A Formal Informal Survey

I will be looking closely at the relationship between scientific inquiry performed in the classroom and the weekly testing scores of the high school students that are currently taking science here at my high school placement. Maybe there is a significant relationship and maybe there isnt but in any case inquiry based lessons should be performed in the classroom. 

With the advice from the department head, I took an informal survey of the teachers and asked " About how much Inquiry is done in your classroom per week?" I let the teachers use their own definitions of inquiry and I gathered the following data.

Physical Science- grade 9- one to two times a week and it depends on the unit

Biology- grade 10, general and honors- at this given time he has done inquiry 2-3 times this week and it is more in the honors course

Chemistry- grade 11- about three times a week and more can be done in his honors course as well. He did state that in his honors class its more genuine and less guided than in his other course.

Interesting. It seems to me that this science department puts in a lot of effort creating lesson plans that can include scientific inquiry whether or not its more guided or less frequent per topic, all science teachers are doing it because I think they know the benfits that can come from it. I will be looking closely at the inquiry tests and seeing if there are true benefits.

 I hope so. Because I love inquiry and having students grapple with the unknown. Its more rewarding when you put together something without the instructions right?