Winter 2016

mber; I do and I understand.”
Chinese Confucian philosopher Xunzi
Keer says that learning by inquiry helps her remember
concepts better than traditional methods. “I don’t feel like
I have to study as much for tests because I already remember
a lot of what we did and how it relates to our overarching
concepts, and I’m definitely retaining the concepts
better,” she said.
“The inquiry-based learning was a little odd at first because
it takes a lot of creativity to be able to design your
own experiments and ask useful questions, but I think it
works out well in the end,” Keer added.
Classmate Tommy Vaughan ’16 agrees.
“I very much prefer getting a problem to
solve, and figuring out a way to solve it
than to have a worksheet that tells you
exactly how to do a lab. With no instructions,
it makes you use a different part of
your brain that makes the information we
learn in lectures stick in my head more.
You really have to apply what you learn
in the lab, which really makes the labs
interesting. Question-based labs also
create a more collaborative experience
because you get to bounce ideas off your
partner and we can find the best way to
approach the problem together,” he said.
Some students struggle with inquiry-based learning
initially, Honors Chemistry teacher Jan Coonrod said.
“They’re used to memorizing things like the definitions of
electron, proton and neutron and then just spouting that
back. But when I ask them a question like ‘What evidence
do we have that an electron exists?’ it’s more challenging
for them,” she said. “They are so used to matching a
question with a right answer instead of synthesizing and
bringing together the information that they have.”
O’Dowd science teachers have found that there is more
opportunity to provide individual assistance to students
in classrooms where inquiry-based learning is
taking place. “I can actually go around and answer their
questions and help guide them,” Coonrod said.
Materials That Support Inquiry-Based Learning
The chemistry teachers use the curriculum and textbook
that Coonrod developed and co-wrote over the
course of a decade – Living by Chemistry – while she
was working as an academic researcher in chemistry
education at UC Berkeley with Professor of Chemistry
Angelica Stacy, Hodul’s wife. Stacy teaches introductory
chemistry at Cal and does research in materials chemistry
and chemistry education.
The inquiry-based curriculum is intended to support
students as they learn Chemistry by offering them
engaging lessons that relate to the world around them.
Topics such as alchemy, smells, weather, toxins, fire and
chemical equilibrium are used as contexts for delivering
traditional chemistry concepts.
Inquiry based learning doesn’t necessarily mean handson
or using lots of equipment. Inquiry can consist of
students examining evidence, looking for patterns,
coming up with explanations and sharing their reasoning.
Dr. Dave Hodul discusses concepts with Alex Firestone ’16.
Photo by Lisa Coffey Mahoney ’76.
Winter Magazine 2016 // 11