My state adopted new middle school standards this year that focus on teaching inquiry-based learning in science. If you are like me, it was a big shift from my previous teaching style. Allowing students to discover phenomena and create explanations is challenging. But, it can also be rewarding. I have learned a few things about using inquiry in the middle school science classroom this year I want to share them.
What is inquiry-based learning?
Inquiry-based learning means making an observation, using that interest to guide learning, and coming up with an explanation. It's what curious kids do naturally when they notice something odd and wonder why. In the classroom, the goal is the same: get students to wonder, then investigate.
When you were a kid, you may have noticed something cool one day – a weird bug, an oddly shaped cloud, or patterns in a rock. You may have then asked a question about it. If you are in my age range (hitting 40 this year), you didn’t have the internet to immediately Google an answer. You had to come up with some explanations. Some were possible while others, after some thought, were less likely.
If you were really interested, you may have asked someone if they knew anything about it. You may have even done an experiment to try and explain it! This is an example of inquiry-based learning – making an observation, using that interest to guide learning, and then coming up with an explanation.
I have a distinct memory of walking to a friend’s house as a kid when I noticed something strange. On the road, leaves on the ground were moving in a small circle rather quickly. They spun around five or six times in a 3-foot diameter circle before falling to a stop. I thought, “What is happening?” Being a younger kid, I wondered if it may have been magic. But, after some thought, I made connections. It looked like water going down a drain. It also moved in a circle like a tornado.
I wish I could say that I did in-depth research on this phenomenon as a kid, but I did not. However, it got my attention and made me wonder. That is the purpose of inquiry-based learning in science in my opinion – to get our students to wonder.
What should you change when you switch to inquiry?
The traditional cycle — notes, reinforcing labs, practice, test — stops working, because just telling students what to know leaves no room for inquiry. The big swaps involve how you open a unit, how you handle vocabulary, how you sequence activities, and whether students take notes at all.
For years, I’ve taught using a traditional approach in which students take notes, we do activities or labs that reinforce those notes, students practice, and then they take a test. In an inquiry-based learning environment, this structure no longer works. If we are just telling students what they need to know, there is no inquiry. Here are some swaps to make.
How do you introduce a unit with phenomena instead of hooks?
Hooks grab attention and then you explain the trick. Phenomena grab attention but you don't explain them — the whole unit builds toward students explaining the anchor phenomenon themselves. Instead of telling students what happens during a demo, let them guess without confirming right or wrong.
I was taught to use “hooks” as a way to get students’ attention at the start of the unit. These are fun demonstrations that would get students interested in the upcoming content. I would show them something that had some wow factor and then tell them how it worked or what happened.
When using inquiry-based learning in science, we use something similar called phenomena. The big difference is that you don’t explain what is happening in a phenomenon. Rather, all the instruction in the unit relates back to the phenomenon (sometimes called an anchor phenomenon). By the end of the unit, students can explain the phenomenon themselves through content they have discovered.
Don’t Do This: Explain what is happening during labs or demonstrations.
Do This Instead: Allow students to make guesses about phenomena without telling them if they are correct or not.
How should you handle vocabulary in an inquiry classroom?
Don't front-load it. Students don't need the term first, they need the concept. Front-loading vocabulary doesn't put understanding in their heads — they may know the word but not the idea. Let them discover the concept through activities, then give them the term.
As a new teacher, I was taught the importance of front-loading some content such as vocabulary. After all, how will students know what we are talking about if they don’t know the important terms? In an inquiry-based classroom, students don’t need to know the term – they need to know the concept. Once they discover the content, the teacher can provide them with the term.
What I have found was that front-loading vocabulary doesn’t magically put the information in their brains. They may know the term but they do not understand the concept. If they learn the concept through discovery, remembering the term will be much easier.
Don’t Do This: Give students a list of terms to look up in the glossary of the textbooks.
Do This Instead: Allow students to discover concepts through meaningful activities. When they understand the concept, provide them with the term.
How do you sequence inquiry activities?
Sequence matters. Each activity needs to sit in the right zone of proximal development — not too easy, not too hard — so students can make connections as they go. That's tough when students bring varying background knowledge, so build a logical progression rather than activities that just confirm facts you already told them.
When using inquiry-based learning in science, it is critical that the teacher properly sequence activities. What I mean by that is the activity needs to be in the correct zone of proximal development. Guiding students through activities that will help them discover the content is key. It can’t be too easy but it can’t be too hard. This is difficult when students have varying amounts of background knowledge.
Don’t Do This: Give students activities that reinforce facts you told them were true.
Do This Instead: Make a logical sequence of activities that allow students to make connections as they progress through a unit.
What do you do about notes?
This is the big shift. Instead of notes copied from the board, I ask guiding questions at the end of a lesson — usually about five that we discuss as a class and students can refer back to. It supports students new to inquiry while still letting them discover the content themselves.
This is the big one for me. For over a decade, I taught using the idea that notes were the foundation of my instruction. This takes away their chance to discover the content for themselves and makes them less engaged.
Instead, I am trying a different approach in which I ask my students guiding questions at the end of the lesson. These questions are purposefully chosen to refine their experiences with the activities so they conceptually understand the content.
Practically, this looks like five questions that we discuss as a class and students can refer back to. This gives students who are new to the inquiry-based learning approach in science some support while still letting them discover the content.
Don’t Do This: Have students take notes from the board.
Do This Instead: Use experiences in class to introduce students to concepts. Let students make the connections and determine what makes sense through reflections.
How do you overcome the challenges of inquiry?
The three big obstacles are time, differing student needs, and mindset. Inquiry is slower up front but can cut re-teaching later; a long-range plan helps you budget time. Review games still support varied learners, and teaching a growth mindset helps students push through the discomfort of solving a real mystery.
Utilizing this approach in a classroom is easier said than done. Here are some common problems and ideas for how to address them.
It’s much faster to just tell students what they need to know rather than letting them discover it. While it takes longer to use an inquiry-based learning approach, consider how much time you spend re-teaching material. If students can better understand a concept during our unit, we can hopefully do less re-teaching later.
This year, I developed a long-range plan in which I gave myself a certain number of weeks per standard. This helped me gauge how much time I could devote to each topic.
Some students are ready to jump into a new challenge while others worry about making mistakes or are just not interested. Some need visual tools as a way to organize what they’ve learned. Others need a way to practice the information in more familiar ways.
At the end of a unit, I still use review games to prepare for tests. The key to this is that they have already discovered (at least some of) the content on their own. They can apply the experiences to their preferred study methods – whether that is going over reflection sheets, playing online games, or something else.
Students have not been asked to really think like scientists. They have done experiments in which they can likely guess the outcome. But trying to solve a mystery like an anchor phenomenon is new territory. Students will often struggle – especially when they are introduced to inquiry-based learning in science for the first time.
Teach students about a growth mindset – the idea that, while they may not be proficient at something yet, they can grow over time. Something I tell my daughters is that “If you want to be good at something, you have to be willing to be bad at it first” (source unknown). While this is never what kids want to hear (after all, everyone likes easy fixes), they will be proud of themselves and more empowered once they find their own way through a challenge.
I have a fun growth mindset challenge for sale in my TeachersPayTeachers store – check it out at this link!
Introducing an inquiry-based learning approach in your science classroom is not easy. It may even be harder for those of us who have taught for many years using a traditional approach. I have had many ups and downs this past year utilizing it. But, in many ways, I feel like I have been successful in new areas of my teaching. I have been developing my growth mindset this past year as well.