Banner Photo: Matthew J. Wilson
Science is a way of knowing the world around us. It is an approach based on human curiosity guided by reason. Inquiry based science begins with observation from our senses or from prior knowledge that we have already learned. When we use our senses to observe, we believe that we are being unbiased and objective. But many things we see are influenced by prior knowledge and we see and sense often times what we are taught to observe. Inquiry based learning places students in the central role as observers, asking them to record data as accurately as they can using thier senses and extensions of their senses through instrumentation. We ask them to record what they see not what they are told to see. Inquiry based science then asks students to make sense of these data, to ask questions about what they mean and to develop hypothesis from those questions that allow them to think critically about their data. Through reason applied to accurate observation, often bolstered by experiment develops scientific knowledge, a way of making sense and knowing the world. ISLS asks students to engage in inquiry, in investigations based on their careful observations, thoughtful analyses and critical reflections of what they have discovered. It is through the development of these skills that students will be able to find answers to the myriad of unanswered questions facing us in the 21st Century