INQUIRY UNPACKED Inquiry Unpacked What does inquiry look

INQUIRY UNPACKED

Inquiry Unpacked What does inquiry look like in the classroom? 2. Why would one do inquiry? 3. What’s so hard about inquiry-oriented teaching? 1.

1. What Does Inquiry Look Like? Open Inquiry Hubble, Science Fairs, etc. Structured/Guided Inquiry Let’s Make Craters

Let’s Make Some Craters! Part I: Free Exploration with flour only – use “rocks” less than 2” across and don’t make a mess!! Part II: Add a thin layer of regolith (dust) to help you see the details. If your moon’s surface gets dirty, switch to adding a thin layer of WHITE regolith over the top. Part III: Write a procedure to conduct the following: Experiment #1: Does speed matter (don’t throw it!) Experiment #2: What happens if you change what lands? Experiment #3: Does mass matter? (nothing larger than 2” in size) Experiment #4: Does volume/diameter matter?

1. What Does Inquiry Look Like? Open Inquiry Hubble, Science Fairs, etc. Structured/Guided Inquiry Let’s Make Craters Backwards Faded Scaffolding in Inquiry Galilean Moons, Galaxy Zoo Collaborative Inquiry Tracking Sunspots

Tracking Sunspots Learning about the Sun using real SOHO data Adapted from an activity at: sohowww. nascom. nasa. gov/classroom/docs/Spotexerweb. pdf.

If sunspots move, can we tell how fast the sun is spinning? What kind of data could we collect to answer the question? How much data should we collect? What will we do with the data once we have it?

In your classroom, a pair of students working on sunspot C might make a grid that looks like this.

Sample data recorded (numbers are approximate) Group June 22 June 23 June 24 June 25 June 26 June 27 June 28 June 29 June 30 July 01 July 02 July 03 A -60 -45 -30 -18 -12 8 23 33 43 55 65 -- B --58 -30 -23 -12 -7 5 17 23 42 56 70 C -60 -45 -33 -20 -13 4 17 30 38 53 ---

Analysis: Cleaning Up the Data Review your data to make sure that the numeric data matches the graphic data Determine how many degrees of longitude your sunspot moves PER DAY? Special information: Since Earth is orbiting around the Sun, at about one degree per day, your sunspot is actually moving about one more degree per day that it seems to. Add one degree/day to your calculation. Determine: How long does it take the sun to rotate USING YOUR DATA?

Thinking About Data Analysis Were the spots always the same? Does everyone have the same answer? What do we do when the answers aren’t the same? When is it fair to “average” the data? And when is it fair to throw out the outliers?

1. What Does Inquiry Look Like? Open Inquiry Hubble, Science Fairs, etc. Structured/Guided Inquiry Let’s Make Craters Backwards Faded Scaffolding in Inquiry Galilean Moons, Galaxy Zoo Collaborative Inquiry Tracking Sunspots Jigsawing Telescope Time Proposals

Jigsawing with Paul Francis

Paul says: “In these exercises, I divided my class into small teams typically of three students). Each team is then given a briefing paper, describing some facet of a particular astronomical mystery. The teams have to wander around the classroom, exchanging information with other groups, until they can piece together a complete solution to the astronomical mystery. They can then present their solution and win a prize. The exercises have been run successfully in classes as large as 150 students, and as small as 12 students. I see no reason why they should no work equally well in larger classes still. They have been run with students as young as Year 10, and as old as grad students. ”

Planet Traxoline Each member of your group will received data from Planet Traxoline. This data was retrieved by probes and remote controlled robots. They took rock samples for chemistry and temperature, and images of topography. Fossils were also found You must analyze your own data, share your observations with your group, and report at the Extra. Planetary Institute meeting. If you can create a report that makes meaning out of ALL of the data, you win the Spock Prize!

1. What Does Inquiry Look Like? Open Inquiry Hubble, Science Fairs, etc. Structured/Guided Inquiry Let’s Make Craters Backwards Faded Scaffolding in Inquiry Galilean Moons, Galaxy Zoo Collaborative Inquiry Tracking Sunspots Jigsawing Telescope Time Proposals So is everything Inquiry?

