Inquiry, Teaming, and Research

In 1993, I stepped out of a lab environment and into the classroom. On an emergency license, and only 2 Ed' classes behind me, the difference between the research environment behind me, and the high school lab environment in front of me was stark.

Over the past 30 years, some significant movements have brought significant change to science instruction. The Inquiry movement, with early efforts in cooperative learning (80's and 90's), Tech Prep initiatives (90's), Modeling (90's-2000's), Project Based Instruction (2000's), and Argument Driven Inquiry (00's-10's) has moved the student from a passive notetaker and cookie cutter lab master, to an environment allowing them to mimic and partially experience an authentic experience.

Teaming (90's) is a hybrid which grew out of cooperative and inquiry to train students in my classroom to make the move from a guided inquiry to an open inquiry experience. In this scheme, students work as delegated team members with overlapping, but distinct roles. These roles mimic the hiring positions of major labs and universities. As a class initiates from a common hypothesis, students are encouraged to modify their model and method to conduct their own deeper dive. Each lab is not only about exploring content, but also about learning to be a scientist, communicating fully, and establishing layers of learning.

Following training in Teaming, I have had much success with students conducting independent research. I am always encouraged when young student scientists ask, "Don't me just do like we do in class? We just cover all of the roles, right?" In the early 2000's it had its first go-around on a multi-school effort to build cosmic ray detectors, and been a staple for my students heading into research teams in college and for conducting research while still in high school.