July, 2004

How far away is the sun? What’s the difference between elements and compounds? What causes the tides? How do you measure the speed of sound? These are the types of questions that teachers and students wrestle with during the portion of the school day called science. However teachers are increasingly accountable for engaging students in the practice of science as well as the knowledge of science. Bringing the practice of science into the classroom was the focus of a two-week course for teachers at the LIGO Hanford Observatory during July, 2004 titled “The Nature of Scientific Inquiry”.

The graduate-level course was a collaborative effort of Washington State University Tri-Cities and LHO. Dr. Judy Morrison, Professor of Education, Teaching and Learning at WSU, provided the instruction with assistance from LIGO’s Fred Raab and Dale Ingram. Nine area teachers whose responsibilities ranged from third grade through high school came to the observatory for six hours each day, learning about the science of LIGO while pursuing a variety of activities designed to sharpen their classroom skills in scientific inquiry. The teachers were invited to contemplate and practice the core habits of scientific thinking while experiencing LIGO’s ‘on-the-job’ culture of science and engineering.

A site tour, job shadows and interviews of LHO personnel, hands-on activities, class discussions and a variety of readings kept the students busy throughout the course. Two films from the NOVA series, “Runaway Universe” and “Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens”, highlighted several issues of science inquiry in both contemporary and historical contexts. Each student prepared a set of four inquiry lessons and outlined an inquiry-based unit of instruction using state and national science standards as guides. Each student also taught one of his or her lessons to the class at the conclusion of the course, giving all participants the chance to ‘get their hands dirty’ with inquiry (at least as dirty as you can get at LIGO).

The group also took advantage of some opportunities for recreational science, inspecting sun spots over the lunch hour and sharing favorite classroom activities. The two-week time frame created a demanding set of course expectations and an intense experience for the students, but with good cheer and hard work the group produced a number of excellent inquiry activities and collectively developed an enhanced understanding of the realities of the scientific method. WSU Tri-Cities and LHO hope to offer the course again next summer.