Let’s take a look at three Astro classes…. . What do you see? Is it inquiry?

Let’s imagine some ASTRO 101 courses Celestial College Betelgeuse College Arcturus College What is the teaching model/formula in each class? Compare what happens first, second, etc…

Let’s imagine some ASTRO 101 courses Celestial College Professor • provides flow charts showing evolution pathways for low-, medium-, and highmass stars • asks students to copy them into their notes • gives students a test that includes matching items and short answer questions. Betelgeuse College Arcturus College

Let’s imagine some ASTRO 101 courses Celestial College Betelgeuse College Professor • provides flow charts showing evolution pathways for low-, medium-, and high-mass stars • asks students to copy them into their notes • gives students a test that includes matching items and short answer questions. Professor • gives the luminosity and spectral class of 10 nearby stars, distant stars, & bright & cool stars • students plot the stars on a HR diagram & trace evolution of stars with varying starting points. Students complete a quiz on the HR diagram. Arcturus College

Let’s imagine some ASTRO 101 courses Celestial College Betelgeuse Arcturus College Professor • provides flow charts showing evolution pathways for low-, medium, and highmass stars • asks students to copy them into their notes • gives students a test that includes matching items and Professor • gives the luminosity and spectral class of 10 nearby stars, distant stars, & bright & cool stars • students plot the stars on a HR diagram & trace evolution of stars with varying starting points. Students complete a quiz on the HR Professor: • proposes to students that all stars in the sky are alike • asks students to organize information on bright and nearby stars from their text’s appendix to support or disprove the proposition. • helps students notice stellar characteristics & patterns, guides them to use vocabulary. • assesses based on the completeness observations and patterns identified in journals.

Let’s imagine some ASTRO 101 courses Celestial College Betelgeuse College Arcturus College Professor • provides flow charts showing evolution pathways for low-, medium-, and high-mass stars • asks students to copy them into their notes • gives students a test that includes matching items and short answer questions. Professor • gives the luminosity and spectral class of 10 nearby stars, distant stars, & bright & cool stars • students plot the stars on a HR diagram & trace evolution of stars with varying starting points. Students complete a quiz on the HR diagram. Professor: • proposes to students that all stars in the sky are alike • asks students to organize information on bright and nearby stars from their text’s appendix to support or disprove the proposition. • helps students notice stellar characteristics & patterns, guides them to use vocabulary. • assesses based on the completeness What is the teaching model/formula in each class? Compare what happens first, second,

Discussion Questions What are the steps in each? 2. How long does each take? 3. Which would be the most fun to be a student in? 4. Which class would you rather teach in? 1.

Discussion Questions continued… Which is consistent with the nature of science? 6. Which are teacher-centered, studentcentered, hands-on, and inquiry? 5. Inquiry is…. • Engaging with meaningful questions • Using data as evidence • Communicating/critiquing conclusions 7. Which is teaching for understanding?

2. Why would one do inquiry? Inquiry and “How People Learn” What do we know about cognition: the ways that people perceive, remember and process information? Prior knowledge (Erlwanger, Au, Moll) Metacognition (Flavell, Brown) Social construction of knowledge (Vygotsky, Piaget, Bruner) Meaningful Formative Assessment (Cowie & Bell, Black & William) Active engagement (Bonwell & Eison, Redish) What aspects of inquiry instruction match what we know about cognition?

3. What’s so hard about inquiry-oriented teaching? Inquiry is not a natural act, as practitioner or instructor. We have misconceptions about inquiry There are practical classroom issues Asking a good research question is really hard

Remember your list of inquiry experiences and conceptions? Some Misconceptions about Inquiry Research = book report Rejecting a hypothesis is bad Science requires lab equipment/lots of funding Inquiry requires data-collection (on-line data doesn’t count) There is a set linear method of scientific inquiry (Inquiry is experimental, with controls, variables & hypotheses) Generating scientific questions is the easy part; analyzing data is the hard part

Typical instructor and student concerns (complaints). Yes, we mean you. Takes too much time I have too many students My students have too low an aptitude This kind of instruction hurts smart students Can’t you just Google the answer? Content is “watered down” It is difficult There is no answer key They might ask a question that I can’t answer! What if my hypothesis isn’t right ? !?

