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This video is the first of a five part series on scientific inquiry. Supporting material can be found below.
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Transcript Provided by YouTube:
00:00
hi it’s Paul Andersen and in this video
00:01
I’m gonna give you a teacher’s guide to
00:03
scientific inquiry this is not just one
00:05
video it’s a bunch of resources together
00:07
there’ll be five additional videos
00:09
well dig more deeply into the five steps
00:11
of inquiry I’ve got some inquiry cards
00:13
that you can use they’ve got fronts and
00:15
backs as a guide I’ve got posters you
00:17
could use in the classroom there’s
00:18
graphic organizers there’s a website the
00:20
wonder of science that will lead you
00:21
through all of this and so this is not
00:23
just one-off video this is a framework
00:25
that you can use to do scientific
00:27
inquiry it’s just one model but it’s a
00:28
model that’s worked for me before we get
00:30
into that we should really talk about
00:32
what scientific inquiry is it’s just
00:33
simply what scientists do they ask
00:35
questions they answer those questions
00:38
with two leads to more questions and
00:39
it’s how they understand the natural
00:40
world you might not be familiar with
00:42
that but you’re probably familiar with
00:44
regular inquiry that’s where you are
00:46
curious about something and your answer
00:47
your questions maybe you don’t
00:49
understand how a new set of standards
00:50
work or new bit of science works so you
00:53
ask questions and then you answer those
00:54
questions just watching this video in
00:56
his example of inquiry but when you’re
00:58
teaching through scientific inquiry you
01:00
have to realize that all your students
01:01
are going to be at many different levels
01:02
some of them this is brand-new to them
01:04
and some of the it’s just a form of
01:06
Education that they haven’t seen before
01:07
so you have to know that there’s a
01:09
continuum goes from super structure to
01:11
super free when it comes to inquiry and
01:13
neither of these is right you want to
01:15
build up students capacity and inquiry
01:17
before you really let them go you also
01:19
want to make sure that you’re the ink
01:21
where you’re doing is anchoring in some
01:22
phenomena some set of standards
01:24
otherwise you’re going to waste time and
01:26
so in my work we’re working with schools
01:28
as they start to do inquiry I’m asked
01:30
oftentimes to do lab sites what I’m
01:32
doing there is I’m teaching a lesson and
01:34
then a bunch of other teachers are
01:35
watching me do that lesson the first
01:36
thing I’ll always do when they asked me
01:39
to teach a lesson is say what standards
01:40
do you want me to address so the example
01:42
I’ll give here is a fourth grade unit
01:44
this is on energy and energy in
01:47
collisions using the next generation
01:49
science standards it’s really important
01:51
that I understand what the standards are
01:52
because now I have to decide what’s the
01:54
phenomena that I’m going to use in this
01:56
case I’m going to use the Wonder spheres
01:58
that’s not their name I created that
02:00
name so you don’t Google what this
02:02
demonstration is and I think that’s an
02:04
important lesson for you and for
02:05
students just googling the answer to a
02:08
question is not inquiry you’re just
02:09
looking up somebody else’s answers and
02:11
so you really want to find phenomena
02:13
where the students are in the position
02:14
of a scientist in this case we have
02:16
these two spheres and they feel the same
02:20
they feel like they have the same weight
02:22
they feel like they have the same
02:23
density they feel like just a regular
02:27
super ball is what they feel like but
02:28
when you drop them on a surface you get
02:30
this odd behavior and so what we now
02:32
have is a phenomena a phenomena is
02:35
something that’s going to allow me to
02:36
teach energy especially energy in
02:39
collisions but they’re going to discover
02:41
that through the inquiry process and so
02:44
a phenomena don’t overthink it it’s
02:45
simply an observable event in the
02:47
natural world in this case it’s these
02:49
two objects falling on the table so when
02:51
they hit the table one of them stops and
02:53
the other one keeps bouncing at that
02:55
moment the students will just start
02:56
asking questions naturally like that’s
02:58
just what humans do is that we wonder
03:00
about things that we don’t understand
03:02
anytime I do a lesson like this I’ll
