When most of us think about how we learned science, we generally remember it as a textbook-based affair, with experiments set-up in advance by a teacher. We tend to think of science as a body of facts to be memorized and of inquiry as a set of teacher-prescribed procedures to be followed. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was first confronted by my misconceptions about the nature of science when I realized my young students could tell me many science facts but were unable to apply them. Even after this insight, however, it took a long time for me to ask the critical question: Is science a set of facts or a process? An inquiry institute sparks one teacher to try —and succeed —in using inquiry with her young students.
Details
Type Journal ArticlePub Date 1/1/2007Stock # sc07_044_05_26Volume 044Issue 05