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Lorem Ipsum Dolor Spring 2016
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rather like a week-long science fair. The data indicate that the students
enthusiastically embraced inquiry-based science. Their questions spanned all
domains of science as well as social science topics such as perception and
learning. Collectively, students demonstrated all eight of the science and
engineering practices but few of the students clearly connected evidence to
their outcomes. Some of the students were deeply invested in their projects
but others only had a cursory understanding of the scientific principles upon
which their projects were based. Evidentiary thinking is the hallmark of
science knowledge production but was in short supply in these findings.
Due to limited experience with inquiry-based science, junior campers
might profit more from a modified camp experience. For example, children
younger than 13, could attend a camp with a weeklong theme focused on a
specific area, such as, magnetism, outer space, birds, etc. The camp would
provide three days of immersion experiences in the topic to build background
knowledge while introducing techniques of how to engage in inquiry. The
students could utilize the remaining two days to develop and investigate their
own questions within the topic area. This would eliminate the problem of
children selecting "cookbook" science fair projects from the internet and not
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