My watershed education program is heavily centered around water quality monitoring, specifically looking at whether the site is healthy salmon habitat. All of my classes go out to a site to monitor the water twice a year.  This activity appears to be structured inquiry. The students are given different parameters to test and the appropriate testing kits. The students carry out the investigation following the directions  and using the tests that are given. Then the students find out if the water quality is good or bad for salmon based on known water quality ranges. They then share their results with their classmates and have discussions on what could potentially be affecting the water quality and ways that they could improve water quality at their site. Some science practices that students develop through these activities are analyzing and interpreting data, constructing an explanation and designing a solution. Teachers could modify the lessons to make them more inquiry based by letting the students research what water quality issues affect salmon in advance and let them decide what issues they want to test for and how they want to test for those water quality parameters which would give them more experience in asking questions and defining problems as well as planning and carrying out investigations,

Enjoyed reading about other's activities. The lab that came to mind was NY state mandated lab on diffusion.  Skills include use of indicators and slide prepartion.  I would say it is a confirmation inquiry. But some introductory or supplementary options could allow it to be more inquiry based.  I was thinking different solutions, indicators, membranes could be available.  Then I read  Kristen's gummy bear lab that  would be a great addition , thanks for reminding of that activity, I some use it as demonstration.

Like some of the other responses, this lab activity is done at the beginning of the year. I've seen it called "Gummy Bear Osmosis" in other settings, but we don't discuss osmosis when doing this. I use this lab activity primarily to get an idea of the students' comfort level with identifying variables and sources of error, taking and recording measurements, how well they can work in a group, etc. I provide the question ("How will Gummy Bears react when placed in different liquids?"), the materials, and a chart to record their observations. I would say this lands somewhere between structured and guided inquiry, since there is a defined procedure, yet the kids are able to choose what types of liquids they want to investigate and what materials they will use for recording mass and length. Through this activity, the students carry out an investigation, analyze and interpret data, and explain their results. I could make this activity more solidly in the guided level by removing the step-by-step procedure and provided observation chart and give the students more freedom with their set up and how they measure the reaction. Maybe they would choose to observe changes in color or texture if they weren't told the specifically focus on mass and length. :)  I also could incorporate more opportunities for sharing with their peers, rather than just turning in a lab report to me. These changes would provide them with more practice in planning investigations, interpreting data, and communicating information.

Drops on a penny is a simple beginning inquiry activity that starts with a structured teacher question; "how many drops of water fit on one side of a penny?". The students follow the procedure of dropping drops of water onto the penny several times and recording their results and then sharing data with the class. The class average can be measured in this way. This activity falls at level 2- Structured Inquiry. I have used this lesson many times as a fun introduction to inquiry. Students develop the ability to follow procedures, record data, share data with the class, and calculate a class mean. I could modify this lesson by having students come up with their own questions to investigate, share their ideas with the class and vote on a class question to work on.  Then, students could brain storm on possible hypotheses or answers and how to test them. Finally, small student groups could test out their ideas with teacher approval and share their results.

One experiment I do at the beginning of the school year is looking at how the amount of water can impact the growth of radish seeds. Students are given the question and then are asked to design an experiment, create a data table to record their observations, collect data over 2 weeks, graph their results, and develop and share their conclusions. Throughout this process we work together at each step on different scientific skills (research, data collection, graphing, etc.) I would classify this as guided inquiry. Students receive a lot of feedback along the way to support the process to develop the skills they will need in future experiments throughout the year. Skills focused on are research, observations (measurements), data collection, graphing, analyzing data, collaboration, problem solving. I am hoping to modify this experiment this coming school year by providing the students with a problem and a broader question that encourages them to develop their own questions and experiments. We have a school garden that our Middle School students work in that I would like to connect to. Instead of all students having the same question, I would like to present them with a problem we are having in the school garden and let them develop their own questions. I think this would create more interest in the project as they are able to see the direct connection to the garden and our community project.

