• Amy
      Participant
      Chirps: 24
      One of the extension lessons in our sound unit is making kazoos.   Prior to this activity we would have done some lessons and investigations that focus around our essential question for this unit:  How do different materials affect the type of sound that is made?  Students are given a empty toilet paper roll (punched with a hole),  wax paper, and a rubber band.  They build their kazoo with the materials, blow into it, and we discuss how sound is made and relate that to what we have learned in previous lesson.  I think that this particular activity falls into the confirmation level of inquiry.  The science practices that the students develop through this activity are: develop and use models, analyze & interpret data, and construct explanations. This lesson can be modified to fit both the structured and guided levels of inquiry.  Students will still be presented with the same question: How do different materials affect the type of sound that is made?  The goal will to be to make a kazoo type instrument but they will be able to ask more questions, plan their own investigation, analyze the data, construct explanations, and engage in arguments using evidence they have obtained.  Instead of a few materials being given to them, they will have different types of cylinder tubes (cardboard, plastic, metal, card stock to make their own tube), different types of materials to cover the end (cloth, foil, wax paper, plastic wrap, tissue paper), rubber bands, tape, paper and paper punchers of different sizes.  Since we would have previously made a kazoo they would already know the procedure and would still be presented with that same question.  This time they would be able to ask more questions such as how can I make a louder sound or how does the use of different materials affect the sound?  They would develop a plan and construct a model, analyze and interpret the data they are collecting, and make changes when needed.  Students would be able to construct an argument to support their discoveries, communicate with their peers, and compare their results to their classmate's investigations.
      • Michelle
        Participant
        Chirps: 17
        I like how you added an extension to the initial project. Since students would already have experience with creating a Kazoo, it turns the extension into a challenge. I can see your students really enjoying this.
      • Nini
        Participant
        Chirps: 32
        Your description of making kazoos and further experimentation into other materials and the sounds they make led me to consider how to guide students to making a model of a bird's syrinx.  This has been a question I have been posing as I listen to the complexity of the winter wren's call.
      • Jessica
        Participant
        Chirps: 27
        Great extension to build on their knowledge obtained throughout your unit. This kind of activity really showcases which students really understood and internalized what was taught.
    • Johanna
      Participant
      Chirps: 16
      I began by reviewing the steps of the scientific method in class.  As a class, we conducted an experiment together following the steps of the scientific method.  This worked more as a Structured Inquiry.  I worked with the class to develop ideas for their experiment guiding them through questions.  While I was guiding the class discussions, the group progressed through the steps of the scientific method designing their experiment, carrying out their experiment, collecting data and drawing conclusions.  This did not place any of the responsible on individual students. Following completion of the class experiment, I assigned projects in which students were responsible for completing their own science experiment from developing questions to communicating conclusions.  Some of the students began to struggle at this time in developing their own ideas for experiments.  I wanted this to be student-generated projects, so I encouraged them to observe their natural surrounding and begin asking questions about what they were observing.  We discussed that many scientific discoveries were made from individuals studying their surroundings then asking questions to find answers for why things are as they are. When I assigned students their own science projects to develop based on their own questions, the students were working with the highest level of inquiry, Open Inquiry. Having completed the process together as a class, I believed the students had the tools they needed to conduct their own inquiry.  While working on their own science projects, students were developing skills in observation, developing questions, recording data, and communicating results.  Some of the students took their projects to an area science fair and were able to practice their written and oral communication skills. Some of my students struggled in developing their own ideas for a science projects even though we had worked through this as a class together.   I encouraged many times that they take time to observe the natural world around them or consider things they had questioned in the past. This article has led me to wonder if we would have had a different experience when we arrived at individual experiments if I had spent time with the lower levels of inquiry before jumping into Open Inquiry.  Even taking more time for Guided Inquiry may have given students more confidence when they began working in Open Inquiry.  Taking all classes through introductory activities to reinforce prior learning may be important to prepare students for Open Inquiry activities.
