There have been growing calls for inquiry, a practice-oriented way of engaging students in authentic scientific work, yet research has shown some challenges that might impede inquiry practices in educational settings. In this study, we proposed an approach that blends educational gaming with physical experiments. We developed an educational game,…

This study examines the epistemic disciplinary knowledge that students consider when addressing a real food emergency that requires their engagement in inquiry and argumentation practices. The study comprised two phases: (1) designing an experiment to study the emergency and (2) evaluating the real outcome of the emergency. The participants were…

Integrating genetic engineering and molecular biology lab activities into open inquiry-based teaching is an innovative, unique process that has taken place in Israeli high schools since 2018, becoming part of biology studies for 11th- and 12th-grade students. Engaging these students in lab techniques and practices in this field enables them to…

Inquiry practices can be integrated into various settings that differ in terms of their constraints and hence in the scope and depth of the practices that students experience. Key policy papers suggest implementing a gradual learning sequence for inquiry practices so that students' learning experiences in more constrained settings can serve them…

Technology is changing the way students interact with knowledge, and open-ended activities are one of the main types of tasks that students engage with in technology-rich environments. However, the amount of guidance needed to promote learning in these environments remains unknown. We explore this issue by focusing on the effects of step-by-step…

Inquiry learning is a widely recognized method for fostering inquiry competence in science education. Nevertheless, there is discussion about how to best support students while working on inquiry tasks (in this case: experiments on causal relationships). To identify the kind of support students need in order to design experiments in upper grades,…

The main purpose of this study was to enhance student understanding of the scientific concepts of chemical reaction rate. Forty-four grade 11 students were the target group. The treatment tools were seven learning plans of 5E inquiry incorporated with an analogy learning approach during 15 hours of class time. In each learning plan, the students…

The purpose of this project was to investigate the effects of virtual versus physical manipulation using a simulation-based laboratory activity (SBL) and a microcomputer-based laboratory activity (MBL). Both the SBL and the MBL used computers to collect, graph, and analyze data. A major difference was that the MBL allowed the students to…

Biology teachers know how important it is for them and for their students to engage first-hand with nature. Ideally, bringing students to fields, woodlands, and wetlands to observe, explore, and wonder is the best way to stimulate curiosity and practice scientific inquiry. However, for many reasons, field excursions are not always practical or…

In the framework of a curriculum reform in the Netherlands, an interdisciplinary open inquiry assignment has been introduced as a part of the final secondary school examinations. We developed and evaluated a preparatory open inquiry assignment to be used in science and mathematics departments of schools, in collaboration with each other: the…

Inquiry can be implemented in various ways, ranging from simple classroom discussions to longterm research projects. In this article, the authors developed a project in which high school students were introduced to the nature and process of scientific discovery through a two-week guided inquiry unit on "limnology"--the study of fresh water, which…