Developing Inquiry Experience Through Curiosity-Driven Open Inquiry

Abstract

Various scholars recommend the use of open inquiry for good reason: As students make methodological decisions themselves and evaluate the quality of these, they gain a better picture of what doing science entails and learn more and better. However, simply asking students to come up with their own research question and methods and then to design their experimental setup poses insuperable difficulties for novices (note that PhD students and postdocs also receive guidance!). A gradual and segmented approach to teaching inquiry and to open inquiry seems therefore a more appropriate teaching strategy. Here we describe and review our approach to open inquiry—especially the final project in which students conceive their own experiment. To illustrate and evaluate this approach, one student team presents their experiment and reflects on their process and perceived learning gains. Through their experiences, we examine how our approach to open-ended experiments helps students develop expertise in the cognitive tasks of experimental physics while providing support as they navigate the challenges of inquiry-based experimentation.