Structure of the Extended Color Investigation

by Barry Kluger-Bell

An extended inquiry investigation of color (10 to 12 hours of independent work) is at the heart of the Institute for Inquiry's 12-day Inquiry Workshop. This essay describes the structure and thinking supporting that investigation. Our hope is that, by sharing our work, we can give others the opportunity to adapt and expand, creating new ways for teachers to use inquiry to teach science.

Preparing for the Extended Investigation

Our workshop participants come to the Institute with varied experience in the process of inquiry. In order to help them become better at this process, we prepare them in a number of ways.

During the first week of the Institute, workshop participants study light, reflection, and shadow. This gives them some content background, which is helpful in their thinking about color.

Even more important, we engage in activities designed to build the skills, attitudes, and "habits of mind" necessary to meet the demands of extended inquiry. These include an orchestrated set of hands-on activities on light, reflection, and shadow, each lasting about an hour, and a short inquiry investigation on shadow or reflection.

These activities give people hands-on practice working with materials, experience working in groups, and a chance to begin to follow through on their own questions in the short inquiry. We also present exercises, discussions, and readings designed to enhance skills of observation and questioning. We introduce the use of science journals for both record keeping and self reflection. In addition, we work on the process of constructing conceptual models of the phenomena and concepts of light and color. We ask participants to make concrete representations of their idea by both drawing and making three-dimensional models. We build this skill by first showing a representation for a model of reflection, and then by guiding people to construct and represent a model for shadows. This prepares participants for building their own conceptual model for the phenomena of colored light and pigment that they encounter in their investigation of color.

Creating both a physical and psychological environment conducive to inquiry is another critical part of preparing for the extended color inquiry. We attempt to set up the physical space so there can be a free flow of communication and information between the small (2- to 4-person) inquiry groups.

Easy access to materials is also an important part of the design. One of the keys to our work is creating and maintaining the "supply cabinet" that fills a number of purposes. This space, which is always accessible, is kept constantly filled with paper, markers, scissors, rulers, stop-watches, toothpicks, clay, tape, and other general supplies that might be needed for any hands-on inquiry.

We create the psychological environment, in part, by trying to set people at ease about "right or wrong" ways to do things, and about finding "right or wrong" answers. We let them know that the process can be exciting and rewarding, but can also be difficult and frustrating.

Getting Started

The starting point for any inquiry is the learner's exploration of materials or phenomena. All designs for starting points share the following characteristics:

• First, they engage people's curiosity. Curiosity is the driving force behind inquiry.
• Second, they define a domain (a range of concepts and phenomena) for investigation.
• Third, they serve to generate questions which could lead to investigations.
• And finally, they provide materials and appropriate tools for investigation (e.g. colored light sources, watercolors, and color chromatography techniques).

The portion of our workshop on color entails a relatively large domain. We want to offer a broad variety of "entry points" --- questions or phenomena that can help participants get started and a range of tools useful in the investigation.

We start by giving participants a number of brief (half-hour) experiences over a period of several days. Each experience gives participants the opportunity to raise questions. We call these experiences "tapas," a Spanish word for the small dishes or tastes of food served in restaurants called "tapas bars."

Included in the tapas are brief demonstrations and discussions about ideas that could be useful in helping people make sense of their investigations. These could include underlying organizational ideas, reminders about previously learned ideas, or suggestions on organizing results. We called these pieces "thinking tools."

At several points during the tapas, we ask the group to share their observations and questions with one another. This is done both working with the whole group and working in smaller groups (maximum 8 people). These questions, which are recorded on chart paper or sentence strips, serve as a source of questions for extended investigations.

This process serves a number of purposes. First, it helps people identify others with similar interests with whom they might later form a small inquiry group. Second, it makes the group feel they are engaged in a common intellectual endeavor. As part of this common endeavor, people get ideas and inspiration from each other's questions; they are helped to find their personal area of interest; and they share information toward the goal of building conceptual understanding.

Focusing the Inquiry

After the initial exploration done during the tapas, we have the participants find a narrower focus and form investigation groups for more extended work. In presenting the color investigation, we go through a process we call "setting the stage," which has the following steps:

1. Collect and record more questions. Talk about questions which are amenable to investigation.
2. Identify general broad categories of questions and divide the questions into these categories.
3. Divide participants, by self-selection, into subgroups by interest in the various categories. Send people off to talk in subgroups.
4. In these broad groups, participants share their interest and find one or two others interested in more specific questions within the broad category. They form separate 2- to 4-person investigation groups.
5. Have each investigation group identify their focus question (or area of interest) and list materials needed
6. Collect materials and begin investigation.

This process serves several purposes. It highlights the use of questions in initiating investigations and forces people to think consciously about what they want to investigate. It also provides a way to create groups by interest in content, rather than by purely social means.

