Print

Print


>
>
> To start the New Year, Science is pleased to announce the “Science  
> prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction” to highlight outstanding  
> “modules” for teaching introductory college science courses that can  
> readily spread to other settings and schools. Therefore, a unit can  
> neither be unusually expensive nor require highly specialized  
> expertise. To be eligible, a module must provide a coherent piece of  
> coursework in a field such as biology, chemistry, physics, or earth  
> sciences and require 8 to 50 hours of student effort. It should also  
> be free-standing: that is, suitable for teaching as a discrete unit,  
> independent of other modules in the course. How do inquiry-based  
> science modules differ from other science lessons, and why  
> doesScience care enough about them to create a special prize?
>
> Inquiry-based classes focus on activating students' natural  
> curiosity in exploring how the world works, differing from  
> traditional lectures that focus on transmitting facts and principles  
> derived from what scientists have discovered. Inquiry-based teaching  
> is often associated with hands-on activities. But not all hands-on  
> activities involve inquiry. Consider the laboratory work that  
> traditionally accompanies an introductory college science course. As  
> a science major, I spent three afternoons a week in such  
> laboratories throughout my first 2 college years. Most of us who  
> later became scientists recall these laboratories as tedious  
> “cooking classes,” where we learned to follow directions. True, we  
> encountered various pieces of scientific apparatus, such as  
> measuring devices for weights and liquids, and we learned how to  
> keep a laboratory notebook. But we gained neither any real  
> understanding of the nature of science nor experience in generating  
> and evaluating scientific evidence and explanations—two central  
> elements of a modern definition of “science education.”* Many  
> college laboratory exercises remain deficient in precisely these  
> ways today.
>
> CREDIT: THINKSTOCK
>
> Science is looking for lessons in which students become invested in  
> exploring questions through activities that are at least partially  
> of their own design. Instead of a typical laboratory exercise that  
> begins with an explanation and results in one correct answer, an  
> inquiry-based lesson might begin with a scenario or question and  
> then require students to propose possible solutions and design some  
> of their own experiments.
>
> In addition to honoring the 12 winning modules, we will attempt to  
> disseminate them as widely as possible. To this end, each winner  
> will write a brief essay describing the module, to be published in  
> Science, with complete details in the supporting online material  
> that accompanies the printed article. Direct applications from the  
> course organizers are welcome, as are nominations from former  
> students and colleagues. Different submission forms have been  
> provided for these two groups, posted at http://scim.ag/ 
> inquiryprize, along with instructions describing the information  
> required by our judges. The deadline for receiving the short  
> nomination form is 28 February 2011; the longer application form is  
> due from the course organizers on 15 April.
>
> The 1990s science education standards movement in the United States  
> revealed that teachers at the precollege level cannot be expected to  
> teach “science as inquiry” unless they themselves have previously  
> participated in such inquiry as students. Incorporating inquiry into  
> college science teaching will thus be critical for the future  
> teachers of science in all nations. But it will also be crucial for  
> many other adults, because successful modern societies need large  
> numbers of citizens who are skilled, rational problem-solvers—both  
> in the workplace and in their daily lives. Every society also  
> requires citizens who understand the nature of science and value  
> “science as a way of knowing” about important issues. In fact, our  
> new award has been stimulated by the fact that the world badly needs  
> a revolution in science education—a revolution that must begin at  
> the college level.