EDSC 505 - Effective Teaching & Learning with Scientific Inquiry, Grades 3-8 (3)

Too often, students struggle to think critically, ask thoughtful questions, and analyze text. Teaching through inquiry is an effective way to address these issues while improving engagement and long-term retention. But what does inquiry look like? How do you and your students use it successfully, and how does a traditional science classroom evolve into an inquiry-based classroom?

Inquiry enhances scientific literacy by engaging students in logical, scientific rationale and argumentation. Both the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) efforts emphasize the importance of inquiry in science education. In this course, you will learn how to transform activities and experiments into inquiry-based investigations regardless of what subject you teach. Because assessment is essential for any educational framework, you’ll also build inquiry-based tools for pre-assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments. In addition, you will create strategies for a developmentally appropriate, step-by-step approach for using all levels of scientific inquiry and argumentation. 

Using the techniques from this course, you will be able to transform your classroom into an inquiry-based environment that supports students and inspires them to become self-directed learners.