NSTA - National Science Teachers Association

Middle school is the time when science becomes a much more prominent subject than it was in elementary school and when students’ ideas about science are cemented. It is important for middle school students to participate in science activities that reflect the nature of science rather than simply complete replication activities. Thus, inquiry-based activities need to be a critical component of middle school science. The Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) is an inquiry-based approach developed by Hand and Keys (1999) that provides a scaffold for implementing inquiry activities based on the use of critical-thinking and reasoning skills. These skills require that students constantly negotiate meaning throughout the inquiry process as a way to construct rich understandings of the topic.
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Promoting the use of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) among novice teaching assistants at a large university is facilitated by a program of instructional training and mentoring. Sessions include hands-on activities with guided inquiry in tandem with elements of the SWH. These provide TAs with the opportunity to both experience and practice integrating the SWH.
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Shifting students’ attitudes from a procedural approach in writing laboratory reports to a more engaged learning experience is difficult. This paper describes how to adopt a Science Writing Heuristic in an introductory college chemistry laboratory to promote in students a more positive attitude and better conceptual understanding of lab reports.
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