INQUIRY

 APPLICATION  INSTRUCTIONAL  MODEL  (I-­‐AIM)  

NGSS  scientific  and  engineering  practices  in  italicized  red.  
 

EPE   STAGE   FUNCTION   DESCRIPTION  

Experience   Provide  students  with  an  experience(s)  with  a  relevant  phenomenon,  or  consider  
Phenomena   a  familiar  experience(s).  

Question  
Pose  a  question  about  phenomena  that  will  drive  the  overall  inquiry  and  provide  
Establish  a  Question   a  sense  or  purpose.  That  question  should  be  comprehensible,  relevant  and  
motivating.    Asking  Questions  and  Defining  Problems  
Experiences

Invite  students  to  share  initial  ideas  about  possible  answers  to  the  question.  
Elicit  Students’  Initial  
Probe  students’  ideas  to  find  out  how  they  understand  the  question.    Developing  
Ideas   (mental)  models  (to  explain  how/why  the  phenomena  appears  

Provide  opportunities  for  students  to  explore  scientific  phenomena  related  to  
the  question  to  find  and  understand  patterns.  This  includes:  
• Conducting  investigations  to  try  out  and  test  ideas.  Obtaining  
Explore  and    Investigate  

Explore  Phenomena   Evaluating  and  Comunicating  Information,  Planning  and  Carrying  out  
For  Patterns   Investigations  
• Making  and  recording  observations  of  first  hand  experiences  Planning  
and  Carrying  out  Investigations  
Patterns

• Looking  for  patterns  in  observations  Analyzing  and  Interpreting  Data  

Explore  Ideas  About   Provide  opportunities  for  students  to  share  their  ideas  about  patterns  and  
Patterns   evidence  for  the  patterns  Obtaining  Evaluating  and  Comunicating  Information  

Compare/come  to  agreement  about  observed  patterns  

• Identify  and  resolve  disagreements  
Identify  Patterns  
• Articulate  and  document  the  identified  patterns    Using  Mathematics  
and  Computational  Thinking  
Provide  opportunities  for  students  to  express  their  ideas.    They  can:  
• Share  their  own  explanations  (reasons)  for  the  patterns  
Students  Explain  
• Share  ideas  of  how  their  explanations  answer  the  question.  
Patterns  
Engaging  In  Argumentation  from  Evidence,  Developing/Revising  (mental)  
Models,  Constructing  Explanations    
Explanations

Explain  

Provide  accurate  and  comprehensible  representations  of  the  scientific  idea(s).  

Introduce  Scientific  
This  is  a  grade  level  appropriate  scientific  explanation  for  the  patterns  students  
Ideas   observed.    Obtaining  and  Communicating  Information  

Help  students  compare  their  own  explanations  with  the  scientific  explanation  
Compare  Student  and   provided  by  the  teacher.  Students  can  compare,  test  and  revise  their  own  
Scientific  Ideas   explanations.  Students  use  the  scientific  explanation  to  answer  the  question.  
Evaluating  and  Communicating  Information  

Provide  opportunities  for  students  to  apply  the  scientific  explanation  in  similar  
Apply  to  Similar  
context  with  support  through  modeling  and  coaching.  Students  can  answer  
Contexts  with  
questions  about  new  experiences  involving  the  same  patterns  and  explanation.  
Apply  

Support   Using  (mental)  Models,  Constructing  Explanations  

Application

Apply  to  New   Provide  opportunities  for  students  to  apply  the  scientific  explanation  in  novel  
Contexts  with  Fading   contexts  with  diminishing  support  from  the  teacher.  Using  (mental)  Models,  
Support   Constructing  Explanations  

Reflect  on  changes  in  

Help  students  compare  their  new  ideas  to  their  initial  ideas  and  reflect  on  how  
their  thinking/  
their  ideas  have  changed  and  why.  
Reflect  

understanding  

  Reflect  on  doing   Help  students  reflect  on  what  they  have  been  doing  and  how  it  is  like  what  
science   scientists  do.  

 
Developed  by  Kristin  L.  Gunckel,  Christina  V.  Schwarz,  Edward  L.  Smith  and  Beth  A.  Covitt    Michigan  State  University