CHAPTER 2: PROCESSES AND STRATEGIES FOR INQUIRING
WRITTEN REFLECTION
In chapter two I am introduced to the more evolved steps into the inquiry process. This chapter’s theme is basically learning steps through the scientific process. The steps to emphasize are the observation of science, the classification of groups or objects, inferring what will happen, measuring your experiment, communicating your observations, predicting what will happen from data patterns, hypothesizing the investigation, and finally experimenting. These are just the basic concepts to play on an inquiring thought. This chapter eventually goes into detail about every one of the processes. The theory of this chapter is that all scientific processes will follow these emphasized steps. Further more, a practical approach of this chapter is to classify different levels of investigations for certain grade level students. This will develop skills for doing science.
This chapter was very interesting to me. I was surprised at all the different activities presented for the students. I liked how they had different levels of classifying investigations. This chapter is basically a continuation of the first chapter but going into more details about how to build concepts from inquiry. This chapter made great sense into describing the processes and questions that will probably be asked. This will help me categorize what I will teach my future students and what works best. My only question is what classifies as an approachable inquiry, and how you can find activities for certain questions that are asked by students.
It would be worthwhile for you to go back and look over the many process skills that you can teach in science. This first part of the chapter does a great job of presenting this. Your question at the end of your reflection refers to the second part of the chapter and is a good one. How do you know what type of inquiry is appropriate for the students you are teaching, and how do you find the right types of activities? The younger children will benefit from descriptive investigations; in the late elementary, students will be more comfortable with classificatory investigations; experimental investigations are more suited for junior high. If you are lucky, the school will have a strong science curriculum. You should not have to create everything from scratch.
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