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Clark and Chaudhury make an excellent case for inquiry-driven project-based learning in this chapter. On page 66, the authors state “From a constructivist perspective, students learn by buil... See More

Clark and Chaudhury make an excellent case for inquiry-driven project-based learning in this chapter. On page 66, the authors state “From a constructivist perspective, students learn by building on their existing ideas”, laying a foundation for the theme of this chapter. The authors do tend, however, toward being quite longwinded and drowning their point in lengthy hypotheticals. I expect more concision from an instructional—and especially a scientific—text. Although, since some readers learn best by contemplating examples, many may not consider this a drawback. I found the second section of this chapter, “The Inquiry Template Phases”, to be the most useful and concise facet. In this section, the authors lay out (in thorough detail) he process by which students execute inquiry-driven projects. Readers are given a deep understanding of the process as it relates to classroom teaching; specifically, of course, in a physics classroom. The authors provide both directions for the teacher facilitating the process and explanations of certain student behaviors. For example, the authors state that students generally focus on superficial aspects of phenomena when forming an inquiry, rather than investigating deeper aspects which experienced investigators would consider more worthy of investigation. Thoroughly the chapter, the authors continue to rely on extensive use of examples. A benefit of numerous examples is that the chapter does provide many ideas for projects that readers could use in their own classrooms, but the sheer verbosity does run the danger of distracting from the pith of this passage. In conclusion, keep this manual in your repertoire for reference. If you do not find the examples useful, read past them for the valuable instruction of facilitation of inquiry-driven project-based learning.