Asking a good research question is really hard! Remember asking research questions with Gemini and Hubble? Which set of questions was easier? Why? What does this imply about teaching people the art of doing research? Let’s try again:

How Much Do Natural Systems Change Over Time? Hours of Daylight Percentage of Surface Covered by Snow/Ice? Temperature Pollution CO 2 Ozone (03) Cloud Cover Plant Coverage Rainfall Wind Patterns River Water Discharge Earthquakes Population (Humans or other organisms) Others? You have to do a SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT!!! What is your research question?

II. Data, Data Everywhere, But Not a Dot to Plot River Levels Hours of Daylight http: //water. usgs. gov/waterwatch/ http: //aa. usno. navy. mil/data/ Wind Patterns Rain, Snow, Temperature, Wind, Pressure River Water Levels or Volume http: //www. ncdc. noaa. gov/oa/mppsearch. html Lightning Percentage of Surface Covered by Snow/Ice http: //gis. ncdc. noaa. gov/website/ims-climatls/index. html orhttp: //thunder. nsstc. nasa. gov/lightning-cgibin/lis/LISSearch. pl? type=HTML? Browse at http: //nsidc. org/data/nsidc-0046. html Archive at http: //www. ssd. noaa. gov/PS/SNOW/ Earthquakes Or http: //www. ncdc. noaa. gov/ussc/pagemap. html http: //earthquake. usgs. gov/eqcenter/ Temperature Volcanoes http: //www. temperatureworld. com/ or http: //volcanoes. usgs. gov/update. html http: //gis. ncdc. noaa. gov/website/ims-climatls/index. html Human Population and you can draw boxes to zoon http: //www. census. gov/ Pollution Traffic Congestion Map Archives at http: //airnow. gov/ http: //www. stolasgeospatial. com/traffic. html CO 2 Sea Level Rising from Global Warming http: //www. cmdl. noaa. gov/ccgg/iadv/ http: //flood. firetree. net/ Ozone (03) NASA Images from Space http: //www. ozonelayer. noaa. gov/data. htm http: //earth. jsc. nasa. gov/sseop/efs/categories. htm Cloud Cover http: //gis. ncdc. noaa. gov/website/ims-climatls/index. html Great Meta Collection of Real-Time Weather Data http: //www. weatherimages. org/index. html (include index. html and select OTHER on this address) Plant/Vegetation Coverage And of course, Google Mash-Ups http: //gisdata. usgs. net/website/ivm/viewer. php http: //googlemapsmania. blogspot. com/#top (check out right Rainfall hand column) http: //hdsc. nws. noaa. gov/hdsc/pfds/index. html

All Research Questions Are Not Created Equal Consider these questions inquiry proposed by students—do you think they would be fruitful and productive things to investigate as a scientific inquiry? Why or why not? How could they be improved? How many days in a year? How many hummingbird species feed near the school? How does the p. H of the school yard soil change over a month? Which plants look different the day after it rains? Are the number of acres burned by wildfire each year increasing? Does it rain the same number of days in July every year? Is the amount of plankton in the ocean related to the fluctuating sea surface temperature? Are there more car accidents in Tucson during the full moon? In general, what do you think makes a lousy inquiry question? In general, what do you think makes a great inquiry question?

What is the essence of a good research question? Noone knows…. . At first, it’s easier to spot a bad question: 1. “A theoretical. ”: Doesn’t connect to preexisting knowledge 2. “Who cares? ”: What would you do with the answer if you could find it? 3. “Duh!”: The answer to the question is obvious. 4. “Black box. ”: Input…. output…don’t know what happened….

Resources Colburn, A. - What Teacher Educators Need to Know about Inquiry-Based Instruction http: //www. csulb. edu/~acolburn/AETS. htm