Ooey Gooey! Making Sense of Scientific Inquiry (Module 1)

You can also download this entire module in PDF format by clicking the following link: Module 1 (PDF, 1.2MB).

Introduction

"Scientific inquiry" is a broad term that refers to the varied ways that all scientists - from biologists to physicists to chemists - study the natural world and develop theories based on their ideas. According to the National Science Education Standards (NSES), inquiry involves the following:

• Making observations;
• Posing questions;
• Planning investigations;
• Examining books and other sources of information to see what is already known;
• Using tools to gather, analyze, and interpret data;
• Proposing answers, explanations, and predictions and communicating the results.

The purpose of the mission in the program's first module is to introduce students to these key processes of science. The students’ challenge is to identify the contents of the mystery goo. To solve the problem, students must make observations, record their observations, ask questions, develop experiments to answer their questions, and draw conclusions from their results. Students will use these processes as a starting point for completing the missions in subsequent modules.

Learning Objectives

• Students experience the processes of science.
• Students learn how to ask appropriate scientific questions.
• Students learn how to develop investigations to answer their questions.
• Students discover how information is transmitted through their senses.