factors that we want to change; I list those on the board, and each group chooses the environmental factor they would like to change.  Since I have only 4-5 groups in each of my classes, I do set a limitation on factors-only one group in each class can choose a factor.  It just helps up get a wider range of observations.  Students must then write in their journals what environmental factor they chose to change, predict whether it would inhibit or speed up mold growth, and explain their reasoning for this prediction.  They then set up the experiment just like I set up the control and make the one environmental factor change.  Each day for the next two weeks, they come into class, look at both the control and their Mold Terrarium and record their data.  They are recording the following data each day:  no mold, first mold, less than half, about half, more than half for each food in the terrariums.  After the two weeks they make comparisons of the control and their Mold Terrarium; they look back at their prediction and decide whether their prediction was correct or incorrect based on how soon the Control grew mold and theirs did.  They then have to write in their journals about their findings and why they believe their environmental factor performed as they predicted or why it did not.  This is where I stop the experiment.  In the future, I would really like to move it from Structured Inquiry into a more Guided or Open Inquiry, for example, many students noticed that certain foods grew mold faster (ie. bread) and certain foods grew mold slower (processed American cheese).  A great extension of this initial inquiry would be to come up with inquiry methods designed by students that would help them understand the idea of natural and processed food and what that does to mold growth.  I'm not sure how to do it right now but think it would be interesting to tie back in to the idea that chemicals, coloring, and many other things are added to food to increase its shelf life.  It would be interesting to see how my students go about investigating this and what conclusions they draw about the benefits of and healthfulness of highly processed foods.  This lesson was completed in a fifth grade classroom.