ReferenceReview #4-Conference Lee1/5Miha LeeProfessor RivasSED 60011 April 2007Inquiring MindsA newsletter of CSTA that I joined to attend the CSTA conferencelast year informed me that Greater Los Angeles Teachers’ ScienceAssociation (GLATSA) held a spring science conference in Franciso BraveMedical Magnet on February 17, 2007. While GLASTA is a small group ofteachers from the Los Angeles area, it seemed to actively work onpromoting science education. Especially, GLATSA supports activities thatencourage hands-on science. The word “hands-on” was quite new to mewhen I started to learn about science education here in the U.S., butfinally I figured out that it means instructional activities in whichstudents are engaged in performing science as they learn science(Christensen, 1995). The emphasis of ‘hands-on’ highlights inquiry-basedinstruction. The sessions I attended were all about ‘hands-on,’ that is,inquiry-based teaching, but showed me different aspects of teaching. During the session I, I went to a classroom where the instructorwas talking about “Hands-On, Minds-On Periodic Table”. Jodye Selco fromReview #4-Conference Lee2/5Cal poly Ponoma presented a new idea that helped science teachersteach about the periodic table and related concepts. Actually, shecreated a curriculum that was discovery-based instruction. In a series oflessons, students construct conceptual understanding, while they areexploring the periodic table as a foundation for chemistry. Each lessonconsists of hand-on activities using atomic models and a huge periodictable whose boxes are 5-6 inches square. One of the unique features of this curriculum was the constructionof lessons. The word “Minds-On” illustrated the principle that is appliedto this curriculum. According to Christensen (1995), “Minds-On” meansactivities focus on core concepts, allowing students to develop thinkingprocesses and encouraging them to question and seek answers thatenhance their knowledge and thereby acquire an understanding of thephysical universe in which they live. Whereas this curriculum iscomparatively short, including only 4 periods, it coordinates around themain idea of periodic table many concepts such as atoms & molecules,the organization of the periodic table, chemical boning, and transitionmetals. This shows me how to build an inquiry-based instruction for highschool chemistry. For my action research, I will create an inquiry-basedinstruction that is about the idea of metallicity. It includes the conceptsof the alkaline metal, metallic activity series, plating & alloy, andcorrosion of metal.Review #4-Conference Lee3/5The other feature of this curriculum was using teacher’s questionsas a guide for students’ discovery (inquiry). Every lesson is written as aseries of questions instead of as a lecture so that students are moreactively engaged in thinking during the lesson. The collection ofquestions throughout this script made lessons a verbal guided inquiryinstruction. Throughout this lesson, questioning serves as not onlyfacilitator of student thinking but also embedded assessments of theirunderstanding. During the second session, Andrea Brown, the Newton MiddleSchool teacher, showed me how she taught science in her classroom. Onthe agenda, it was about science note-taking, but it happened to beabout inquiry-based instruction and questioning. She referred to herteaching as “the Science Teaching/Learning Cycle” that was comprisedof four steps: Engage, Explore, Explain, and Extend/Apply. One interesting thing was that she gave her students lessonobjective not directly but indirectly using “Focus Question”. It is thebeginning of lesson to engage students in inquiry activity. “FocusQuestion” motivates and leads students through the lesson/lab andfocuses their observations. She also put an emphasis on the art ofquestioning to generate thought-provoking questions. She made surethat not just top students were responding but all of them had theopportunity to answer the focus question “in writing” as a hypothesis.Review #4-Conference Lee4/5Another interesting thing was that she made the students use thescience notebook instead of handouts. She showed us her students’notebooks where a specific format was employed as a worksheet forinquiry activities. In particular, she presented some ideas for helpingstudents come to conclusions based on their inquiries. Summary toinclude 10~12 sentences in paragraph form attracted my attention. Hernote-taking skill was like college lab papers. In contrast, many teachersuse handouts for lab papers and made students fill the blanks in them.This is not good for promoting reasoning skills and creativity. In sum, GLATSA conference was invaluable opportunity to learnabout inquiry-based instruction. Selco, as a professor, exemplified me atheoretical way to develop lesson plans for inquiry based-instruction.And Brown, as an experienced teacher, gave me a practical way toimplement inquiry-based laboratory. In particular, both of them made merealize the importance of questioning. Indeed, asking questions seems tobe at the heart of inquiry-based learning. This conference has motivatedme to find further research on the role of questioning in inquiry-basedinstruction.ReferenceChristensen, M., (1995) Critical Issue: Providing Hands-On, Minds-On, and AuthenticLearning Experiences in Science, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory,Retrieved on April 17, 2007 fromReview #4-Conference Lee5/5http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/science/sc500.htm Selco, J., (2006) Hands on, Minds on Periodic Table: Visualizing the Unseen, High Schooland College version,