Running Header: JOURNAL ARTICLE

Journal Article
Brian Lahti
Ivy Tech Community College

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1. Scientific inquiry in my opinion is the desire to want to know more information

about a specific subject or topic and searching to find the result or answer by
asking questions and researching different resources around you.
Students understanding of inquiry in the classroom is understanding what they
know, the desire to learn more and asking good questions that lead to more
questions that require research and a further understanding of a lesson.
2. In the article Designing Inquiry-Oriented Science Lab Activities it states that
inquiry is students going through the process of the problem solving. They are
asking their own questions and testing their own knowledge.
3. Based on my own reflection from in class work, chapter readings, my journal
article assignment and the NSTA statement of inquiry Ive learned that inquiry
learning can be pivotal to a higher level of learning and motivation in learning.
My understanding has grown from the traditional style of learning Ive grown up
with, and has encouraged me to embrace this style of learning. Allowing the
students to take control with testing, sharing and inquiring about their knowledge
they can build their understanding by scaffolding. In environments where the
teacher provides all the instruction I now can see how creativity and
understanding is limited and designed for forced instruction. Inquiry based
learning creates a positive environment that stimulates growth, group learning,
collaborative input from students, creative questions, ideas and understandings.

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Planting a seed in the proper environment is necessary for the nutrients

that are needed for growth of a healthy crop, but if you plant seeds on rocky,
thorny, or bad ground the potential of that seed to be nurtured and mature are
unlikely. A seed requires a lot of attention to detail and time in order for the seed
to yield a good crop and to produce more seeds. This is important in
understanding our students and how they are fed information and understanding
what they learned in school, but more importantly how you as an educator are
doing your part in nurturing each student effectively.
Scientific inquiry is a process for the student to find information and gain
understanding about a specific idea or topic from the resources that surround
them. Students would use this as an investigative technique where the student
would ask a question and make an inference from research gained from resources
around them. It allows them to lean on their own understanding to further develop
their own understanding and ask more questions that lead to other ideas and
concepts. In the classroom they would use this for labs and activities to develop
questions, claims, hypothesizes, and data to test and associate real world
experiences. They will also accommodate what they stored from the different
observations and information they inquired about.
In a Middle School Journal about Designing Inquiry-Oriented Science Lab
Activities, Christopher M. Longo, Head of the Science Department at Bethel
Public Schools states that students learn through asking their own questions and
solving their own obstacles with teachers guiding them in the creation of new
knowledge (Longo, C., 2011, p.6). It is so important for the teacher to aid the

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students in uncovering untapped knowledge without telling them the answer, but
rather with guided inquiry. Christopher states that inquiry gives the students the
liability to find out and discover their own problems and developing experiences
from activities that are real life (Longo, C., 2011, p.7). The students will make
mistakes, but to strengthen their understanding they can share their thoughts,
ideas, and compare what they inquired with their peers in the classroom to build
that base knowledge that will rise and grow over a period of time.
In the Middle School Journal we will look at two different teachers. First,
we will look at some examples from Mr. Smith who teaches with a traditional
style and Ms. DAmico who teachers with guided inquiry. They were both
assessed upon a Scientific Lab experiment for their students about how does
exercise affect the human heart rate?
Mr. Smith first asked the students how does exercise affect human heart
rate? He then asked the students to collect data and fill in a worksheet and make a
prediction based from his question. On the second day of the experiment the
students each completed the same worksheet that gave them step-by-step
instructions and then required them to record their data and answer a few
questions without any discussion. Mr. Smith covered the material with a
controlled environment, limitations and no inquiry. The ability for his students to
fully understand this knowledge is stunted because he gave them the answers and
they all experimented with the same variable without testing multiple variables to
discover different results (Longo, C., 2011, p.7-8).

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Ms. DAmico began with an open ended, non-directed question and a

grading rubric for her students to follow. The creativity begins here where her
students know very little and are expected to create an experiment by themselves.
Through guided inquiry she assists those by redirection and also a website where
they could ask for and refer for information to verify their understanding. By
working in groups the students could communicate and share their ideas about
information without having step-by-step directions on how to complete the
procedure. The students would create a process by developing a claim about how
exercise affects the heart, make observations, test, re-test, and confirm their data
with the resources that support their information that was logged (Longo, C.,
2011, p.8-10).
The key difference about Ms. DAmicos classroom and Mr. Smiths is
control about the subject/topic. Mr. Smiths students were less motivated about
the assignments and less curious about the lab versus Ms. DAmicos students
were excited and motivated to learn. When the students are able to drive the class
by sharing the knowledge from their peers they are able to grow at their own rate
in an environment that has all the nutrients and factors needed to sustain that
growth (Norton-Meier, Hand, Hockenberry, Wise, 2008, p.32). Further
understanding will sprout from the guided inquiry facilitated by the teacher as
long as we do our role in allowing the students to grow and move out of the way.
The responsibility I had when I grew up from learning the traditional style
of teaching trained me to memorize bits of information for a short amount of time
and then take a test and fill in the answers. My personal view of Scientific Inquiry

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has developed and Ive embraced this still of learning. It motivates me to want to
learn again and understand what Im actually studying. My development in this
process has me more apt to understand and scaffold my understanding. The
NSTA statement on inquiry states Scientific Inquiry is a powerful tool for
students to learn how to ask questions, collect information and advance an
explanation to explain their answer (Scientific Inquiry & Education). The article
directly co-relates with this statement on how inquiry lab activities can create real
world examples and allow students to think like scientists. The Middle School
Journal admires Scientific Inquiry and advocates for teachers to provide
worthwhile lessons that are positive and allow the students creativity to usher
them in understanding new material.

JOURNAL ARTICLE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Longo, C. (2011, September 1). Designing Inquiry-Oriented Science Lab Activities.
ERIC Worlds largest digital library of education literature.
Retrieved September 11, 2012, from

http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=tr
ue&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ961633&ERICExtSearch_Sea
rchType_0=no&accno=EJ961633
Norton-Meir, L., Hand, B., Hockenberry, L., Wise, K. (2008). Questions, Claims and
Evidence: The Important Place of Argument in Childrens Science Writing.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Scientific Inquiry & Education - NSTA Position Statements. (n.d.). National Science
Teachers Association - Science & Education Resource. Retrieved
September 11, 2012, from http://www.nsta.org/about/positions/inquiry.aspx