Design and Implementation of a Technology-Supported Socioscientfic Inquiry Unit in High School Biology

Socioscientific Inquiry (SSI) represents an instructional approach designed to target interest and knowledge in science. In this context, students consider scientific issues that have social implications and comprise a range of trade-offs, concepts, and considerations in order to arrive at informed conclusions (Sadler, 2004, 2011). Given the potential benefits to students on utilizing SSI within K-12 instruction, it is important to explore the challenges to implementing SSI in authentic classrooms settings. Doing so may provide additional insight into how to better partner with teachers to successfully implement SSI instruction. This design case describes an iterative inquiry curricular design process within the context of a 9th grade science classroom. Specifically, our case attempts to increase our understanding of the SSI design and implementation process as it applies to a high school classroom context, and enables us to understand what kind of instructional supports most benefit students.