03:04
always video the phenomena I’ll put a
03:06
link to this video down below if you
03:07
want to use it and the reason why is I
03:09
can just loop that if you right-click on
03:12
a YouTube video you can just have it
03:13
loop over and over and over again I’d
03:15
get rid of the sound and now this
03:17
becomes a primary source so the students
03:19
can keep watching it and then I as a
03:21
teacher can walk around and help with
03:23
the inquiry process like have that video
03:25
keep looping so that they can dig in so
03:28
as we step through inquiry I’m going to
03:30
be stepping through a set of these
03:32
inquiry cards so the first one you
03:33
always start with is a phenomenon so
03:36
there has to be something that we’re
03:37
trying to understand in the natural
03:39
world that’s the first card on the
03:41
backside of that card it could be a
03:43
problem so sometimes we’re not doing
03:45
science but we’re doing engineering we
03:47
have a human problem in that case these
03:49
cards would be design cards but in since
03:52
we’re doing this the Wonder spheres and
03:54
it’s something happening in the natural
03:55
world now we’ve got a phenomenon we’re
03:57
really doing inquiry the next set of
03:59
cards are going to be blue and those are
04:01
based on the practices so those are the
04:03
practices in the next generation science
04:05
standards what those really are is
04:07
they’re telling the students what you’re
04:08
going to do there are notes on the back
04:10
of those for me as a teacher and then
04:12
finally you have the green cards which
04:14
are going to be the cross-cutting
04:15
concepts and they’re going to tell the
04:16
students how to think if we ever get
04:19
stuck those cross-cutting concepts will
04:21
come in handy and so I’m gonna organize
04:23
these inquiry cards like this so we’ve
04:25
got an inquiry cycle
04:27
the left side with the fenomena in the
04:29
middle everything we’re doing is always
04:31
related to that phenomena trying to
04:32
figure out what’s going on the order
04:34
we’ll go in is asking questions coming
04:36
up with explanations then we investigate
04:38
and finally we engage in argumentation
04:40
now it can bounce around lots of times
04:43
we can ask questions that lead to a
04:44
quick investigation which maybe it’s not
04:47
linear like this but I’ve found that
04:49
these four steps in this way is the best
04:52
way to have success when you’re just
04:54
starting to do inquiry now the words
04:56
that will govern each of these step is
04:58
at the top of the card and since the
05:00
kids are driving the inquiry you have to
05:02
be good at asking questions as a teacher
05:04
and so when they’re asking questions the
05:06
question or the prompt you’re asking
05:07
them is what do you wonder what do you
05:09
what are you noticing what are you
05:10
wondering about we get two explanations
05:12
then it’s what do you think what do you
05:14
think’s going on then how do you
05:16
investigate and then how do you know an
05:18
explanation and an argument is different
05:21
an explanation is just what you think an
05:23
argument is now that I have evidence is
05:25
my explanation right or wrong so this is
05:27
our inquiry steps and let’s start with
05:29
asking questions this is where I always
05:31
begin on the back of the card it gives
05:33
you a sequence of what you should do as
05:35
a teacher so these are the steps that
05:37
you’re going to do brainstorm questions
05:39
first classify them and then improve at
05:42
the bottom of the card you’re gonna have
05:43
a little rubric for what makes a good
05:45
question I’ll dig more deeply into that
05:47
on another video that’s coming up on
05:49
questions but when your students are
05:51
wondering you want to have that video
05:52
plain so they can start asking questions
05:54
generally what I’ll do is I’ll give them
05:56
a whiteboard so they can start writing
05:58
their questions down maybe give them a
06:00
first question like why doesn’t that one
06:02
ball bounce could be the first question
06:04
but then tell them I want you to get
06:05
eight questions they’ll always groan the
06:07
first time because they’ve never been
06:08
asked to generate a bunch of questions
06:10
but pretty soon they’ll fall into it and
06:11
they’ll just start asking questions when
06:13
I’m doing lessons like this I want it
06:15
totally quiet when this is going on I
06:16
want each of the kids to individually be
06:18
coming up with questions that they have
06:20
their initial wonderings it’ll take them
06:22
