Session 2: Introduction

You can learn a lot by taking something apart and putting it back together. In the process, you observe each of the pieces and notice how it all works together. In the engineering world, they call this idea “reverse engineering.” For example, a company might reverse engineer a competitor’s product to either duplicate it or make an improved product — either way, they are trying to figure out how it was made. Similar to engineers, you can learn a lot about education by “reverse engineering” other teachers’ classrooms to figure out how they are making learning happen.

In this session, you’ll explore how inquiry-based learning happens in a middle school science classroom by reading about and watching an outstanding inquiry-based lesson.