A Preliminary Study of Students' Asking Quantitative Scientific Questions for Inquiry-Based Climate Model Experiments
Catherine Gautier, R. Solomon September, 2005 Journal of Geoscience Education v53 n4 p432
This study, published in the Journal of Geoscience Education, features a cognitive apprenticeship method that was used to promote conceptual learning in a climate science course. Students conducted their own research using an up-to-date user-friendly climate model, with assigned reading serving as the basis for individual questions. Lectures and discussions helped to define group research questions. The analysis of students' questions showed improvement in students' ability to formulate questions in terms of the variable's applicability to the model. The authors concluded that when exposed to a climate change model and sufficiently prepared and supported for using it for quantitative inquiry, most students can rise to the task.
