Classroom Seismographs and the Challenge of Encouraging a Culture of Scientific Inquiry in K-12 Schools

Abstract

Curiosity about how the world works, and systematic reasoning to investigate what we are curious about—these lie at the heart of what it means to be a scientist. In our experience with operating seismographs in K–12 schools, we are finding that what it means to be a student (and a teacher) is often very different. While curiosity does seem to be alive and well in the minds of young elementary school children, it is sadly less and less apparent as students progress through the later years of elementary school and beyond ( e.g., National Research Council 2000). Furthermore, we are finding that few K–12 science teachers tend to dwell within a culture of curiosity and scientific investigation. We are thus experiencing a noticeable culture gap when we collaborate with teachers and students on educational seismology projects. Theoretically, seismographs-in-schools projects provide an opportunity for us to encourage curiosity and a culture of inquiry and scientific investigation in K–12 schools and to give young students a full appreciation of the nature of scientific inquiry. But then we hit this culture gap: Often the students do not show evidence of curiosity, nor do the teachers appear able or willing to model and reinforce such curiosity. How then might we promote the development of curiosity and scientific reasoning in K–12 schools? To foster new generations of scientists and scientifically literate citizens will require teachers who are themselves comfortable with inquiry and the open-ended nature of research. And so we face a conundrum, as the teachers with whom we seek to collaborate are themselves products of an educational system that is sorely lacking a culture of curiosity and inquiry. This presents a formidable challenge. In this article, we describe our efforts to encourage a culture of inquiry and scientific investigation in K–12 schools as part of …