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The Value o'
Science
Education
The utilization of subject-matter found in the present
life-exper7~ence of the [earner towards science is perhaps
the best illustration that can be found of the basic
principle of using existing experience as the means of
carrying learners on to a wide more refined, and bet-
ter organized world.
John Dewey, Expenence and Education, 1938
Every fall, several million chil
dren mark the beginning of their formal education by entering
kindergarten. These five-year-olds are full of enthusiasm and ex-
citement. They will ride the school bus like the big kids and have
a chance to see what school is all about. Parents, too, see this mo-
ment as a turning point. School provides an opportunity-for chil-
dren to discover the answers to questions they often ask, such as,
How are rocks made? and Why do ships float? All those close to
children hope that school will continue to spark children's natur-
al love of learning.
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Teachers use many strategies to keep that love of learning
alive. To stimulate their students' natural curiosity, some teachers
arrange field! trips to wetIancis, rivers, and lakes as part of their
study of natural ecosystems. To keep young imaginations flourish-
ing, other teachers bring duck eggs to school anti encourage stu-
clents to care for them and imagine what the ducklings will be like
when they hatch. To instill a love of experimental inquiry, teach-
ers use materials such as batteries and bulbs or rocks and minerals
as the starting point for asking questions, experimenting, devel-
oping theories, and communicating their ideas.
All of these learning activities are part of inquiry-centered science,
sometimes called simply inquiry. Accorcling to the National ScienceEd-
ucation Stanclards, inquiry involves "making observations; posing
questions; examining books and other sources of information to see
what is aIreacly known; planning investigations; reviewing what is al-
ready known in light of experimental evidence; using tools to gather,
analyze, and interpret data; proposing answers, explanations, and
predictions; and communicating results." These activities are deeply
rooted in both the scientific tradition and educational theory.
Nonetheless, inquiry represents a new approach to science
education to many school districts and teachers. The reason that
inquiry appears new is that many districts have come to rely on
textbooks as the major vehicle for conveying information to stu-
dents. While textbooks may include basic information about a sci-
ence subject, they typically overemphasize vocabulary and factual
information. Because teachers fee] pressured to make sure that
students "get it all," they often ask students to memorize these
words and facts. Experience has shown that memorizing words
and facts not only neglects the most important parts of science but
also seems boring and irrelevant to young learners.
To illustrate some of the pitfalls of the passive learning environ-
ment created by a textbook{lriven science class, consider the following
example, which is excerpted from a monograph written by Howarcl
Hausman, Choosing aScaenceProgramfor the E~mentarySchool:2
Twenty-six third-graders are seated at tables. The teacher asks
Carla to read aloud from page 56 of the textbook, which
shows a picture of a farm with animals and a windmill. Carla
8
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The Value of
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reads that the farm has many animals and that they need
water. However, the picture shows that there is little water on
the land, implying that the water will have to come from wells
powered by windmills. She reads the question directly from
the textbook, 'what does the windmill do?"
The teacher repeats, "Can anybody guess what the w~nd-
mill does? Yes, joey." Joey, who has been skimming to the next
paragraph of the text, says, "The windmill turns from the
force of the air and works a pumping machine. This lifts water
from the well into a water tank for the animals."
'Avery good, Joey," says the teacher. "Now Carla, can you
read the next paragraph?" Carla proceeds to read: "The w~nd-
mill turns from the force of the air and works a pumping ma-
chine. This lifts water from the well into a water tank for the
animals." She reads on about windmills operating machines
to supply electric power. Then come other examples of "en-
ergy from moving air."
Several children are moving restlessly, playing with pen-
cils and whispering. The teacher calls for attention, as he has
done twice before.
'cheat work was being done?" the teacher asks. No an-
swer. "Did the wind do any work?" "It blew a windmill," some
one says.
The restless movements persist. There is another call for
order, a period of enforced quiet. The books are collected
and shelved.
The Limitations of Traditional Classrooms
Why did this lesson fail to hold the children's interest? Why were
the children restless and seemingly unmotivated to explore the
ideas presented during the science lesson?
