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for all—even when some merely see it happen first with other students. Martin-Hansen has found her own keys to unlock the ways she has found to get students engaged and intrigued. Seeing student actions, their use of information and skills, and their insistence on evidence to support their ideas and evaluations provides encouragement to actually do inquiry itself—as a way to learn. As students interact with other students with different ideas and efforts, examples are advanced, and new visions of the nature of science emerge. It turns teachers into inquirers, learners, and models concerning their own teaching. And such actions tend to encourage teachers to place students in the same learning center; it changes what the teacher expects from students as well as what students expect of their science teacher.
Rather than verbalizing what inquiry is and how it looks, Martin-Hansen paints pictures of students’ learning and illustrates her own teaching and learning. It keeps teaching and learning first, exciting, and rewarding—just as what scientists and engineers do is central to their careers and daily living.
Martin-Hansen refers to concerns about open inquiry—something that the National Research Council (NRC) publication points out as the highest level of inquiry. It is what all scientists are about; but it remains difficult to develop in typical school environments. Martin-Hansen provides a rationale and shares her experiences as to how open-inquiry can be achieved. In fact, it is something that all of us have done as preschoolers. Young people are curious—full of questions, energized, and not content until their questions are answered. But, answers can too often be endpoints and also often not in concord with which we know about the natural world. Most teachers are too quick to deal with real inquiry and instead use short cuts by telling students what they should know (remember for tests?). It is often too difficult to involve all students with classes up to 30 students. But, examples