Once the driving and supporting questions have been identified to guide the issue definition of the MWEE, it is time to start planning and conducting investigations. It can be helpful to think about the types of questions that could drive these student investigations.
The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies developed Using Outdoor Environments to Foster Student Learning of Scientific Practices, a useful resource that recognizes three main types of investigative questions.
- Descriptive investigations involve describing and/or quantifying parts of a natural system.
- Comparative investigations involve collecting data on different populations/organisms, or under different conditions (e.g. times of year, locations), or making a comparison.
- Correlative investigations involve measuring or observing two variables and searching for a relationship.
The table on this page outlines the differences and similarities among the three types of investigations. Download the Three Types of Field Investigations table below (copied from page 5 of the resource) if your browser does not display iFrame.
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For more information, see: Windschitl, M., Dvornich, K., Ryken, A. E., Tudor, M., & Koehler, G. (2007) A comparative model of field investigations: Aligning School Science Inquiry with the Practices of Contemporary Science, School Science and Mathematics 1 (107), 367-390 for a complete description of the field investigation model.