For one thing, the children did not do science. They did not
examine objects, observe phenomena, design experiments, collect
data, or discuss their ideas. There were no opportunities for inde-
pendent thinking and problem solving. Instead, they simply read
about science. The children gained very little, because the book
they were reading was describing things they knew or cared little
about. Most children today have never seen a windmill firsthand
and have no idea what a pumping machine is. The fact that a wind-
mill can generate electricity is also meaningless to these children;
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to them, electricity is something that happens when they turn on
a light switch. 'Work" and "energy" are abstract ideas that have
never been made concrete or meaningful to them. Because these
icleas are beyond the realm of their experience, the children have
little desire to explore them further.
Experienceis the key factor. Research on children's learning has
revealecl that when children do not have firsthand experiences with
the things they are learning about in school, the information that
the curriculum seeks to convey will often not make sense to them.
Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, devoted his life to observing chil-
ciren and drawing conclusions about their intellectual growth. His
work laid the foundation for further studies of how children learn,
a field that is now callecl cognitive science. One key finding that has
emerged from this work is that children learn actively and they do
so through direct experiences with the physical world.
Part of the pressing need for hands-on experiences stems
from the fact that as today's children grow, they have increasingly
little contact with the natural world. The lack of concrete experi-
ences means that children have fewer resources to draw on in their
efforts to make sense of the worm. This is a drastic change from
the way things were a few generations ago, when more children
lived on farms and had numerous opportunities to experience
firsthand many aspects of science, such as helping to plant crops
and discovering the importance of rains to the harvest. Children
to(lay may see such things on television or explore these ideas by
playing games on computer screens, but they seldom experience
them directly. As Philip and Phylis Morrison explain: 3
In Abraham Lincoln's day, most of the students were from
farm families. They came to school knowing firsthand about
birth and death, about the full moon, about how to lever up
a heavy rock, how to sharpen a blade, and how milk soured.
They didn't have to learn those things in school, because they
encountered them all the time. What they went to school to
learn was symbols words and forms; how to read, write, and-
cipher; what scholars and leaders in the past had said; how to
express and reason about the world and themselves.
Children still come to our schools with plenty of knowl-
edge. They bring a wide visual acquaintance with the world
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Education
near and far, a flood of images, fact and fiction. They see print
everywhere, too; signs and posters surround them; magazines
and books are commonplace, with all their pictures. Televi-
sion has made the wide world familiar to children. But what is
deeply missing is an inner sense of the world's real con-
straints, of the difference between desire and performance.
Pushing a button is not like leaning on a crowbar.
The symbols still need teaching; the three it's, the histo-
ry, the maps, the tales remain urgent. But they lack any foun-
dation beyond word and image. The schools have a big new
task that they have not entirely realized: it is to bring in the
hands-on world, the real uncertain thing that induces ques-
tioning, that stubbornly resists or wonderfully confirms what
one does. What children need is to grow plants (and see them
wilt for lack of water), to complete the cycle by planting the
seed they themselves harvest from the plant they grew. They
need to build bridges of soda straws that can hold up the
weight of many milk cartons. They need to try which connec-
tions between bulb and battery produce light, and for how
long.
It would be an error to blame schools for our growing
lack of physical contact with the physical world, but an even
bigger error not to do something about it. We are all in this
bind together; it is the-result of a maturing technological
world where production is taken farther and farther away
from the consumer. The capacity to judge from evidence
when things are right, when they work or when they don't
work, doesn't apply only to circuits or other matters of sci-
ence. It also applies to political programs or to buying con-
sumer goods. It is an understanding that begins with active ex-
perience in the natural and technological world.
So let us teach our children how to read, write and ci
pher but let us also help them explore something of how
the material world works. They need to sense through hand,
eye, and mind the limits of what can be done, and how even
within stern natural limits new opportunities can open.
A Glimpse at an Inquiry-Centered Classroom
Many teachers across the country to clay are providing the kind of
inquiry-centerecl science experiences that the Morrisons describe.
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A Problem-Solving Investigation
The students approach the problem by discussing how they could
use a model of a simple circuit tester a battery attached to a bulb
with wires as a tool to determine what's inside the mystery box.
Perhaps,the students reason,they could touch the wires to the ter-
minals on the box to see whether the device inside causes the bulb
to light. Discovering whether the bulb will light will provide the stu-
dents with important information about what's inside the box.
Proceeding according to their plan, the students touch the wires of
the circuit tester to the terminals on the box.The bulb lights up.
