This article presents how Developmental Approaches in Science, Health and Technology (DASH) summer institute sparks the author to try and succeed in using inquiry with her young students. It is a program created by the Curriculum Research and Development Group, University of Hawaii, and funded in part by the National Science Foundation. DASH is an elementary science program that uses a developmentally appropriate sequential approach to integrating science, health, and technology themes into traditional K-6 classrooms. The author has attended the DASH summer institute twice and left the institute believing that hands-on inquiry was a powerful teaching tool. She applied what she has learned in the institute in her class discussion of science concepts through authentic assessment. This form of authentic assessment was more meaningful to parents than test results had ever been and demonstrated that in an inquiry-based classroom every student learns by doing--and so does the teacher. (Contains 1 figure, 2 resources and 1 online resource.)