Closing the inquiry circle: open inquiry and problem finding in introductory biology laboratories

Think Before You Ask
Linda Fuselier from the University of Louisville asked the question, "how can we train students to ask better scientific questions?" Developing a question is a difficult topic to teach because the college focus is generally on problem solving instead of problem finding. Questioning is based on knowing what and knowing how, and to question effectively one needs declarative knowledge. A challenge with students is that they seem to lack the requisite knowledge of what and how, making open-ended inquiry nearly impossible in the classroom. Fuselier's experiment looked at a group of students (83% bio majors, 56% female, 95% Caucasian) over the course of an inquiry-based laboratory course. Backwards faded scaffolding was used where instead of jumping into teaching how to ask a question, the bulk of the semester was spend on activities in learning about literature, statistics, graph making, and lab briefs. Four weeks before the end of the semester students were finally tasked with designing a testable research question, and they were graded based on the following criteria: relevancy, originality, analysis, complexity and if the question was researchable. Student questions would frame experiments on zebrafish, looking at how they got their food. A major theme was whether zebrafish smelled chemical cues to guide them to food or if they watched they fellow tank mates to learn where food was. After crafting their questions, students used the skills they learned over the course of prior weeks to consult the literature and refine their question. The greatest improvement was seen in question complexity, demonstrating that students can be taught how to use scientific literature to inform a research question/project.