From this evidence, they conclude that a wire must be connected
between the terminals inside the box.
As the students work, their teacher circulates throughout the class-
room. She stops to talk with a pair of students.While she com-
mends them on their work, she suggests that they take their inves-
tigation further.What kind of wire might be inside the box? Is it a
copper wire or a nichrome resistance wire? Or could there be a
bulb connected to the terminals inside the box?Would copper wire
make the bulb shine more or less brightly? The teacher recom-
mends that the students think about these questions, discuss possi-
ble explanations, and find a way to test their ideas through experi-
mentation. She also suggests that the students record their
conclusions, either through writing or drawing.
The students begin discussing the problem.Through the active ex-
change of ideas, they conclude that a copper wire would produce a
brighter light than a resistance wire or a bulb. In earlier investiga-
tions, they found that both resistance wire and a bulb conducted
electricity, but that neither allowed the bulb to burn as brightly as
the copper wire did.Therefore, it seems likely that either a resis-
tance wire or a bulb is in the box.
To test this theory, the students develop the following strategy:
First, they will place a piece of copper wire in the circuit tester and
observe the brightness of the bulb.They will hook up the circuit
12
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The Value of
Science
Education
tester to the terminals on the mystery box.They will observe the
brightness of the bulb and see whether it is brighter or dimmer
than before.They will repeat this process with the resistance wire
and the bulb.When the brightness of the bulb in the circuit tester
matches that of the mystery box, the students will be able to de-
termine what's inside the box.
<~
~/5~
:?(
~7 In\
Testing copper wire with the circuit tester
'it
C~_
Testing the mystery box with the
circuit tester
The students begin working.They
notice that the bulb in the circuit
tester shines more brightly than
the one in the mystery box when
copper wire is connected in the
tester. This comparison is clear-
cut, and the students easily reach
the conclusion that copper wire
is not inside the box. But com-
paring the resistance wire and
the bulb proves to be more diffi-
cult. In both tests, the bulb is
shining dimly, and it is hard to see
any differences.
After further deliberation, the
students begin to develop their
conclusions. One student writes
a summary indicating that the
mystery box contains either a
piece of resistance wire or a
bulb; the student reached this
conclusion because she could
not tell, on the basis of the "bulb
test," which of these two devices is inside the box. Another student
draws a picture showing resistance wire; she feels confident that
only resistance wire could create such a dimly lit bulb. When the
students open the mystery box, they discover that a piece of resis-
tance wire is inside.
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The boxed example (pp. 12-13) illustrates how some funclamental
concepts about electricity can be taught through an inquiry ap-
proach. The students, who are in fifth gracle, have aIreacly con-
structecl simple circuits using flashlight batteries, wires, en cl flash-
light bulbs. They have also explored electrical conductors en cl
insulators. In this lesson, students continue their study of electric
circuits by teaming up in pairs en cl working with mystery boxes-
plain white boxes with two terminals on top that contain an un-
known electrical crevice. The stuclents' challenge is to finct out,
through experimentation en cl reasoning, what electrical crevice, if
any, is connected to the terminals inside the box.
The Beneffts of Inquiry-Centered Science
For many aclults, science conjures up an image of a research in-
vestigator in a white coat testing a mysterious substance in his lab-
oratory. They see the scientific process as esoteric, with results as
elusive as the potions in the researcher's test tubes. But, as the
boxed example shows, science does not have to be shrouclec! in
mystery and assumed to be too complex for most of us to master.
Simply put, science is the process by which we discover how the
world works, "a way of thinking, . . . the method by which the cre-
ative mind can construct orcler out of chaos en c! unity out of vari-
et,v."4 It is a process in which children have been engaged virtually
since they were born, and it is mirrored effectively in inquiry-cen-
terecl science programs. For that reason, it is not surprising that in
the second classroom clescribecl, chilclren were still engaged in the
activity after an hour of intense work.
