Fundamentals of Inquiry

Catalog description

Introduces the fundamentals of using inquiry methods for knowledge creation and extension in the fields of science and technology. Students work together to reach understanding on a large goal question associated with human society and space exploration. As a class, uses a weekly inquiry cycle to step toward the goal: read some content, ask a 'Natural Next Question' (NNQ) that takes us one step further toward the goal, seek content to help answer that question, report on what was learned, and after a few times, summarize the new knowledge with a distillation exercise, and then repeat this inquiry cycle. Strongly focuses on teaching students how to guide their learning by asking productive questions to drive their research, how to find content to answer their questions, how to approach challenging primary content, how to work well in teams, and how to distill and share their learning.