Inquiry

Meaningful questions are very important in the classroom, especially in science, as students continue to develop their understanding in different areas. Having the students create the meaningful questions themselves allows them to create questions that may interest them more. As they go through the material, whether it is an experiment, readings, etc., they are trying to find the answers to something that they are curious about. This provides them a source of motivation, driving them to find the answers, and it will allow them to use this information in a more meaningful way. They will likely remember this more effectively because, again, it is something that is of interest to them. The teacher could also provide the students with meaningful questions. By doing this, the teacher is giving the students something to look for, probably because it deals with important information within the unit. They may also revolve around something that will interest the students, relating back to motivating them to complete the work and find answers. Meaningful questions will hopefully prompt the students to continue searching for answers from outside sources. Instead of just reading the material from the text book, they could possibly go to the library and look through different books to build upon what they are learning. The meaningful questions could stretch the information across many different areas within the classroom, overall providing the students with more knowledge and hopefully allowing them to learn more from their experiences.

Relating to the fossils benchmark SCI.III.4.E.1, one example question could be: Why do you think the fossils lasted so long in the ground and did not disappear (disintegrate)? Another meaningful question could be: Why do you think fossils are found in some areas of the world and not in others? These questions would go beyond some of the material being taught, and could be answered through further research and experimentation.