a few minutes to get into it but then
06:23
they’ll eventually take off I also have
06:25
some graphic organizers on asking
06:26
questions you could use don’t skip this
06:29
step
06:29
this step is incredibly important what
06:31
they’re really doing is as they’re
06:32
watching the phenomena they’re starting
06:35
to make careful observations and they’re
06:36
seeing things that you wouldn’t normally
06:38
see you’re even having a hard
06:40
paying attention to me right now because
06:41
this video is streaming down below and
06:43
it kind of draws your attention I’ve
06:44
seen first graders spend like a half an
06:47
hour just asking questions on an 8
06:48
second video so it’s incredibly
06:50
important to show them that but once
06:52
we’ve asked those questions we want to
06:53
value those questions in elementary lots
06:55
of times those go on Wonderwall and
06:57
middle or high school where they put
06:58
those on a driving question board and
07:00
what that essentially says is the
07:02
wandering is going to drive what we’re
07:03
going to do as far as experimentation
07:05
goes now after they’ve asked and
07:07
brainstormed a bunch of questions lots
07:08
of time I want them to share those
07:10
questions so I’ll have one student say
07:11
could you read your first question I
07:13
want everybody else in the class to
07:15
listen to that question if you have it
07:17
cross it off your list so you don’t ask
07:18
the same question twice and go to
07:20
everybody pull one question for each
07:22
person it gets everyone invested in the
07:24
inquiry that we’re about to do after
07:27
they’ve done that I’ll classify their
07:28
questions the first time they’re doing
07:30
they’re probably not ready to do this
07:31
but each of the questions could be
07:32
classified into one of the seven
07:34
cross-cutting concepts most of their
07:36
questions will be on cause-and-effect
07:37
and structure and function sometimes
07:39
they’ll ask patterns questions but not a
07:41
bunch of patterns questions that are
07:43
good questions over time or related to
07:45
heat or related to energy and they ask
07:48
hardly any system questions in general
07:50
and so the key point is we want to
07:52
classify those questions so we can see
07:54
where the blind spot is if they don’t
07:55
ask any questions about where energy and
07:57
matter are going in the system itself
07:59
then we have a limited view of the
08:01
phenomenon
08:02
so now let’s improve the questions on
08:03
the back of each of those green cards I
08:05
have other questions that you could use
08:07
just generic questions you could use on
08:09
any phenomena now we’ve kind of framed
08:11
the question the next step is let’s
08:13
figure out what our explanations are
08:15
what is everybody in the class thinking
08:16
an explanation is simply what do you
08:19
think I’ll use modeling or conceptual
08:22
modeling to get at this but we could
08:24
also use mathematical modeling we could
08:26
use computational modeling let’s just
08:28
tell me what you’re thinking it’s easier
08:30
for students when they’re drawing models
08:32
for you to frame the system what’s a
08:34
system that we’re modeling so I could
08:35
say for example the system is going to
08:38
be the two Wonder spheres the table and
08:40
the distance between the two and then
08:43
the surroundings is going to be
08:44
everything around the outside of it
08:45
outside of that is the surroundings when
08:48
they draw their system models now
08:50
they’re going to be more accurate
08:51
they’re
08:52
not just going to draw a picture of what
08:53
they think is on the inside of the
08:54
sphere now we’re going to let them draw
08:56
so these would be fourth-grade drawings
08:58
this person thinks that energy
09:00
disappears as it goes into the table
09:02
this person thinks that maybe there’s
09:04
sand on the inside of it and the other
09:05
ones Hollow this person thinks it has
09:07
something to do with the surface that
09:09
it’s landing on and so what I can see
09:11
when the students are modeling is I see
09:13
what’s inside each of their brains and
09:15
that’s how I define what a model is a
09:17
model is just the idea you have in your
09:19
brain but get it outside your brain so
09:21
other people can see it lots of tribes
09:23
making it visual in addition to the
09:25
words is going to help but we don’t want
09:27
it to be a diagram so you may want to
09:29
use the cause and effect as a
09:30
cross-cutting concept to kind of help
09:33
frame that tell them I want one sentence
09:35
