Presents a brine shrimp activity designed for students in grades 5-12 to foster authentic scientific inquiry in addition to providing an engaging and exciting avenue for student exploration. Emphasizes that inquiry should be a critical component in the science classroom. (KHR)

Discusses student resistance to classroom participation and immersion based on personal experience and suggests an alternative approach for discourse and inquiry. (YDS)

Illustrates the efficacy of an approach for collecting and analyzing family conversational data at museums and other informal settings. Examines data from three families which focus on conversation centered on biological themes, specifically adaptation. Analyzes inquiry skills used in making sense of science content. Offers educators…

Describes a science activity entitled "Investigating Fermentation," which uses a digital camera for data collection purposes. Uses a standards-based inquiry approach and explains the procedure. (YDS)

Uses graphs to involve students in inquiry-based population investigations on the Wisconsin gray wolf. Requires students to predict future changes in the wolf population, carrying capacity, and deer population. (YDS)

Describes current debates over the nature of science in the science curriculum. Illustrates the subtle ways in which epistemological portrayals have been influenced with regard to the public's relationship with institutional science in the United States by using the curricular ideas of John Dewey and Joseph Schwab as an historical perspective.…

Describes how the question-finding strategy teaches students to search for questions embedded in the text or "hidden" within the subtext. Notes that the skills of question-finding can be applied to any content area that uses resources and materials that stimulate inquiry learning. (SG)

Discusses collaboration between school librarians and teachers and describes teacher inquiry groups, based on those at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The focus of the inquiry group is to examine individual lessons and use them as points of entry for understanding teaching methods and improving instructional practices.…

Investigates the influence of an explicit and reflective inquiry-oriented instructional approach compared with an implicit inquiry-oriented approach on sixth grade students' understanding of the nature of science (NOS). Emphasizes tentative, empirical, inferential, and imaginative and creative NOS. Involves (n=62) sixth grade students in two…

Compares two laboratory treatments: (1) Constructing and Applying the Concepts of Physics (CACP) which is guided-inquiry; and (2) Toys in Motion (TIM) which focuses on problem solving skills and design work. Discusses the two laboratory courses and assessment procedures. (YDS)

Presents a teacher knowledge approach to school portfolio development that was used with teachers on five campuses involved in a major national reform movement. The narrative method shows how teacher knowledge is made public and shared through school portfolio making. Particular emphasis is placed on the connections between and among reflection…

Critiques the claim that Haitian children cannot actively engage in science classroom by examining the cultural practice of "bay odyans," a form of discourse similar to scientific argumentation. Offers examples of Haitian students recreating bay odyans in science classrooms and suggests that these students have a cultural experience that…

Educators must take the time to reflect upon their past efforts and make needed mid-course corrections. Looking for patterns within reform projects and helping teachers see reform as an evolutionary process and not an either/or response will help all educators grow as professionals. Presents examples of inquiry learning integrated with traditional…

Reminisces about several decades of research on teaching and teacher education, explaining that for teacher education research to make a significant difference, there must be new scholarly commitments, with long-term programs of scholarship, regularly embedded in ongoing programs of teacher preparation, becoming a norm, and ties to student…

Compares the traditional view of science with the more multidimensional view outlined in science reform documents. Outlines different genres of science nonfiction trade books. Describes a science text set and how it is used to encourage both science inquiry and science literacy practices in a unit on sound and hearing. (SG)