Describes a project in which language arts sophomores creatively and cooperatively produced a book titled "Parents, Are You Ready for This?" Explains how the project transformed student notions about research. Notes that the project involved press conferences and interviews with parents and their children. (TB)

Bhutan's experience with the New Approach to Primary Education (NAPE) shows what can be accomplished in a small, developing state when conditions are favorable. Curricula are more closely aligned to the nature of Bhutanese society, and NAPE is replacing passive, rote learning with a more active inquiry-based approach. Smallness assisted reform…

Using the syllabus theme Insecta, strategies for implementing a holistic approach to teaching biology is described. This approach relies largely on self-activity, self-discovery, differentiation, and intrinsic motivation on the part of the student to enhance their learning experiences. (ZWH)

Describes a year-long process of inquiry and scientific learning with a class of fourth-grade students. Describes how the students observed, questioned, and wondered their way to new understandings of the life of birds and the nature of inquiry learning. (SR)

Presents an argument for inquiry-based activities and defines science as talking to the material world. Discusses the notion that a hands-on activity is an inquiry-based activity only if a dialog with the material world takes place. (DDR)

For the first time in 200 years there is no clearly acknowledged national purpose for higher education. Through fundamental questioning, educators can establish a curriculum to prepare students to set a new agenda, rejuvenating both colleges and society. This focus on questions is not meant to encourage slow pace but ensure that the right…

Points out the difficulties that English language learners may have and advocates that teachers help students acquire academic scientific language from words that can mean different things in science and be confusing. Recommends using graphic organizers, providing vocabulary support, and pre-writing and reading activities as possible ways to help…

Introduces the Environmental Inquiry (EI) program which focuses on five topics: watershed dynamics, environmental toxicology, ecology of invasive species, biodegradations, and urban ecosystem modeling. (YDS)

Describes an experiment in which students design the experiment and observe different liquids' effects on germination. Presents directions for laboratory writings. (YDS)

Discusses computer conferencing in higher education, presents a community of inquiry model that includes benefits of computer conferencing, and discusses social presence, defined as the ability of learners to project themselves socially and affectively into a community of inquiry. Topics include teacher immediacy, coding, and content analysis of…

Presents an activity that involves students in a hands-on, creative project in which they use higher order thinking skills while designing and studying the basics of floating devices. Focuses on inquiry, a number of scientific principles, and the relationship between mathematics and science. (ASK)

Questions whether more student-centered instruction is occurring in block scheduled biology classes than in traditional classrooms. Explains the results of the study in terms of academic achievement. First published in 1998. (YDS)

Provides an overview of the philosophy of "education-as-inquiry." Describes and examines a new Indianapolis, Indiana, public school, the Center for Inquiry, with 128 students and seven teachers, which follows an education-as-inquiry curriculum. Advocates an extended program of parent involvement at the center. (PA)

Presents a theoretical framework for evaluating inquiry tasks and how similar they are to authentic science. Suggests that inquiry tasks commonly used in schools evoke reasoning processes that are qualitatively different from the processes employed in real scientific inquiry, and school reasoning tasks appear to be based on epistemology that…

Investigates performance outcomes based on different goal orientations by using a computer support environment (SCI-WISE) designed for learning and doing inquiry-based science projects. Uses two versions of SCI-WISE software and systems based partly on the theoretical framework of levels of agency and goal orientation. (Contains 16 references.)…