Inquiry Investigable Questions

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InquiryInvestigable Questions
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Goals

• Develop an understanding of the importance of
  giving students opportunities to ask their own
  questionsones students can then investigate on
  their own.
• Developing students questioning skills so the
  questions students ask lead in productive
  directions

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Purpose

• To explore the kind of questions learners ask
• To find ways to move these questions in the
  direction of investigations
• To help learners use questions to devise
  investigations

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Purpose

• To enable learners to distinguish the kinds of
  questions that can lead to investigation from
  those that cannot
• To practice turning non-investigable questions
  into investigable questions

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Questioningis the basis of all inquiry
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Inquiry Starting PointsExplore and raise
questions.

• Participants
• explore engaging
• materials and phenomena
• raise and record questions

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Doing the Activity

• Observe the balloon.
• Write your groups questions on the cards.

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Examine the Range of Questions

• Write questions on sentence strips
• Sort questions into groups that explore similar
  phenomena
• Determine if the questions are investigable

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Range of Questions
Why does salt melt the ice so quickly? Are
there substances other than salt that will melt
ice? How long did it take the ice balloon to
freeze? Does the range of freezing
temperatures affect the formations? How can we
determine the makeup of the ice hairs? Does
the ice balloon float?
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An Investigable question is one that

• leads to a plan of action, doing something that
  helps answer the question by working with
  materials (and the materials are available.)
• can be investigated in the here and now (time)
• frequently begin with What will happen if, or
  the phrase does the____ make a difference? or
  How does ____ affect ____ ?

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Non Investigable Questions

• questions that do not lead to taking hands-on
  action
• requests for information or explanations
• questions that begin with whysuch as
• Why is most of the ice balloon underneath the
  water? or Why are parts of the ice balloon
  cloudy?

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Focused Investigation
In your group focus on investigating a question.

1. select a question to investigate in more depth
2. plan the investigation
3. record investigation (when appropriate)

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Investigate Your Question

• Choose a group question to investigate with
  more/different materials

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Take Action

• Find out where your question will lead you

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Reflecting On Your Question

• What was your question?
• Where did it lead you?
• Did it allow you to take action?
• If so what was that action?

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Examine the Investigated Question
Question Action Lead To
I wonder if
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Investigable Questions

• How much does the temperature of the water change
  over time?
• Does the heat from the flashlight cause the ice
  to melt faster than it would otherwise?
• Is there a core inside the ice balloon?

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Non-investigable Questions

• Can you make an ice balloon without bubbles?
• Why does salt make a popping sound when it hits
  the ice?
• Why doesnt the light pass through the bubbles?

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Non Investigable QuestionsTurning A
Question

• A variables scan results in the development
  of productive question
• that can be explored by the learners.

Primary Science Taking the Plunge Edited by
Wynne Harlen
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Turning Questions A Variables Scan

• The Situation . . .
• Second grade students are exploring how paper
  towels absorb water. They notice that paper
  towels seem to suck up the water. Someone asks,
  Why does the water go into the paper towel?

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The Scan

• When you scan the situation, what variables
  can you find?
• The explanation must have something to do with
  how the water and the paper towel interact, so
  those are the variables we can change to help us
  learn more.

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WHY DOES THE WATER GO INTO THE PAPER TOWEL?

• The Variables . . .
• Water (or other liquid)
• Paper towel (or other material)

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How can the question be turned into practical
action?

• CONSIDER VARIABLE 1
• The liquid being absorbed.
• What could be changed about the liquid?
• The kind of liquid (tomato juice, motor oil,
  etc.)
• The amount of liquid
• The temperature of the liquid

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WHY DOES THE WATER GO INTO THE PAPER TOWEL?

• Turned Questions . . .
• Would something different happen if the water
  were very hot or very cold?
• Would salt water be different from fresh water?
• Would something different happen if we used
  tomato juice?

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Turning Questions

• Select a non-investigable question
• to turn into an investigable question

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Take-Home Message 1

• Interesting phenomena can stimulate a rich
  variety of questions

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Take-Home Message 2

• Questions drive
• the investigation process

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Take-Home Message 3

• Questions can either be investigable or
  non-investigable

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Take-Home Message 4

• Non-investigable questions can be turned into
  investigable ones

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This material is based on work supported by the
National Science Foundation under Grant No.
EHR-0314914. Any opinions, findings,
conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this
publication are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the granting
agency.
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