NSTA Inquiry in Earth Science

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31

3Inquiry in the Earth Sciences Eric J. Pyle, James Madison University

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33chapter 3: i e S s

Defning Questions That Make Sense inEarth Science

An issue that 8th-grade Earth science teacher Ms. Spurrier has always struggled with is getting her students to understand the relationship between land orms and the rock structures beneath the land sur ace. Her students can identi y olds and

aults on a test without problem, but they cannot trans er this knowledge to moun-tains, stream drainage patterns, or landslides. During a topographic map reading exercise, one o her students asks her why the river channels on some maps look like the branches in a lea , while on other maps the pattern looks like steps or ladders.

Ms. Spurrier decides that she can structure a student investigation around maps on which she can place known aults and ridges o resistant rock (e.g., sandstone).

Te question she poses to her students is this: “What do aults and rocks have to dowith the course o rivers?”

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Selecting Methods in Earth Science— Observations and Models

Ms. Spurrier and her students cannot help but observe that the day a ter a heavy rainstorm her classroom is lled with an overpowering stench. Yet the stream that

fows next to the building is usually barely fowing at all. Te problem only be-came apparent a ter the growth o the nearby subdivision. Besides the obvious

problem the smell represents, Ms. Spurrier decides that this phenomenon is one that her students can investigate.

As a part setting up the investigation, Ms. Spurrier has her students list actors they believe have caused or are related to the problem. Her students have identi ed such actors as the amount o rain all, the requency o heavy rain alls, the size othe stream channel, and the number o houses in the subdivision. One student alsoasks whether the houses are attached to a public sewer line or use septic tanks.

Tere are obvious public health issues to which Ms. Spurrier does not wish to expose her students, so she structures the inquiry care ully. She selects a time when it hasn’t




rained or several days to have students take care ul measurements o the size and depth o the channel and what they see in the channel. She also assigns students to research the actors they have previously identi ed (see above paragraph). Using these pieces o in ormation, the class constructs a map showing the school grounds,

the stream, and the subdivision. Using rain all data rom the local television station,they construct a model that suggests that i the rain all is over 2 cm then the roomwill smell aw ul the next day. All they need is a heavy rain to test their model.

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able 3. . Sample Earth Science Inquiry Questions

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Arriving at Solutions— Interpretive and Historical

Many o Ms. Spurrier’s students travel to the beach on school breaks. Te most

popular route to the beach is right down the nearby state highway. Being a an o

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the beach hersel , Ms. Spurrier knows the route well, and she poses a descriptive question to her students: “Count the number o ridges you pass over or throughwith white sand in the road cut and the number o short, scrubby pine trees onthem.” When the students return rom break, some students tell her they saw twoor three such ridges; others saw our or ve. She asks them how these ridges com-

pared with the beach. At rst, the students are a little con used. When they discuss the parts o the beach and the areas just behind the beach, however, the lights goon or some o the students. “Tose sandy ridges were the beach once, weren’t they?”asks one o her students.

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NSTA Inquiry in Earth Science

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