- Volume 10, Issue 1, 2001

Du Vall outlines the various aspects of science instruction using an inquiry-based curriculum: a scientific inquiry classroom must be highly structured, yet students must develop personal ownership and investment in the curriculum. Time must be allowed for students to build on personal backgrounds, and space should be given to allow students to develop reasoning skills by allowing students to form their own questions.

A former middle school teacher describes her second year of kindergarten teaching using scientific inquiry. A focused study of animals naturally led to a need to develop literacy, communication and math skills.

Lynch describes her personal experiences using scientific inquiry as the base for a third-grade class of at-risk students. Notes that inquiry provided context to the core curriculum and, lessened stigma, and motivated the students to participate much more than the standard “skill-and-drill” format usually used in remedial classes.

Using a unit on weather as example, Stout describes the tools she has found useful in planning, organizing, and teaching a unit of study through inquiry in her fifth grade class: mandated curriculum on which to base the inquiry; parent newsletters, to involve students outside the classroom; and student questionnaires, to assess prior knowledge. Related literature, a question board, and Internet access round out her list of tools.

Schillereff describes how she incorporates inquiry-based instruction into thematic science units to encourage her gifted students to develop and become comfortable with different kinds of questioning skills and to become more self-directed, lifelong learners.

Du Vall reflects on issues that have surfaces as common obstacles to overcome in order to bring scientific inquiry into the classroom.