      • Dianne
        Participant
        Chirps: 31
        Johanna, Thanks for sharing your activity.  I agree that for most of my students I would need to spend time in the lower levels of inquiry before heading into Open Inquiry.  I often find students saying, 'Did I do this right? or 'Was it suppose to look like this?'.  They want to do it right the first time, even though I encourage them to experiment, try it out.  It may have to do with their level of confidence.  Thanks, Dianne
      • Kathleen
        Participant
        Chirps: 40
        This is wonderful and looks like students have freedom to explore.  Thank you.
    • Vanessa
      Participant
      Chirps: 10
      Students are given the question, procedure. Students are asked how many birds (and species) are in their neighbourhood, how they will collect the data (bird watching). Through the procedure, they are able to collect data and then analyze it and draw a conclusion of how many birds and species live in their neighborhood. Students are able to use a question, come up with a hypothesis, collect the data and then use that data to create a conclusion. Give students a topic and allow them to create their own question/make the question more open ended. Confirmation/Structured
      • Johanna
        Participant
        Chirps: 16
        I like that your activity engages students in observing their natural surroundings!
      • Mark
        Participant
        Chirps: 25
        I love that this activity takes place in the students' own environment. I wonder if they notice nests, bird preferences to trees or other habits when they go on their hunt?
    • Elisabeth
      Participant
      Chirps: 23
      While we don't teach lessons in the traditional sense, a very basic informal activity we do with children during educational programs is to have them determine what an animal eats, the area where it might nest or den, how it catches it food based on the appearance of the animal (size, coat, teeth, eyes, ears and so on). The level of inquiry is structured as we provide the questions, and give them procedures (look at teeth, look at eyes) and they then give explanations/answers based on what they discover while looking at the animal. The science practices of posing questions and sharing verbal results as a group helps develop confidence and practice in learning about experiments. To modify to move toward a guided inquiry, we will still provide the questions above but encourage them create methods to test their questions, to seek out other options such as perform literature searches in reference materials and analyzing data, this would provide them other resources to answer questions and draw their conclusions.
    • We do a seed growing activity -- students place seeds in cotton, add water, and put seeds in sunlight and in a dark closet to see if the seeds grow. I think this is confirmation inquiry, because students are provided with the question and the procedure. Through this activity, students develop experience in conducting investigations and collecting and organizing data. To modify this lesson to make it guided inquiry, I would make the question more open ended -- what are the best conditions under which plants can grow? This would support students in designing their own procedures to test their theories.
      • Elisabeth
        Participant
        Chirps: 23
        Great idea! Making the question more open ended I think would be very useful in what we do also to advance the inquiry level to more of a guided inquiry. We could use a question maybe like- how does this animal survive in the wild? And that would begin their journey on the investigation allowing them begin to create their procedures and methods.
      • Amy
        Participant
        Chirps: 24
        Hi Laura, The lesson that you described reminds me of an activity we do called "Growing Sideways."  We place a cup with a planted lima bean into a shoe box that has a hole at the top.  We close the shoe box and the only light is through that hole in the top.  We also grow a lima bean in the windowsill with full light to compare to the one growing in the show box.  The kids just love it and enjoy "peeking" into the shoe box every few days to record our observations. I liked your idea on how to take this lesson to the guided inquiry level.  I think you are right when you stated that this will give students ownership through the individualized procedures that they design.  I wonder if you provided them with different types of seeds to experiment with (which ones grow quicker in sunlight or how do they differ when compared to other seeds that grow in the dark) if it would lead to some interesting discussions.  It would also be interesting to have some students test their investigations with natural sunlight versus artificial light like lamps.  I bet they love this lesson!  Teaching science and watching their minds think and create is so fun!
