Michelle Lawless

Reflection
Science Inquiry
Dr. Wall
Science is a subject area that gives me anxiety, similar to Math. Inquiry Science based
lessons is something that gives me even more anxiety because I didnt understand it until it got
related to our unit. I learned today to do an inquiry based lesson you can begin by asking a broad
question or making a broad statement. Dr. Wall walked us through activities that are inquiry
based that we can use in our classroom no matter what grade we teach.
This idea of an inquiry based lesson made much more sense to me when it got related to
our unit. We essentially ask a broad question that focuses on the content we want to teach and
then if we are in older grades, the students will more then likely give a reasonable response or
claim. In younger grades, the content would have to be much more simplified and the teacher
would maybe give them to claim or statement and then talk to them about it.
This presentation by Dr. Wall really made think about how Science is now compared to
how it used to be. When I was in elementary school, Science seemed to be a lot of fact learning
and vocabulary, where we did little hands on and spent most of our time in lectures. Today,
science is so much more fun and it forces students to understand what is being taught. Students
are being active in their learning by doing more hands on things such as exploring to find
evidence and then participating in debates over their opinions.
I really liked his worksheet/activity he handed out to us. It was extremely simple and
could be used for any standard or grade level. I hope to use this type of activity in my Urban
school placement coming up in the next few weeks. Im glad that I now have a firm grasp on what

inquiry based learning is and I hope I continue to develop my knowledge in this area. Dr. Walls
simple and short presentation really impacted me today and Im thankful for that.