Keystone Science Network Convocation

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Encounters with Inquiry: A Convocation for Teachers
July 15-16, 2003

In the final days of the Keystone Science Network, we sought to share the benefits of the project through hosting an event for a wider audience that had no previous experience with Keystone. Drawing on the experience of selected veterans of the project, we formed the Inquiry Committee to assist with leading the event and sharing their first-hand inquiry experiences with the teachers in attendance.

Over the course of two full days, over 100 teachers gathered at The Franklin Institute to experience hands-on inquiry practice and to learn with their fellow teachers.

The event opens with an engaging "mystery box" activity. Pairs of teachers are assigned a small sealed box, and are told to use their senses to make guesses at what is enclosed within it. Teachers shake them, sniff them, drop them, and listen to them in order to inform their hypotheses. After a period of investigation, the teachers are reminded that in science, it's not always possible know something completely for certain, and that sometimes you just need to go with your best possible guess. But in this case, the teachers are permitted to open their boxes to see the contents.

The teachers are grouped according to grade levels, and each subset engaged in different activities that could also be models for future activities in their own classrooms.

Here, teachers engage in a hands-on exploration of the nature of sound, using cups and weighted strings. Teachers pluck and listen, trying to discern what type of string arrangement produces particular types of sound.

To fuel their investigations, the teachers spend time among the exhibits out in the museum to get some ideas on ways to incorporate inquiry learning into field trips.

These teachers visit Space Command, The Sports Challenge, and bear materials from a visit to Grossology.

Continue on through the rest of the Convocation.

The Franklin Institute gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the National Science Foundation and Unisys Corporation.

The Franklin Institute is the Demonstration Site for the Eisenhower Mid-Atlantic Consortium, providing science and math resources for teachers.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9819641.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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