      • Mark
        Participant
        Chirps: 25

        @Amy I did an activity similar to this when I was in elementary school, but I put a couple partial wall inside the box to make a sort of a maze. I remember how cool that experiment was even today, so many years later! I might have to steal your shoebox idea :)

      • Alana
        Participant
        Chirps: 18

        @Amy What a wonderful twist to the experiment. Thanks so much for the suggestion!

    • Taylor
      Participant
      Chirps: 12
      One of the lessons I did with a Kindergarten class was a vinegar and baking soda eruption experiment. The question and the procedure were provided to the students, but the solution was not so students had the opportunity to provide their theories and hypotheses to the class. This would be the structured level of inquiry, because I did provide the students with the question and procedure instead of having students formulate their own questions and procedures. Through this experiment, students were able to learn about the scientific process and learn about formulating hypotheses and theories about what they thought the solution would be. I think that this experiment could easily be made into a guided inquiry lesson in which I could pose the question about what happens when you mix the substances, and allow the students to figure out how they want to proceed in the experiment. Although Kindergarteners are young, their natural curiousity and openness to learning allows them to figure out a lot of interesting ways of completing tasks that adults may not even have thought of! By allowing the students to figure out their own procedure, they would have developed a deeper understanding of how procedures are formulated in the scientific process.
      • Nancy
        Participant
        Chirps: 14
        Sounds like fun! I think Kindergartners may need to have that structured experience early in the school year and still have the experience of pondering the outcome as a group (or in pairs). That's a fun demo to get them "hooked on science" and engage in valuable language development for this age. The proceeding guided inquiry lessons will flourish with this structured experience as a base.
    • Nancy
      Participant
      Chirps: 14
      Beautiful Birds is a 45 minute program I teach each spring with Kdg-2nd gr. students. We are a field trip destination with no prior experience with each particular group of children.  After a brief intro, students are placed in groups of 4-5 and given a paper plate with "bird food"( pasta, beans, pompoms, paper clips and pennies). They are then each given a tool that can be associated with bird beaks            ( tweezers, spoon, toothpick, tongs and fork).  Each group is asked to collaborate in order to predict what tool would be best for each type of food and construct an explanation as to why they have chosen that match up.  Subsequently, group members try to collect all the food they can with their given tool within a short 60 seconds. We wrap up the inquiry with an accounting of food collected and a discussion as to what worked, or did not work as planned, for each food type and why. I then show specimens of real birds and we discuss the correlation of their beak adaptation to their diet. Students are able to apply the finding from their experimentation and see how some beaks are very similar to the tools they used. (If time, we relate the beak/food preference to migration.) This is a structured inquiry since the question and procedure are provided but the students generate the explanation of the results supported by the evidence from their experimentation. One way to further this lesson, and lead it into a guided inquiry, would be for the teachers to use the supplemental (post-trip)materials. These materials encourage the group to set up a bird feeding station outside the classroom/at home and to observe and  record data as to birds feeding and their choice of seed type/location of feeders.
      • Alana
        Participant
        Chirps: 18
        What a wonderful way for young children to explore the association between bill shape and diet, all the while approaching it as a fun game!
    • Carlos D. JUMABITA
      Participant
      Chirps: 4
      "Nesting parasitism of Molothrus bonariensis in Zonotrichia capensis" -The activity that consists of several stages, begins with the observation in the field of the nests of Zonotrichia capensis and obviously the bird species mentioned; As they are Molothrus bonariensis and Zonotrichia capensis, they are analyzed, apart from this the nests are identified and differentiated. The existing theoretical information of the two mentioned species is reviewed. In the classroom with data collection, analyze the observation examples and expose the hypotheses of the students. Collecting all the information and turning it into common information. -The scientific practices that develop with this process are observation, identification, drawing questions, investigating, drawing conclusions and developing hypotheses. -Review other research related to the topic directly to make a comparison with the conclusions drawn from the hypotheses. Make computer graphics to compare and evaluate statistics that evaluate more truthful and scientific conclusions.
