Many biology educators at the undergraduate level are revamping their laboratory curricula to incorporate inquiry-based research experiences so that students can directly participate in the process of science and improve their scientific reasoning skills. Slugs are an ideal organism for use in such a student-directed, hypothesis-driven experience.…

A laboratory inquiry into the thermochemical relationships in the reaction between aqueous solutions of NaHCO[subscript 3] and NaOH is described. The enthalpy change for this reaction, delta[subscript r]H, and that for neutralization of strong acid and NaOH(aq), delta[subscript n]H, are determined calorimetrically; the explanation for the…

Designing opportunities for students to discover core science concepts can be challenging, however, with a good understanding of their interests, proper planning, and the use of technology and the outdoors, students can become engaged in a way that can leave a legacy for future students. Last fall, this author designed a nine-session unit for a…

"PlantingScience" is an award-winning program recognized for its innovation and use of computer-supported scientist mentoring. Science learners work on inquiry-based experiments in their classrooms and communicate asynchronously with practicing plant scientist-mentors about the projects. The purpose of this study was to identify specific…

With the increased focus on both inquiry and 21st-century skills such as collaboration and problem-solving, teachers at all levels are looking for engaging ways to create more student-centered classrooms in which students can learn more than "just" science content. Discovering and developing creative science activities designed to accomplish…

Researchers from multiple perspectives have shown that young students can engage in the scientific reasoning involved in science experimentation. However, there is little research on how well these young students learn in inquiry-based learning environments that focus on using scientific experimentation strategies to learn new scientific…

We present a hands-on, inquiry-based activity exploring how CO[subscript 2] input to seawater affects the skeletons of several species of reef-building corals and other marine organisms by testing for changes in pH and calcium ion concentrations. Originally developed to inspire and recruit high school students in the state of Hawai'i into the…

As a result of shifting marine environmental conditions caused by global climate change and localized water pollution, marine organisms are becoming increasingly exposed to changing water quality conditions. For example, they are exposed to more extreme salinity fluctuations as a result of heavier rainfall, melting polar caps, or extreme droughts.…

Students need practice in proposing hypotheses, developing experiments that will test these hypotheses, and generating data that they will analyze to support or refute them. I describe a guided-inquiry activity based on the "tongue map" concept, appropriate for middle school and high school students.

Powerful online visualizations can make unobservable scientific phenomena visible and improve student understanding. Instead, they often confuse or mislead students. To clarify the impact of molecular visualizations for middle school students we explored three design variations implemented in a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) unit on…

Undergraduate biology education is undergoing dramatic changes, emphasizing student training in the "tools and practices" of science, particularly quantitative and problem-solving skills. We redesigned a freshman ecology lab to emphasize the importance of scientific inquiry and quantitative reasoning in biology. This multi-week investigation uses…

A central challenge for science educators is to enable young people to act as scientists by gathering and assessing evidence, conducting experiments, and engaging in informed debate. We report the design of the nQuire toolkit, a system to support scripted personal inquiry learning, and a study of its use with school students ages 11-14. This…

This is the start of a road map for the effective introduction of inquiry-based learning in chemistry. Advantages of inquiry-based approaches to the development of scientific literacy are widely discussed in the literature. However, unless chemistry educators take account of teachers' reservations and identified disadvantages such approaches will…

Hydroponics is a process in which plants are grown using nutrient-rich water instead of soil. Because this process maximizes the use of water and nutrients--providing only what the plant uses in controlled and easily maintained systems--it is a viable alternative to traditional farming methods. The amount of control in these systems also ensures…

This article presents rationale for an enhanced inquiry approach to science education that authentically integrates content knowledge and application skills in a middle school science curriculum. Such pedagogy ensures students' attainment of national and state standards for learning science and multiple literacies (e.g. language arts and…