In my 5th Grade class we read, as a class, "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer.  We read the book two chapters at a time, take time at after each section to not only reflect on what we had read/learned, but to wonder about what was to come.  As the story progressed the students also took time to think about a variety of questions: How would William's life improve if he was successful in his creations?  What items would be most beneficial for him to find in the dump?  What would be the best way for him to use them? How did the weather conditions of the area he lived make things challenging?  The students truly came alive as we took the time to ponder before continuing to read.  It was almost as if they were working side-by-side with William.  One student even commented, "I didn't know a book could be read like this!" Unfortunately COVID restrictions did not allow for an experiments to be carried out, but in future years I would like to incorporate the students having access to their own 'dump' to gather items to build a windmill so they could experience some of the things that William did and understand his love for science and learning by being able to make mistakes and therefore improvements!

I taught a lesson last year where students had to design a parachute system to slow a lander as it descended towards Mars.  We  were working with an imagined model of a lander and payload (a cardboard tube with 16 paperclips attached). Students had to drop the tube from a 2 meter height and record the time it took to fall without any parachute system. They then had a limited supply of materials and a weight limit as constraints as they designed, built, and tested various parachute systems. Final designs were tested at the 2 meter height then again at a 3 meter height. While this is more of an engineering lesson than anything else, I think it falls between the structured and guided inquiry levels of inquiry. Students were told what the desired outcome was, given a specific set of parameters and materials, then they were given room to work. They were NOT given a strict set of steps to follow in the designing of their parachutes, nor were they really ever told to make a "parachute" per say...just to make the vehicle descend more slowly. The scientific principles in this lesson were developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, and analyzing and interpreting data. If I were going to amend this lesson to make it more of an open inquiry lesson I would probably have the students start by exploring the designs of various descent systems on existing vehicles designed for space. Maybe we'd look at videos, photographs, or scale models. I'd then have them devise "I Wonder" questions about a descent system for a vehicle landing on Mars. They could then self-design a plan for testing their most engaging question.

We do not teach formal education so a purely science based program isn't run as often as schools. One of our students favorite activities is a part of our Raptor workshop when we talk about DDT and egg shells. I believe this activity as it stands now is a Structured Inquiry. For this activity we have previously talked about the effects of DDT on eggs of bald eagles. We invite the teens to brainstorm WHAT those effects might be, and eventually they settle on it effecting the egg shell, but to what degree is not known yet. From there we take a fresh egg and place it in a clear rubbemaid bin sandwiched between two Magic Erasers and set another tub on top to apply some pressure to the egg. We ask the students if they think this healthy shell can sustain weight, how much weight, and what the weight threshold might be for a single egg. Next, the students one by one get to come up and place a rock on the bin to apply more pressure to the egg. The question was presented by us educators but the students have to attempt to find a solution and an answer through a procedure that has already been dictated. The science practices that the students learn through all this is dependent on where they take it but we always manage to spend time talking about WHERE are the eagles picking up DDT and what compounds are in DDT that affect the birds enough to produce thinning egg shells that won't make it through incubation. The students talk about the food chain and bimoagnification and pose questions about why it effects raptors more than other birds. In order to bring more inquiry based learnign to this activity I'd like to move in to "guided inquiry" and take away the procedure piece and allow the teens to utilize the resources in the classroom to test the egg shell. Let them experiment with testing the thresholds of eggs. We've only ever tested healthy eggs, I'd also like to pose a question on if they think they can similuate a less healthy, DDT impacted egg. I pose the question, they pose the procedure and the solution. In order to bring more science practices to this activity I would ask them to journal their findings as they create them. Instead of a full class demonstration they could do this in groups and have multiple eggs to experiement with. This gives them the freedom to investigate and test theories.

I do not teach science on a regular basis in my classroom.  We switch classes and another teacher teaches Science to my class.  This past year due to Covid restrictions, I led my students in inquiry based experiment. This past year, I chose an experiment with Structured Inquiry. What will prevent ice from melting?  Each student had their own plastic container and we covered the ice with the material the students brought from home.  We set them outside in the sun.  We had one container with only ice.    We were able to perform the experiment three different days. Science practices:  Observation, recordings, analyzing. Modifications I would make: provide more practice in writing down observations and describing small changes.     We would perform throughout the day to see if that made a difference in the material.   I would also have the students communicate their results with others.  I would also allow my students to try different containers.  (They were wanting to test out their personal refillable water bottles to see who had the best one for keeping the ice intact and their water cold.