MEASURING THE LEVEL OF INQUIRY AND ITS IMPACT ON STUDENT PERFORMANCE, PERCEPTION OF RELEVANCE, AND SITUATIONAL INTEREST IN INTRODUCTORY ROCK AND MINERAL LABS

Inquiry-based teaching methods promote the use of science-process skills and independent thought and can improve student learning and achievement in science. We assessed the degree of inquiry present in Introductory Physical Geology labs taught at North Carolina State University using a rubric described by Buck et al. (2008). This instrument describes five levels of inquiry ranging from low level confirmation to high level authentic inquiry. All of the activities present in each Physical Geology lab were evaluated and characterized by inquiry level. Results indicate that the traditional rock and mineral labs contain a higher proportion of low-level confirmation (level 0) and structured inquiry (level ½) activities than the other labs. These labs were revised to replace these exercises with guided (level 1) and open inquiry (level 2) activities.

In the traditional rock and mineral labs, students were guided through step-by-step confirmatory mineral and rock identification activities in which the problem, background, methods, and conclusions were all provided to students or were obvious within the lab. The revised inquiry-based labs also focus on mineral and rock identification; however, students participate in activities where they have more responsibility for designing procedures and analyzing results. Examples of revised activities include conducting a “Cookie Mining” experiment as a mining and reclamation simulation, creating a dichotomous key as a way of classifying and sorting rocks, and identifying minerals using a “Jigsaw” cooperative learning technique. These activities are classified as guided or open inquiry because only the question and background are provided for the students.

Students have also reported that the traditional rock and mineral labs were the least interesting and relevant activities in the course. We will describe student situational interest, perception of relevance, and learning gains for the revised labs in comparison with other labs in the course.