YEARS 7–12 IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM
Year 7 Practical Skills for Inquiry Learning – Part 3 (continued)
questions!) Often they require the student to come up with a list
of smaller questions which need to be thought about first, e.g.
– Which types of renewable energy do I know? times that a question cannot be answered effectively until some
further science knowledge and understanding has taken place.
In such a case it is useful to have a sheet of cardboard pinned up
headed ‘Questions to be Answered’ on which the student can
write their question and sign it. The question can be addressed
when the appropriate time comes and only the student who wrote
it on the sheet is able to indicate that it has been answered.
– What conditions are needed for the different types of
renewable energy? Question: Dice
Why are some forms of renewable energy more suited to some
areas in the country than others?
– What is meant by renewable energy?
– How might different parts of Australia differ in relation to
these conditions?
The aim of this is to try and encourage students to ask ‘fat’ or
‘rich’ questions. This also means that the answers will probably
need thinking about. The dice can be used to generate student
questions, which can then be used to review, revise or test
knowledge and understanding at the conclusion of a section of
work.
– ...
Other examples:
• How can environmental damage to ancient statues be
reduced?
Each student group will need access to a pair of dice. Each
is made from a cube (I used golf ball boxes covered with blue
contact about 15 years ago – and made 12 pairs!) with a different
word written on each side [e.g. one cube with ‘which, what,
where, why, how, when’ written on it, and a second cube with
‘can, could, does, is, would, might’ on it. The group toss the two
dice and then form a question that incorporates the words on
both dice and also the topic being reviewed. The words do not
need to start the question, though often they will, but must appear
somewhere in the sentence. Most of the word pairs which come
up lead to ‘rich’ questions, and a useful list can be generated to
help probe the students’ understanding.
• If you keep a drink with ice cubes in a thermos flask, do you
need to leave room for the ice cubes to melt?
• What would freefall be like on the Moon?
• How do the changes in conditions in a rock pool over a day
affect what happens inside a crab?
• If plants need sunlight to grow, why aren’t the largest plants
found in the desert?
• Do you think friction would be the same on the Moon as it is
here on Earth?
However you decide to use the question list, it is a good idea for
every group to be responsible for coming up with an excellent
answer to each question they contribute to it. Ultimately, all
questions and answers need to be shared with the class.
Perhaps each group works through all questions together, then
shares and discusses answers with a second group, before all
questions are discussed and answered with the class.
Sometimes ‘Skinny’ questions are also important – especially
when helping students pick up and be comfortable with the
language of science:
• What unit do I use to measure force?
• Can anyone name a type of reaction?
• What do we call substances which do not conduct electricity?
Question Wall
Students also need to learn the skills of asking ‘fat’ rather than
‘skinny’ questions. Below are a few strategies for encouraging
this, including helping them learn to distinguish between ‘Fat’
and ‘Skinny’ questions.
Sometimes the topic we are teaching generates lots of question
from the students, and it is useful to make a note of them all and
maybe add a few of our own, which really need to be covered.
One way of managing this is to put several large pieces of
butchers’ paper up in the classroom to make a ‘Question Wall’,
and encourage students to write up any questions they want
answered. This may help direct you to navigate a challenging
topic with your students and/or improve student engagement, by
allowing the students to have input into what they learn.
Rich questions are also often those which lead to student-
designed investigations. We need to help students turn ‘ordinary’
questions into ‘investigable’ questions from which they can
generate a hypothesis.
'Questions to be Answered' Sheet
Students in their groups could also be allocated a question to
answer from the wall, or can choose one for themselves, which
they then share with the class. Some questions may require the
One way to help students realise you value their questions is
to make sure we always try to answer them. However there are
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 3