13 Guidelines for Teaching About Posing Investigation Questions

Posing investigation questions is the foundation for learning about the natural world, and posing questions that can be investigated is an important part of scientists’ work.

This article provides guidelines that can be used to teach about posing investigation questions related to the content in many science texts.  Posing an investigation involves multiple steps, including asking a question, making predictions, planning the investigation, and observing what happens. Understanding how to come up with a question to guide scientific investigation is an important inquiry skill.

When students are taught how to pose their own investigation questions, they can better understand the ways in which scientists explore the natural world and generate new knowledge.

Here are Guidelines for Investigation Questions you can provide students:

Below are 13 Guidelines for Teaching About Posing Investigation Questions related to the content in many science texts:

1. Select a text about a science topic that students could potentially investigate in the classroom. Topics could include plant growth, magnets, simple chemical reactions, phase change, or rocks and minerals. Texts about particular scientific investigations can also be used for this purpose, but it is not necessary that the text specifically mention investigations.
2. Create a chart on the board listing guidelines for developing investigation questions. See the box above for sample.
3. Explain to the class that