Catherine Keeter

Inquiry in Elementary School

Dr. Wall
Dr. Wall spoke to us today about integrating inquiry based lessons in the
elementary classroom. Inquiry based lessons are helpful in creating hands on
experiences for students. Dr. Wall recited the quote, tell me and Ill forget, show
me and Ill remember, let me do it and Ill learn. This quote symbolizes just how
impactful science experiences can be for students.
The process of an inquiry-based lesson is simple. It starts with a claim,
evidence is gathered, and then the claim is justified based on that evidence. The
teacher can start by giving students a claim such as leaves change color in the
fall. Then the teacher and students will derive a questionable statement from this
claim such as do all types of leave change color in the fall? Students then get to
test the question through some type of experience. In this example, students
could go outside and observe different types of trees. Students would then argue
their claim question to be true or false by supporting their argument with the
evidence they gathered in their science experience.
I like the process of inquiry based lessons because it allows students to
come to their own conclusions. I also like that inquiry based lessons always
include an experiment, something hands on, or some type of experience. From a
teachers perspective, I like that inquiry based strategies can be applied to almost
all content. When Dr. Wall asked us to look at the grade level standards and see
what we could use for an inquiry based lesson it was easy to start brainstorming
ideas. My PLC and I chose a standard about the relationship between moon and

sun patterns and the time of day. The claim question we asked was if it is always
daytime when the sun is up. We figured our science experience could be going to
a planetarium to view the sun or moon. Dr. Wall stated that inquiry based lessons
were a simple way to plan or do labs. I agree with this and I also think inquiry
based lessons are a meaningful way to do labs because students come away
from them with a scientific conclusion that they were able to reach.
In the future, Im sure inquiry-based lessons will make a frequent
appearance in my science lesson plans. Im a fan of their simple process and
think that students will really benefit from tangible science experiences and the
opportunity to from their own thoughts about science.