Making authentic science accessible to students

Authentic activities are important in promoting inquiry because they provide natural problem-solving contexts with high degrees of complexity. This study designed and studied effective inquiry tasks through transforming content, scientific thinking, and resources featured in scientists' authentic practices. This study investigated how 59 inner-city 6th grade students performed in real-time forecasting situations involving fronts and pressure systems. Forecasts were evaluated in terms of prediction agreement, meteorological entity consideration, explanation type, and scientific knowledge use because these four categories reflected inquiry features emphasized in the forecasting task. Results show that real-world situations that mapped closely onto students' content understandings, rather than those with naturally occurring complex patterns, helped students perform inquiry. Key ideas discussed in this paper include the importance of using authentic situations to develop rich understandings about scientific knowledge and the design of tasks that prepare students to participate in social practices valued by the science community.