Are Double Stuffed Oreos Really Double Stuffed? An Intoduction into Inquiry Based Learning

           After an awesome week at FFA National Convention, I am anxious to get back into my Penn State routine! I must admit it will be slightly difficult to transition back into reality after such an exciting week. In AEE 412 this coming week, we will be discussing inquiry based instruction. This is very fitting after the National Agriscience Pre-service Teacher Program that Howie, Rea, and I participated in on Wednesday of last week. The seven hour workshop focused all on inquiry based instruction. We completed five inquiry based lessons in the duration of the workshop, my favorite being “Are Double Stuffed Oreos Really Double Stuffed?”

            Through the workshop I took part in and the readings for this week, I have a much clearer understanding of what inquiry based instruction really is. Inquiry instruction is a teaching method that combines the scientific method with the curiosity of students to promote critical thinking skills, according to Warner & Myers. This article from the University of Florida also described the five components that must be present when using inquiry instruction. These five components include a question, investigation, the use of evidence, connecting evidence to knowledge, and sharing findings. These five items were a reiteration from what Howie, Rea, and I learned in our pre-service teacher workshop.

           In the article “Simplifying Inquiry Instruction” from the National Science Teachers Association, inquiry instruction at minimum is described as an active learning process where students answer research questions through data analysis. The article brings up a great point that was also discussed in the workshop: does the activity students are performing involve a research question or data analysis? Many teachers believe that hands on activities can be considered as inquiry instruction but fail to provide a research question or allow for data analysis. Using the example I posed earlier about the double stuffed Oreo lab, this was justified as an inquiry instruction lesson. We were introduced to the activity, formulated the research question “Are Double Stuffed Oreos Really Double Stuffed?,” collected data, and analyzed our results in order to answer the question. In case you were wondering, double stuffed Oreos really are double stuffed!

                 I have gained a lot more information on inquiry based instruction through the workshop I attended and the assigned readings for this week. However, I am anxious to see how my professors at Penn State introduce the idea of inquiry based instruction and what additional information they will provide. I am already formulating ideas in my mind about how I can use inquiry based instruction in my lab next week. The AEE 412 class is taking a field trip on Wednesday to Greenwood High School in Millerstown, PA to watch inquiry instruction be used in an actual high school agriculture classroom. I am anxious to watch this be put to use and hope it will spark ideas for me to use during student teaching. I have already talked with my cooperating teaching and I plan to use the Oreo experiment on my first day teaching in my Aquatic Resources class. I have some slight changes to make but couldn’t be more excited!