ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
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A number of the issues that have come up in this discussion about
inquiry are also discussed in "Inquiry and the National Science
Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching and Learning." This
publication is an addendum to the National Science Education Standards
that grew out of a great deal of discussion about what it really means
to teach and engage in inquiry. You can get the full text online or
purchase a printed copy at http://books.nap.edu/catalog/9596.html

The committee who developed the report included some informal science
educators and friends of the field. I've found it rather relevant to our
work. 

Kirsten

*******************************************
Kirsten Ellenbogen
Institute for Learning Innovation
166 West Street, Annapolis, MD 21401
Phone: 410-268-5149    Fax: 410-268-2179
www.ilinet.org

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lisa Jo Rudy [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 10:03 AM
> Subject: Inquiry-based learning
> 
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
>
************************************************************************
**
> ***
> 
> My sense is that inquiry-based learning MUST be tempered by some kind
of
> structured guidance or the kids won't really know HOW to look or WHAT
to
> look for.
>  I could also easily imagine kids coming up with questions that are
> unanswerable within a hands-on setting (why do things fall?  how big
was
> the biggest
> dinosaur? etc.).  Lastly, I could imagine kids designing experiments
that
> really
> aren't useful for gaining info because they don't really understand
the
> scientific method.
> 
> What are some of the techniques you use to ensure that inquiry-based
> learning
> doesn't disintegrate into, say, blowing bubbles at each other for an
hour?
> In the one and only workshop I attended on inquiry-based learning, we
> wound up
> answering our question ("can you make bubbles a foot high?") in five
> minutes,
> then proceeded to make a mess (of course, we were grown ups, which
might
> explain a lot!).
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Lisa Jo Rudy, Writer/Consultant
> 625 Chelten Hills Drive
> Elkins Park, PA 19027
> www.lisarudy.com
> 215-635-9735

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