    • Liz
      Participant
      Chirps: 15
      1. Chemical reactions lab using four types of chemical reactions and it would be a structured inquiry lab. 2. The science practices that students engage in during this lesson would be asking questions, carrying out an investigation (they wouldn't necessarily have designed/planned it though), analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematics, constructing explanations, and communicating their information via a lab report format. 3. To make it more inquiry-based I would provide students with a list of chemicals and equipment and let them combine reactants after they've researched the chemicals. Instead of telling them the reactants, I would let them pick based on properties we would have already discussed. By doing this, it would give students the opportunity to actually plan their investigations and argue from evidence about why certain chemicals were chosen as reactants over others available.
    • Holly
      Participant
      Chirps: 11
      I would like to do a demonstration in the classroom illustrating 3 things plants need to grow: sunlight, water and soil. This would be a confirmation inquiry. The control group is 4 plants in potting soil placed near a window and watered as needed. The light group would be 4 of the same kind of seedlings in potting soil placed in a dark place and watered as needed. The water group is 4 of the same kind of seedlings in potting soil placed near a window but not watered. The soil group would be 4 of the same kind of seedlings with wet paper towels around the roots placed near a window and watered to keep the paper towel wet. Regular measurements of plants height and other observations are made. The students would then make conclusions about what a plant needs to grow. Following this inquiry, students could then do a structured inquiry where a similar process with seedlings is done with more specific plant needs tested such as comparing how plants respond to natural sunlight versus different types of artificial light, or several different soil mixtures. Next students could do a guided inquiry with the research question about plant needs that the students would have to create, test and explain.
    • Andrew
      Participant
      Chirps: 4
      I teach environmental education at an elementary school through an afterschool program though I do work with teachers to begin incorporating outdoor education into the classroom. We've achieved numberous certifciations through our schoolyard habitat program and sustainability initiatives. My approach has been traditional teaching of inforamtion with "hands-on" work. This re-thinking to the way of inquiry is a new adventure for me. We have an upcoming project of growing plants in hydroponic bays. We will record data on growth and will monitoring nutrient and pH levels and record how that affects growth. I can see how using a confirmation inquiry level would best benefit our students invovled as they would new to data collection and we would be teaching them this skill. Hopefully, as this is a several month project, we would be able to transition to a more structured level, allowing students to make thier own predictions in the outcome of adjusting pH levels and how varying water quality affects plant growth.
      • Sara
        Participant
        Chirps: 30
        I'm new to inquiry-driven learning too and it's definintely an adjustment - but such a gooood one! Your project sounds great for teaching students how to collect data and discussions of what affect plant growth. I think you could easily expand this to a more student driven inquiry by asking students how water quality, pH, light availability, etc affect plant growth. What a great extended learning program!