What conclusions about the value of inquiry can be drawn
from the boxed example? The following list clescribes several ben
~ ~ . . .
edits ot ~nqu~ry-centerec . science:
1. The children are actively engaged. By working with batter-
ies en cl bulbs, the chiTclren were thinking, coming up with ideas,
developing their reasoning skills, en cl increasing their ability to
solve problems. Piaget cliscovered the importance of using materi-
als as a vehicle for learning en cl of providing a learning environ-
ment that is rich in physical experiences. "Involvement," Piaget
said, "is the key to intellectual development, en cl for the elemen-
tary school chilcl, this includes direct physical manipulation of ob
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A typical fret-grade classroom today.
jects, the kind of manipula-
tion so easily achieved in sci-
ence lessons."5 Benchmarks for
Science Literal, prepared by
the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
(AAAS), also shares this view:
"For students in the early
grades, the emphasis should
overwhelmingly be on gain-
ing experience with natural
and social phenomena....
By gaining lots of experience
doing science, becoming
more sophisticated in con-
ducting investigations, en cl
by explaining their finclings,
students will accumulate a set
of concrete experiences on
which they can draw to reflect
on the process."6 In addition,
the National Science Education
Standards establishes active
learning as one of the under-
lying principles of science ed-
ucation. The Standards stress-
es that "learning science is something students do, not something
that is clone to them."7
2. Inqtury-centered science brings the real world into the
classroom and into children's lives. By bringing materials like bat-
teries and bulbs into the classroom, we are giving children the op-
portunity to experience for themselves the work that scientists do.
They can work with the tools of science and develop their own
questions and ideas. Jos Elstgeest, a science educator from The
Netherlands, defines this approach to science education by identi-
fying it as "a swing away from the factual syllabus. Instead of teach-
ing about scientific facts which are the result of the scientific ac-
tivity of others, it becomes an education through doing science.
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Instead of trying to remember descriptions of the results of sci-
ence, it becomes learning how such results are obtained. Instead
of hearing and forgetting, it becomes doing and understanding."8
3. Inquiry-centered science promotes teamwork and collabo-
ration. Inquiry-centered science requires that students learn to
work collaboratively, a skill that is increasingly neecled not only in
school but also in the workplace. Corporate leaders have indicated
that patterns in the workplace have changed from individual prom
lem solving to team problem solving. By working together through-
out school, students have opportunities to learn from others en cl to
discover that collaboration is essential to effective problem solving.
4. The inquiry-centered science classroom accommodates dif-
ferent learning styles. Howard Gardner has clocumentet1 that peo-
ple learn in a variety of different ways, including through lan-
guage, mathematical reasoning, and visual arts. Gardner writes,
"Genuine understanding is most likely to emerge, and be apparent
to others, if people possess a number of ways of representing
knowledge of a concept or skill and can move readily back en cl
forth among these forms of knowing. No one person can be ex-
pectecI to have all modes available, but everyone ought to have
available at least a few ways of representing the relevant concept or
skill."9 Inquiry-centere(1 science encompasses many learning styles
-and gives children experience shifting from one mode to another.
In addition, students who may not learn most effectively through
traditional vehicles such as reading or listening- have other op-
portunities to excel.
5. Inquiry-centered science encourages learning in more than
one area of the curriculum. Science can be a springboard for ex-
ploration in other parts of the curriculum. For example, one stu-
dent in our example recorded her results in writing, an effective
way to develop language arts skills. The other student made draw-
ings to describe her findings, making a link with art. Students also
may be called upon to graph their findings or perform calcula-
tions to interpret their ciata; both of these activities show the close
link between mathematics and science.
6. Children's grasp of new concepts and skills is reflected in
their work during the activity. By observing her students as they
worked with the mystery boxes, the teacher was able to gain im
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Science
Education
portent information about what they really understood about the
subject. Instead of relying exclusively on tests at the end of the
unit, she could assess stuclents' progress as they worked. She couIcl
use this information to create aciclitional lessons that related cti-
rectly to concepts students found hard to understancI or to icleas
they were interested in learning more about.
A key objective in science education is to improve students'
thinking skills, and traditional tests are often inappropriate for
measuring such skills. Lauren Resnick states that multiple-choice
tests "can measure the accumulation of knowledge and can be
used to examine specific components of reasoning or thinking.
However, they are ill suited to assessing the kiwis of integrated
thinking we call 'higher order."'~° To measure the gains made
during science class, educators are beginning to recognize that al-
ternative assessments are needed. We will explore this issue in
Chapter 8.
