Providing or helping students develop meaningful questions that they can answer in the process of inquiry in the classroom is extremely important. If students are able to personally connect to the material, they will be more likely to learn, and in order for this connection to occur, they must be able to understand the material at a level that allows them to be able to question what they are learning then explore and discover their questions. Also, by presenting questions to students, they are becoming engaged in the learning process, and may become interested or excited about the topic through the pre-lesson questions. Questions, whether they are presented by the teacher or student-driven, are important because they engage the students for inquiry, which is to increase knowledge and understanding-a main focus in the learning process. Questions provide structure to the learning goal, they help develop the main ideas or direction for the students to follow and focus on.
Below are examples of inquiry-based questions for the following benchmark:
SCI.III.4.E.1-Explain how fossils provide evidence about the nature of ancient life
-What clues could have been deduced from a fossil to conclude that it came from a large, meat eating dinosaur?
-If you could interview a paleontologist who just pieced together an ancient whale, what questions would you ask him?