Grade 12 SCIENCE
SNC4M
Inquiry Activities
“Inquiry ... requires more than simply answering questions or getting a right answer. It espouses investigation, exploration, search, quest, research, pursuit, and study. It is enhanced by involvement with a community of learners, each learning from the other in social interaction.” (Kuklthau, Maniotes & Caspari, 2007, p. 2)
As educators, it is our responsibility to ensure that students actively engaged in their learning to ensure that they obtain the knowledge and skills that they will need for their futures (Ontario. Ministry of Education, 2013). There is no one way that educators must teach in order for students to gain these skills and knowledge, however there are strategies that teachers can use to increase the learning that occurs within their classroom (Ontario. Ministry of Education, 2013). Inquiry based teaching within the classroom can increase student learning (Bennett, 2015). By creating a classroom environment that is inquiry based, the student is supported in becoming " thoughtful, motivated, collaborative and innovative learners capable of engaging in their own inquiries and thriving in a world of constant change.” (Ontario. Ministry of Education, 2013). Students’ questions, ideas and observations drive the learning and as a result, students take on some of the responsibility of their learning (Ontario. Ministry of Education, 2013).
Below are some activities that promote inquiry based learning within the classroom, with a focus on the Nutrition strand of the SNC4M course.
The following are some inquiry based activities that can be used to support inductive experiences within the classroom.
1. In this activity, students will design their own calorimeter to determine the amount of heat (and therefore energy), a food particle has. This activity will allow students to use their previous knowledge and personal inquiry to solidify ideas and concepts explored within the specific expectations D2.6 and D3.2 in the Nutritional Science strand of SNC4M.
2. In this inquiry activity, students will make a meal plan for a variety of different lifestyles. They wll be given the lifestlyes, and will be required to determine the caloric needs to each lifestyle and how best to supply those calories through the different macronutrients. Depending on the class, teachers might decide to give students the following Dietary Reference Intakes document from the Government of Canada, provided below.
3. This is a lab exercise that has students testing foods for various macromolecules. This activity focuses on expectation D2.2. Students will have each of the indicators and food samples and will have to determine which indicator tests for each macromolecule.
"For students, the process often involves open-ended investigations into a question or a problem, requiring them to engage in evidence-based reasoning and creative problem-solving, as well as “problem finding.” For educators, the process is about being responsive to the students’ learning needs, and most importantly, knowing when and how to introduce students to ideas that will move them forward in their inquiry. Together, educators and students co-author the learning experience, accepting mutual responsibility for planning, assessment for learning and the advancement of individual as well as class-wide understanding of personally meaningful content and ideas (Fielding, 2012)."
4. This assignment is an inquiry looking into food additives and the implication they have within our society. Students work independently to research a food additive. An option for once the research has been completed is to have the students present the knowledge that they have gained to the class in a quick 5-7 minute presentation. Regardless of whether the teacher decides to have verbal presentations, the students have the choice of how they manifest the information that they have found (ie. poster, slide show, 3D model etc.)