What does an inquiry-based classroom look like?
Inquiry-based science classrooms are student-centered. The teacher's desk would not be
found front and center in the room; rather, it
would likely be off to one side. Multi-use work tables/areas would be evident with student investigations in various levels of completion on them.
The room would be well-stocked with supplies
such as resource books, measurement tools
(balances, meter sticks, etc.), observation tools
(hand lenses, microscopes, etc.), and recording
supplies (paper, colored pencils, etc.). Students
would have free access to the supplies during
their investigations.
The students would be seated in groups to
facilitate conversation and collaboration. A classroom visitor would overhear students asking
questions and making plans for solving problems.
In their conversations with each other, students
would explain and justify their thinking using evidence collected from their own investigations as
well as data from the work of classroom colleagues. While the students worked, the teacher
would be observed moving from group to group
asking students probing questions, suggesting resources, or linking students' work to previous
classroom discoveries. Before independent student work time, an observer might see the
teacher facilitating a discussion about safety parameters of the investigations or summarizing the
previous day's work. After the work time, the
teacher would assist students in linking their personal data to the "big ideas" in science and supply the technical science vocabulary for the students' discoveries.
What do inquiry lesson plans look like?
A lesson plan format known as the 5E
model has been widely used to plan inquirybased science lessons. This plan has been used
since the early 1960's and has been revised and
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