The Inquiry "I": A Tool for Learning Scientific Inquiry

he National Research Council's National Science Education Standards (1996) call for the use of inquiry-based activities in science classrooms at all educational levels. The Standards describe inquiry as multifaceted, involving the basic and integrated science processes as well as the use of critical and logical thinking. A tool has been developed to aid students and teachers in conducting true inquiry in the classroom. The Inquiry "I" (Figure 1), a refinement of Gowin's Vee (Novak & Gowin 1984), is a four-page heuristic that explicitly delineates the integrated science processes involved in an experimental inquiry activity.