Assign students the task of writing their own questions to guide an investigation or project. Provide students with sample questions and brainstorm some questions as a class to get them started. Scientific inquiry requires students to write questions they want answered during an investigation, so these questions will serve as a guide as they investigate a problem or concept.
Have students use the questions they’ve written about the topic or concept to design their own investigation. For example, if the investigation is about the boiling point of water, one of their questions might be, "How many minutes will it take for small bubbles to form at the bottom of the container?" Students can work alone or in teams, but must design their investigation or project to answer the questions they’ve asked in the right order.
Discuss with students how to formulate their findings and draw conclusions from what they’ve observed during their investigation. Provide examples of formulations from previous class projects.
Give students the opportunity to present their findings to the class and conduct a discussion about the findings. Have students observing the presentations write questions they would like to ask the presenters during the discussion time.
Take time to reflect with students about the findings of their investigation. This should be done first as a class at the end of all the presentations. Then have each student write a short explanation of the things they’ve learned and how the scientific inquiry method helped them discover more about their topic.