Inquiry Continuum

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Inquiry Continuum
The Process of Inquiry Stage 1 Directed Inquiry Stage 2 Guided Inquiry Stage 3 Coupled Inquiry Stage 4 Full Inquiry
Question? Students use a question provided by the teacher, materials or some other source. Students are guided to refine and clarify questions developed with input from the teacher.
Prediction/ Hypothesis
Investigate The teacher conducts the investigation as a demonstration for the students. Students are given the directions and materials to conduct the investigation. Students are given suggestions for planning and conducting an investigation. Students devise a plan that takes all the variables into account and conduct an investigation.
Data Collection Organization Students follow step-by-step procedures from the teacher to collect and organize data into tables, charts, and graphs. Students are given instructions to collect data and tables, charts, and graphs are provided to organize the data collected. Students are given suggestions for collecting data, constructing tables, charts, and graphs to organize the data collected. Students decide how and what data to collect and construct tables, charts, and graphs to organize data collected.
Analysis Conclusions Students are given instructions on how to analyze the data and guided to draw conclusions to answer the question investigated. Students are given instructions to analyze the data and draw conclusions to answer the question investigated. Students are given suggestions on how to analyze the data on their own and draw conclusions to answer the question investigated. Students determine what evidence is needed, analyze the collected data, and draw conclusions to answer the question investigated.
Explanations Students take synthesized data and are given step-by-step directions to formulate their explanation. Students are instructed in possible ways to use synthesized data to formulate their explanation. Students are guided in the process of formulating explanations from the data they collected, analyzed, and synthesized. Students formulate their explanation after analyzing and synthesizing the data they collected.
Scientific Explanations
Communicate Findings Students are given step-by-step procedures for communicating findings and justifying a provided explanation with evidence from the investigation. Students are given step-by-step procedures for communicating findings and justifying a provided explanation with evidence from the investigation. Students are given guidelines for communicating findings and justifying their explanations with evidence from their investigation. Students use logical reasoning to communicate findings and justify their explanations with evidence from their investigation.