scientific inquiry

1. SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
(HFB1022)
COURSE
INTRODUCTION/

2. GENERAL OBJECTIVES
To expose students to the major principles of
scientific inquiry to comprehend local and
global technology, social, business and
environmental issues scientifically.
2
To develop students’ scientific communication in
articulating views on local and global issues

3. Course Learning outcomes (CLO)
• Demonstrate familiarity and
knowledge of local and global
issues relating to science,
technology, business, social
and environmental issues
through comprehension of
scientific thinking, inquiry and
processes.
CLO 01
• Communicate clearly the
knowledge, ideas, critique and
conclusion/rationale of
scientific communication
CLO 02
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4. COURSE ASSESSMENT
4
SEM SEPTEMBER2019 (propose)
%
Remarks
(Deadline)
1 Test 1 15 Week 5
2 Test 2 25 Week 10
3 Article Review 15 Week 6
4 Article Critique Report 35 Week 12
5 Video Critique Presentation (Submission only) 10 Week 12
Total 100

5. 5
SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
WEEK 1

6. OBJECTIVES
Define scientific inquiry and its role in knowledge
discovery
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To demonstrate understanding of scientific inquiry
process
To relate scientific inquiry process in knowledge
discovery
Students should be able to:

7. ABOUT THE COURSE
• Have you watch the introductory video on ULEARN ?
• The link :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQq-8l1NsHQ
• List 3 things that you understand from the video.
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8. INTRODUCTION
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‘KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE STUDY OF THE WORLD BASED ON FACTS LEARNED
THROUGH OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTS’
What is SCIENCE ?

9. WHAT IS INQUIRY?
Inquiry is any process that has the aim of augmenting
knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving problems.
Inquiry is the act of seeking information by asking
questions.
The purpose of inquiry is to reduce doubt and lead to a
state of belief, which a person in that state will usually
call knowledge or certainty.

10. SCIENTIFIC METHOD
The scientific method is used by scientists to conduct experiments and
research and record their findings. There is more than one way to
explore science.

11. INTRODUCTION
Inquiry refers to the activities of students in which they
develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas,
as well as an understanding of how scientists study the
natural world (National Science Education Standards,
1996, p.23)
There has been renewed recognition that the enhancement and propagation of
scientific inquiry is one of the core elements of scientific education.
The National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) state that “scientific
inquiry is at the heart of science and science learning” (p. 15)
Source: National Research Council (NRC, 1996) definition of National Science Education Standards
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Engaging students in inquiry helps students develop;
 Understanding of scientific concepts.
 An appreciation of “how we know” what we know in science.
 Understanding of the nature of science.
 Skills necessary to become independent
 Inquires about the natural world.
 The dispositions to use the skills, abilities, and attitudes
associated with science.
SOURCE: https://www.csun.edu/science/ref/curriculum/reforms/nses/nses-
complete.pdf page 105.
SCIENCE AS INQUIRY STANDARDS
Inquiry is a step beyond “science as a process,” in which students learn skills, such as observation,
inference, and experimentation.
The new vision includes the “processes of science” and requires that students combine processes and
scientific knowledge as they use scientific reasoning and critical thinking to develop their
understanding of science.

13. NRC defines inquiry in the following terms: “Inquiry is a multifaceted activity that
involves:
 making observations;
 posing questions;
 examining books and other sources of information to see what is already known;
planning investigations;
 reviewing what is already known in light of experimental evidence;
 using tools to gather, analyze, and interpret data;
 proposing answers, explanations, and predictions; and
 communicating results.
Inquiry requires
 identification of assumptions,
 use of critical and logical thinking, and
 consideration of alternative explanations.
Source: NRC1996, page 23. 13

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As stated by Hodson, “The difficulty of an observational task depends crucially on what is
being observed and what constitutes appropriate or significant observation. In other
words, the task is governed by the nature of the concepts involved.” (NRC 1996, p. 126).
Meaningful scientific inquiry is contextualized within a specific and developed
knowledge structure and not the abstract application of procedural knowledge.
Procedural knowledge, also known as imperative knowledge, is the type of knowledge exercised in the performance of
a task. It’s basically “how” you know to do something.
The classic example of procedural knowledge is riding a bicycle. When someone was teaching you how to ride a
bicycle, no matter what they said, you probably struggled to grasp it until you’d actually done it a few times. Once you
figured it out, it quickly became implicit knowledge. That is, the type of knowledge that is hard to explain as it is
subconsciously stored in your mind; (‘muscle memory’ is another phrase used to describe implicit knowledge).
(Source: https://tettra.co/article/what-procedural-knowledge-is-and-how-to-use-it/)

15. What is Scientific Inquiry?
In professional science, scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in
which scientist study the natural world and propose explanations based on
the evidence derived from their work. (Anderson, 2002).
To Schwartz et al., (2004) scientific inquiry refers to the methods and
activities that lead to development of scientific knowledge.
Scientific inquiry involves learner centred project, with learners actively
engaged in inquiry process and meaning construction, to achieve
meaningful understanding of scientifically accepted ideas targeted by
curriculum.
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16. Although closely related to science processes, scientific inquiry extends
beyond the mere development of process skills such as observing,
inferring, classifying, predicting, measuring, questioning, interpreting
and analyzing data.
Scientific inquiry includes the traditional science processes. It also
refers to the combining of these processes with scientific knowledge,
scientific reasoning and critical thinking to develop scientific
knowledge.
What is Scientific Inquiry?.....
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17. One important understanding is that the so-called fixed set and
sequence of steps, known as The Scientific Method, is not an accurate
representation of the multitude of approaches to inquiry followed by
scientists. The contemporary view of scientific inquiry is that the
questions guide the approach and the approaches vary widely within
and across scientific disciplines and fields.
In addition to “doing” inquiry, the phrase scientific inquiry also refers
to knowledge about inquiry. It is expected that all students understand
the rationale of an investigation and be able to critically analyze the
claims made from the data collected.
What is Scientific Inquiry?.....
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source: https://science.iit.edu/mathematics-science-education/resources/project-ican/teachers/what-si

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Scientific Inquiry Process

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Observation

20. Difference between Scientific Method and
Scientific Inquiry
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