Boost scientific inquiry skills with strategies for reading and reflection

Creating ideas from reading

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Tips to help students effectively design experiments and form researchable questions

A recent study found that students’ scientific inquiry skills improved after they read scientific articles and reflected on the experimental designs highlighted in them. In this article, principal teaching fellow in chemistry at the University of Southampton, David Read, outlines the study’s method and results, and explains how you could implement the process in your own classroom. Students’ experimental design abilities could improve as a result of using these methods, even when it’s not possible to carry out practical experiments. 

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