After the groups are formed, each one is asked to produce a page with the names of group members, their focus questions (or a set of closely related questions or an area for further exploration), and a list of materials they will need to begin investigating their "question." In addition to helping our staff find the materials to get the group going, the list also tells us whether or not the group knows what they are going to do to start their investigation.

Focused Investigation

The color investigation is done in blocks of one to three hours over a period of three days. Total investigation time is about 10 to 12 hours. Large blocks of time are important for good inquiry, but we always make sure there are breaks in the intensive work during the day. We set up the space so that groups who need similar materials or working conditions (e.g. those who need bright light, or total darkness) are working in close proximity to one another.

Groups start with a variety of questions and go down idiosyncratic paths of investigation. However, since we create a limited domain for investigation (i.e. color), these paths often cross. There are many related discoveries and questions that arise. We encourage informal sharing of discoveries or questions between groups, often suggesting visits to other groups for consultation. We also set aside more formal times for sharing information. For example, we have a mid-point sharing time in which each group gets five minutes to talk about where they are in their work. This sharing contributes to the idea that all participants are engaged in a common intellectual pursuit.

Facilitation

Vital to this portion of the investigation is good facilitation. The process of inquiry, like most creative processes, is often a meandering path with peaks and valleys, moments of triumph and moments of frustration, and times when you feel that you know less than when you started. People get stuck; they experience what Piaget called "disequilibrium." They lose sight of their objective, or simply miss opportunities. These are the times when intervention is most critical.

The first job of the facilitator is to ascertain what is going on in groups and for individuals. We gather information by carefully watching the process, asking participants to explain what they are doing or how they are approaching a problem, even reading body language and expression. We use this information to determine what kind of intervention is appropriate.

There are many possible interventions used for various reasons. Sometimes, we will point out something that participants may not have seen (e.g., "Have you noticed the colors around the edges of your chromatography strip?" or "Did you see what happened when you moved that prism?") Sometimes we will suggest that one group look at another group's work, or suggest that they try something again. We may point out a different path to consider pursuing, or ask them to consider using a new thinking tool, a way of considering their work that might help them think in a different direction (such as asking questions like "What does the pigment do to the light?" or "What colors of the light spectrum originally came from our light source?"). We may also suggest that they draw, represent, or graph something that they see.

One important intervention is when we suggest that a group has come to a point where they could benefit by turning to experts or by looking in books. These references can plan a vital role when used at the proper time.

Sometimes, the best intervention is to step back and not do anything at all. No matter how we approach the facilitation process, we try to establish a relationship in which the investigators feel free to ignore our suggestions if they don't seem to fit.

Another important part of the facilitator's role is to assess the personal interactions in the groups and intervene if help is needed. These interventions can be minor, such as directing a question to a quiet member of the group, or major, such as splitting the group in two.

As the color investigations proceed there are a number of things that we strongly encourage. First, we encourage a certain amount of record-keeping, asking each group to determine how to keep track of what they try and what they find out. Second, we encourage the organization of data in diagrams, charts, graphs, or other forms that might help participants see the bigger picture and make sense of their findings. Finally, we encouraged them to use their results to build conceptual models in order to understand the color phenomena with which they are dealing.

Adding Information

In the course of building an understanding of color, participants eventually need to know the role of the eye in creating the colors that we see. In order to fill that need, about 80 percent of the way through the investigation we give a lecture on how the eye sees color. In addition to giving critical information for building understanding, this illustrates that there is a place for turning to experts or references during the course of a hands-on inquiry. That place is when sufficient background work is done to both give the information a context and create a need for that information.

Synthesis

At the end of the time set aside for focused investigation of color, we give each group ten to fifteen minutes to share their investigations with the whole group. We give them 30 minutes to prepare themselves and ask that they tell both about what they learned and their process of investigation. Although inquiry often brings up as many questions as it answers, it is important to create an opportunity to consolidate learning that has happened to this point. The 30-minute preparation time gives groups a chance to discuss their progress and solidify their learning.

Even more important is the content learning of the group as a whole. We orchestrate the order of the group sharing based on what we believe each group has to contribute to building the larger model of color. As each group shares its experiences and information, we encourage group interaction, asking questions of each other and continuing a dialogue. We also elicit and point out discoveries that we may have noticed but participants may have omitted. Active facilitation of this whole group discourse helps the group come to a broader and deeper conceptual understanding based on the combined findings from all their work.

Conclusion

Over the years, we have modified and refined this inquiry structure to a point where it works quite well. We have found it very effective for creating a learning experience to which our participants respond very strongly, on both a cognitive and affective level. We hope that this effort to articulate the structure and rationale for our design will help you in your efforts to design your own inquiry learning experience.