    • Clara
      Participant
      Chirps: 3
      I work at an outdoor science camp. Our site is COSA certified and teachers select the 2.5 hour activities that they would like their students receive. One of the options teachers can request is our "Wonders of Water" program. Each session of the program consists of approximately 21 students, 3 chaperones and the naturalist instructor/guide. The concepts reinforced and/or introduced to the students during this program are the water cycle & watershed, wetland and creek and pond macro-invertebrate collection and water testing (which includes pH testing, temperature, plankton netting, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, and bottom dreging to understand how natural and human processes can affect the water quality of our pond and creek. Ultimately trying to answer the question "Are the pond and creek healthy habitats?" The water cycle portion is mostly review and having students discuss how human activities can affect water quality.  Students participate in a watershed model demonstration where different objects are placed on the model and then discuss what happens when it rains. Discussion includes the "what happens if" scenarios of farming with pesticide use, animal waste in creeks, and human activity along different areas of the watershed. This portion is basically 1st level or confirmation inquiry.  Students experience conducting an investigation. Approximate time is about 20 minutes. In the wetland portion students participate in discussion on what is a wetland, how is it important and how does it factor in water quality. In this portion of the program students hike through different features of our campus that help with water quality of our creek and pond. We have bioswales in the parking lot, water retention basin, grey water recovery and reuse and storm rain collection tanks. Students discuss how these features help the creek and pond. After this short hike and reading about and taking notes about the adventures of  "Drip" the raindrop through these different pathways on our educational signage students play the Wetland Mystery Game. Students work in groups of 3 or 4 students and reach into a bag where they pull out an object (picture of a bed, a coffee filter, a sponge etc) They are given 5 minutes to brainstorm and discuss how that object relates to the function of a wetland. Groups then present their ideas to the entire group and other can agree, disagree or ask for more information and evidence from the notes taken during the hike. This stage of the program is mostly structured inquiry with some open inquiry for scientific reasoning and cognitive demand from students. Approximate time 40 minutes. In the next phase we introduce macro-invertebrates and how some organisms are more sensitive to environmental factors (dissolved oxygen, pesticide runoff ect) through playing a tagging game. Three to 4 rounds are played and students are asked to make observations of outcome of each introduced factor and what does that mean in a real habitat. This stage is mostly 2nd level with some communication of scientific reasoning. Aproximate time 20 minutes. In the collection and testing portion students are given nets and trays to collect macro-invertebrates they work as team in their cabin groups with their chaperones assisting with reading instructions for equipment use as they rotate through different sites around the pond. The naturalist rotates as well answering any question about equipment use and demonstrating if needed. Students record observations and record ideas. This stage is also mostly structured inquiry but with elements of the 4th stage open inquiry. The students carry out investigations and record results. Approximately 60 minutes. There is a 10 minute discussion of what the recorded results tell us about the health of the pond and compare to the tests performed at the creek . Discussion is not ended with an answer but with another question Could it be healthier and what other things could we measure that might give us more information? This is guided inquiry but without the ability to actually perform more investigation due time constraints. Possibles changes would be to layout the equipment and allow students to choose which tests they think are most relevant to their definition of "what is a healthy pond /creek? This would allow students to design their own investigations  but we have found that most of our students are still in the 2nd and 3rd level upon arrival to camp. Our students come with diverse range of skills and our goal is to have as many students as possible learn to observe, record observations and explain what they think that data means. Our camp is only one week out of their school year and the biggest concept that I like to see our students realize is that science is not hard we are scientists from the moment we are born we just need the tools to practice being effective scientists and open to changes in our thinking.
      • Liz
        Participant
        Chirps: 15
        What an excellent outdoor activity! For the last part, I think it would be fun for students to also be able to do water quality testing. Maybe that is already part of the open inquiry but parameters of a water quality testing could be used to help answer the question of "what is a healthy pond / creek?"
      • Deanna
        Participant
        Chirps: 22
        Love the program. I know how you are quickly trying to assess where the students are with outdoor ed, trying to expose them to all of the knowledge, and trying to have them experience environmental ed. It seems that perhaps an quick last culminating finale could be more of a stage 4 inquiry -- by going to a new setting, perhaps a different part of the water and ask-- how can we determine the health of the watershed?--- laying out all of the tools that they learned to use, perhaps posters to remind them of what they learned to look for (habitat analysis). 15 minutes to analyze whether it is a healthy or not and then have a debate. Hmm... I think I will do this when we go to stream next time.  It may reveal what they learned and how they connect other concepts like erosion in their analysis.
      • Sylvia
        Participant
        Chirps: 13
        I have done many of these activities with my students, and thinking about how to create a structured inquiry experience for wetlands seems doable. It definitely takes some knowledge development to support students in understanding what different macro-invertebrates or the variety found indicate about the health of water. I have often used the Macro Mania activity kit to help my students build background knowledge of macro-invertebrates, before we get into the field. I think it is a wonderful experience for kids to be able to spend a week in nature exploring  opportunities to better understand what gives us a larger picture of the health of a body of water.