Exploring Our Fluid Earth
Teaching Science as Inquiry
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Questions drive both science and engineering. In science, questions are inspired by curiosity or the desire to better explain a natural phenomenon. Questions in engineering are used to elicit and define problems, design criteria, and constraints. Scientists who study salt- and freshwater systems may ask questions like these:
Ocean engineers may ask questions like these:
According to the framework, learning science and engineering should develop K–12 students’ ability to identify and ask answerable questions. Students should be able to ask questions related to their observations, conclusions, and readings. In science and engineering classes, students should be encouraged to ask questions, respect good questions, and critically consider their own and others’ questions. Teachers should both model and directly teach questioning strategies. As students progress through school, they should be able to ask more relevant and more sophisticated questions.
Exploring Our Fluid Earth, a product of the Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG), College of Education. © University of Hawai‘i, 2021. This document may be freely reproduced and distributed for non-profit educational purposes.