Process Skills and Assessment
Tnquiry-centered science has been shown to foster the clevelop-
ment of certain skills needed for effective problem solving. These
skills, often referred to as process skills, inclucle organizing infor-
mation, thinking critically, and applying knowledge to new situa-
tions. Tnquiry-centered science fosters the development of process
skills because it provides a firm content base from which children
can draw.
Thinking skills cannot be developed in a vacuum; they evolve
while people work on an interesting problem. Resnick echoes this
view when she states, "Cognitive research has established the very
important role of knowledge in reasoning and thinking. One can-
not reason in the abstract; one must reason about something. Each
school discipline provides extensive reasoning and problem-solving
material by incorporating problem-solving or critical thinking
training into the disciplines."
Other researchers have performed longitudinal studies in at-
tempts to measure the value of inquiry-centered science. For ex-
ample, Arthur Reynolds and co-workers at Northern Illinois Uni-
versity found that students who had been taught science in
inquiry-centered elementary school classrooms were more success
17
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ful in middle school and high
school science classes than
were students taught in more
traditional ways, such as by
reading a textbook. In addi-
tion, students who had expe-
rienced inquiry-centered sci-
ence were more adept at
problem solving than those
who participated in tradition-
al programs.
Another researcher, Ted
Bredderman, summarized
and analyzed the experiences
of 13,000 students in 1,000
classrooms, as reported in 60
studies of science learning.~3
He found that with the use of
. . . .
nqulry-centerecl science pro-
grams, students demonstrat-
ed substantially improved per
~ . .
tormance in science process
and creativity; improved per-
formance on tests of percep-
tion, logic, language develop-
ment, science content, and
math; and modestly improved
attitudes toward learning science. The benefits of inquiry-centered
science for economically disadvantaged students were pronounced.
In addition to fostering problem-solving skills, inquiry helps
Instill in children a world view that reflects an understanding of
the importance of science to their everyday lives. Project 2061 of
the AAAS has identified five attitudes that children should acquire
through science education. These attitudes are 1) curiosity--(ques-
tioning, wanting to know), 2) respect for evidence (open-minded-
ness, willingness to consider conflicting evidence), 3) critical re-
flection (weighing observations and evaluating what has been
observed), 4) flexibility (willingness to reserve judgment and re
.
Inquiry-centered science offers
students time to reflect and work
independently.
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Education
consider ideas), and 5) sensitivity to living things (respect for life
and environmental awareness).
Science educators hypothesize that students who experience
inquiry throughout school will become questioning adults, inter-
estecI in hearing all sides of an argument before passing judgment.
They will be keen observers, adept at evaluating what they have
seen en c! drawing conclusions about it. Also, they will be more con-
cerned about the natural world and more committee! to protect-
ing the environment than previous generations have been.
Although this hypothesis has not yet been tested on a large
scale, there is evidence that inquiry will result in these outcomes
for one key reason: It supports the way children naturally learn.
Chapter 2 explores further the relationship between inquiry and
the way children learn by focusing on the work of cognitive scien-
tists. Their research underscores the value of inquiry in fostering
intellectual development.
19
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...
it.
The inquiry-centered approach to science encompasses working
with materials, asking questions, planning experiments, interpreting
data, synthesizing results, and communicating those results.
Inquiry supports the way children naturally learn, a very strong ar-
gument for using this approach to teach elementary school science.
· Inquiry-centered science is easily integrated with other areas of the
>~ curriculum, such as language arts and mathematics.
Inquiry accommodates different learning styles, giving students who
may not learn most effectively through reading or listening other
opportunities to succeed.
For Further Reading
American Association for the Advancement of Science. 1989. Science for AII Amer-
icans. New York: Oxford University Press.
American Association for the Advancement of Science. 1993. Benchmarks for Sci-
ence Literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dewey, l. 1938. Experience and Education. New York: Collier Books.
Dow, P. B. 1991. Schoolhouse Politics: Lessons from the Sputnik Era. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press.
Gardner, H. 1993. Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic-
Books.
Harlan, W. 1985. Teaching and Learning Primary Science. New York: Teachers Col-
lege Press.
Mechling, K R., and D. L. Oliver. 1983. Handbook IV: What Research Says About El-
ementary Science. Washington, D.C.: National Science Teachers Association.
National Research Council. 1996. National Science Education Standards. Washing-
ton, D.C.: National Academy Press.
20
Representative terms from entire chapter:
copper wire