on your model that tells me what you
09:36
think is causing this phenomena now as I
09:39
look at those sentences I can start to
09:42
pull apart what everybody’s thinking now
09:44
you might be thinking this sounds a lot
09:45
like a hypothesis totally is an
09:47
explanatory model and an explanatory
09:50
hypotheses are the same thing a
09:52
scientist is going to be way from more
09:53
familiar with what a model is and
09:55
testing that model lots of times if
09:57
we’re talking about a hypothesis it’s
09:59
just kind of a guess but there’s no
10:00
explanatory power found inside it what I
10:03
can go and do now as a teacher is I
10:05
write down all of the different causes
10:06
that are in the models if I have to get
10:08
ready for the lab that’s coming up the
10:10
next day then I can kind of get material
10:12
ready for that but the idea of inquiry
10:14
is now we have all these explanations in
10:16
the class we have to test them so what
10:18
investigations do we do we investigate
10:20
these models to see if they’re right or
10:22
if they’re wrong and so I always want
10:24
students to plan their investigation
10:25
before they do it
10:26
and so if they think there is something
10:28
to do with energy loss I want them to
10:30
come to me and describe what kind of an
10:32
investigation they’re going to do before
10:33
I ever give them the equipment I want
10:35
them to tell me what they’re thinking
10:37
so this would be an example of an
10:38
investigation where they were looking at
10:40
the surface that the objects fall on and
10:42
they found surprisingly that if you drop
10:44
them on a real soft surface they both
10:46
bounce the same amount so that’s an
10:47
interesting result what’s the next step
10:50
now we have a whole bunch of evidence
10:51
that we’ve collected now we got to
10:52
engage in argumentation and so what do
10:55
we do with that you know that the
10:57
product is going to be claimed evidence
10:59
reasoning but it’s not the order or the
11:01
process in which we do it the way I do
11:03
this in class is I’ll have the kids make
11:05
a CER
11:06
so they have their evidence and then
11:07
they make a claim with reasoning in this
11:09
case they’re looking at how temperature
11:11
affects the movement of the wanders
11:13
fears and they find it’s odd but you
11:15
find that the temperature effects are
11:16
quite a bit if we cool it down or we
11:18
heat it up that that’s fear that doesn’t
11:20
balance starts to bounce once we put
11:22
these posters up on the wall now we can
11:23
do argumentation you as a teacher can
11:26
walk around and we can do peer review of
11:28
those argumentation posters as well this
11:30
practice talking about argumentation a
11:32
lot of what I’m talking about here I’m
11:34
drawing from the argument driven inquiry
11:35
they’re really the gold standard of how
11:37
to do this argumentation they have
11:39
wonderful templates that you could look
11:40
at and so what have we done we’ve really
11:42
started to understand energy so we’ve
11:44
explored now and now it’s okay for me to
11:47
come in as a teacher and do some
11:48
explanation if I talk about collisions
11:50
or motion energy or energy transfer now
11:53
they have something to ground it in so
11:55
don’t let anyone tell you if you’re
11:56
doing inquiry the kids are just going to
11:57
somehow discover things on their own you
11:59
have to be there guiding that process
12:01
but it’s really important that you get a
12:03
good phenomena that phenomena has to tie
12:05
to the standard so that we’re not
12:07
wasting time I’ve got a bunch of them on
12:09
my website the wonder of science along
12:11
with PDFs of all of the forms that I was
12:13
just showing you my logo gets at the big
12:16
steps of inquiry and it’s supposed to
12:19
look like a light bulb but the idea is
12:20
that when you see something you don’t
12:21
understand the first thing you do is you
12:23
wonder about it I wonder why that occurs
12:26
then you try to tell people what you’re
12:28
thinking a model a visual model is a
12:30
good way to do that next step let’s get
12:32
some evidence gather more evidence look
12:34
at other people’s evidence and finally
12:36
we can come up with a better idea of
12:37
what’s going on
12:38
so that’s inquiry it’s a wonderful way
12:40
to teach I can’t tell you how many
12:42
lessons I’ve done and how impressed I’ve
12:43
been with students but I hope that was
12:45
helpful
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Previously published on YouTube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
