The purpose of this Web guide is to provide information and resources to elementary educators who are interested in learning about the implementation of inquiry science in elementary classrooms.
How to Use This Study Guide
Teachers using this study guide should look at any or all of the resources provided for each issue and then review the study questions. For each issue, several questions are provided to help teachers think more deeply about the topic. Some of the study questions ask teachers to think about and comment on the readings themselves; others encourage reflection on the teacher’s own classroom practice. Ideally, teachers will review this study guide with a group of colleagues, and your study group will discuss each question together. If you are working on your own, you may want to write out your responses to each question.
To enter the Web site and begin to learn more about inquiry science in elementary classrooms, click on any of the issues below.
The guide is divided into three sections.
Section 1: Considering the Big Ideas
This section helps educators learn about the process of inquiry, become familiar with how elementary students learn science, and acquaint themselves with national standards and benchmarks.
Issue 1: What is inquiry?
Issue 2: How do children learn science?
Issue 3: What should elementary students learn in science?
Section 2: Inquiry in the Classroom
This section has educators take a look at classroom practice and think about how well their curriculum and classroom culture reflect the critical characteristics of inquiry.
Issue 1: What classroom structures support inquiry science?
Issue 2: How can curricula be evaluated in terms of inquiry?
Section 3: Topics for Further Study
This section addresses specific issues such as assessment in inquiry science, the science and literacy connection, and the challenge of supporting diverse learning styles.
Issue 1: Assessment
Issue 2: Science and literacy connections
Issue 3: Addressing diversity
Issue 4: Adopting a new curriculum
Each section contains descriptions of several relevant resources, direct links to those resources online, and most importantly, a set of study questions about the resources that can be used to structure the user’s thinking and provide discussion points for groups.
Disclaimer:
The Web resources collected on these pages are not maintained by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC). None of the Web resources are affiliated with or sponsored by EDC. EDC is merely providing the Web resources for informational purposes. EDC cannot guarantee that the Web resources are active or that the content is accurate. As with all Web-based information, links change from time to time. To our knowledge, all links were functional as of June 2009. Please notify Kerry Ouellet at kouellet@edc.org if you experience any problems.
