Inquiring Inquiry

As I started my research on inquiry based learning, I found myself asking what in the world is it? and How am I supposed to implement it in my teaching style? Soon after I started reading, I realized that it might not be something that is super hard to implement.


Inquiry based teaching is a method that not only includes the curiosity of students but the scientific method. This method actually combines the two, to be able to enhance the critical thinking skills of the students.


Now I am thinking, How am I going to incorporate this into my teaching. I already have one connection that I am excited to make during my student teaching. This past week I spend my time at the National FFA convention in Indianapolis. I found something that I thought was super cool, SPACE SEEDS. I am really excited to be part of this experiment with my students. The following is a link to the program. https://www.firsttheseedfoundation.org/tomatosphere/ "Tomatosphere™ uses the excitement of space exploration to teach the skills and processes of scientific experimentation and inquiry. Students investigate the effects of the space environment on the growth of food that will inevitably support long-term human space travel."


The courses that I have taken at Penn State that used inquiry based learning are Bio220w, we had a stream experiment where we used our own curiosity, and then the scientific method to conduct an experiment on macro-invertebrates in the creek.


https://www.edutopia.org/article/embracing-inquiry-based-instruction the above link goes to edutopia, where inquiry based instruction is brought more to the surface.