Teaching Inquiry-Based Chemistry: Creating Student-Led Scientific Communities

In their professional dreams, chemistry teachers imagine eager and self-sufficient students whose curiosity motivates their scientific explorations. Joan Gallagher-Bolos and Dennis Smithenry have realized this vision in their chemistry classrooms, and in Teaching Inquiry-Based Chemistry, they demonstrate how you can make student-led inquiry happen in yours.

Teaching Inquiry-Based Chemistry retraces an entire year's curriculum to show you how the authors weave constructivist theory into every lesson without sacrificing content. You will discover how slowly increasing the complexity of projects while gradually shifting the responsibility for learning to class members builds success upon success until students are ready to formulate and execute a three-week, end-of-year project where they function as a fully independent scientific community. Plus Teaching Inquiry-Based Chemistry is loaded with features that help you implement student-centered teaching immediately, including:

• proven instructional strategies
• examples of successful units from the authors' own curricula
• graphic organizers that guide you through creating an inquiry-driven classroom
• discussions of meeting NSES's inquiry standards through inquiry-based teaching
• in-depth examples of student journals and projects

Get ready to make your ideal classroom a reality and find a fresh way of teaching the chemistry you know so well. Read Teaching Inquiry-Based Chemistry and discover how helping your students capitalize on their innate scientific curiosity will lead you to new levels of professional and personal satisfaction.

Joan Gallagher-Bolos and Dennis Smithenry are available to enthusiastically speak about community inquiry at any educational facility, particularly grades 7-college. In either an introductory one-day workshop or an in depth two-day workshop, they will teach you how to effectively implement community inquiry into your science classroom. Joan and Dennis can also give smaller presentations on more specific topics such as journals, safety, authentic assessments and collaborative work, all with the focus of community inquiry. Their presentations have been described as both inspirational and practical. As quoted from a recent participant at the NSTA conference in Dallas, "You made my conference! I've heard many talks on these topics, but nobody has put it all together like you two. That was the best!" To arrange a speaking engagement, please contact either author through their e-mails: Joan: JABGallagher12@aol.com; Dennis: smithnry@stanford.edu.

Dennis Smithenry and Joan Gallagher-Bolos are available to enthusiastically speak about community inquiry at any educational facility, particularly grades 7-college. In either an introductory one-day workshop or an in depth two-day workshop, they will teach you how to effectively implement community inquiry into your science classroom. Joan and Dennis can also give smaller presentations on more specific topics such as journals, safety, authentic assessments and collaborative work, all with the focus of community inquiry. Their presentations have been described as both inspirational and practical. As quoted from a recent participant at the NSTA conference in Dallas, "You made my conference! I've heard many talks on these topics, but nobody has put it all together like you two. That was the best!" To arrange a speaking engagement, please contact either author through their e-mails: Joan: JABGallagher12@aol.com; Dennis: smithnry@stanford.edu.