Faodail Flair

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Inquiry-based science sounds wonderful in theory.

Students encounter a phenomenon, ask questions, investigate their ideas, and use evidence to build explanations. Their questions help shape the direction of the unit.

Then the teacher asks, “What questions do you have?”

A few students begin writing. Others look around the room, waiting to see what someone else puts down. Some insist that they do not have any questions.

That does not necessarily mean students are uninterested in the phenomenon. Generating a useful scientific question is a skill, and many students need more support with it than a blank sticky note and an open-ended prompt provide.

This is one reason a Driving Question Board may not work immediately.

What Is a Driving Question Board?

A Driving Question Board, often called a DQB, is a collection of student questions connected to a scientific phenomenon or problem.

Students add questions after examining the phenomenon. The class then looks for relationships among the questions, groups similar ideas, and identifies areas that could be investigated during the unit.

The board is meant to remain active. Students return to it as they gather evidence, revise their thinking, answer questions, and develop new ones.

A DQB is not simply a bulletin board covered with sticky notes. Its value comes from what the class does with the questions after they are posted.

Why Students May Struggle to Generate Questions

Asking a scientific question requires more than curiosity.

Students must:

• Understand enough of the phenomenon to notice something important
• Recognize what they do not yet understand
• Turn that uncertainty into a question
• Find the English needed to express the question
• Decide whether the question is worth sharing publicly

That is a significant language and thinking task.

Some students are also accustomed to answering teacher questions rather than generating their own. They may believe that school questions are supposed to have one correct answer, and they worry that their question will sound wrong or too simple.

Multilingual learners may have a thoughtful question but not yet have the English structure needed to write it. Other students may need time to process the phenomenon before they know what they are wondering.

When a student writes “I don’t know,” the problem may not be a lack of curiosity. The student may not know how to enter the task.

Students Need Something Specific to Notice

A phenomenon should create a genuine need for explanation, but it also has to be accessible enough for students to examine.

If students cannot tell what they are looking at, they may not have enough information to ask a useful question. If the explanation is obvious, there may be little left to wonder about.

Before asking for questions, give students time to observe.

Prompts might include:

• What do you notice?
• What changes?
• What stays the same?
• What seems unusual?
• What pattern do you see?
• What does not match what you expected?

Students can record their observations independently before talking with a partner. This keeps the first student to speak from determining what everyone else notices.

Observation gives students raw material for their questions.

Build a Bridge From Noticing to Wondering

“Write a question” can feel too open, especially when students are still trying to understand the phenomenon.

It may help to separate the process:

1. What do you observe?
2. What does that observation make you wonder?
3. Which question could help us explain what is happening?

For example:

I notice that the liquids form separate layers.

That observation might lead to:

I wonder why some liquids stay above the others.

After further discussion, the question might become:

How do the density and viscosity of different liquids affect the way they form layers?

Students do not need to produce the final version immediately. The class can develop more precise scientific language as the unit continues.

Model the Process Without Supplying Every Question

Students may need to hear what it sounds like to move from an observation to a question.

A teacher might think aloud:

I notice that this material changes shape when it is heated. That makes me wonder whether the amount of heat affects how quickly the change happens.

The purpose of the model is to show the thinking process, not to give students the question they are expected to copy.

One example may be enough. Too many teacher-generated questions can unintentionally turn the DQB into another activity where students try to guess what the teacher wants.

Provide Language Supports

Sentence frames can reduce the language demand without removing the thinking.

Students might begin with:

• I notice _____, so I wonder _____.
• Why does _____ happen when _____?
• How does _____ affect _____?
• What causes _____?
• What would happen if _____?
• Why is _____ different from _____?
• Is _____ always true?
• What evidence would help us explain _____?

Students can also begin by speaking their question to a partner, drawing what they are wondering about, or writing in their home language before developing an English version.

An imperfectly worded question can still contain strong scientific thinking.

Give Students Private Thinking Time

Asking students to announce questions immediately can favor the quickest and most confident speakers.

A brief period of private observation and writing gives more students a chance to develop an idea. Partner conversation can come next, followed by whole-class sharing.

A simple sequence might be:

1. Observe independently.
2. Record two or three details.
3. Discuss one observation with a partner.
4. Write at least one question.
5. Revise the question after talking.
6. Add it to the class board.

Students are more likely to contribute when they have had time to test the idea privately first.

Accept Questions That Are Not Yet Investigable

Students may initially ask questions that are too broad, too narrow, or impossible to investigate in the classroom.

That is not a reason to discard them.

The class can examine questions together:

• Which questions seem related?
• Which could we investigate?
• Which might require research?
• Which are asking nearly the same thing?
• Can we revise a broad question into something more focused?
• Which questions might be answered by the same investigation?

This sorting and revising is part of learning how scientific questions work.

The teacher still has an important role. Student questions can guide the learning without requiring the curriculum to follow every question exactly.

Do Not Abandon the Board After the First Day

A DQB loses much of its purpose if students create it at the beginning of a unit and never see it again.

Return to the board after investigations, readings, demonstrations, or discussions.

Ask students:

• Which question can we answer now?
• What evidence helped us answer it?
• Does our answer lead to another question?
• Which questions need to be revised?
• Has our thinking about the phenomenon changed?
• What are we still unable to explain?

Students may generate better questions later in the unit because they know more. Background knowledge does not eliminate curiosity. It often gives students enough understanding to ask more focused questions.

What Progress Can Look Like

A successful Driving Question Board does not require every student to produce a sophisticated scientific question on the first attempt.

Early progress may look like:

• Students identifying details they find confusing
• Students asking a question instead of waiting for an answer
• Students using observations to explain why they have a question
• Students revising questions after learning new vocabulary
• Students recognizing connections among classmates’ questions
• Students returning to the board to evaluate what they now understand

Those are meaningful steps toward scientific inquiry.

Final Thoughts

Driving Question Boards do not automatically produce student ownership simply because students write the questions.

Students need an accessible phenomenon, time to observe, language support, examples of the questioning process, and opportunities to revise their ideas. They also need to see that the class will genuinely return to their questions.

Inquiry requires students to sit with uncertainty, and that can be uncomfortable at first. The teacher’s role is not to remove all of that uncertainty. It is to provide enough structure for students to remain in the process without becoming completely lost.

A DQB becomes useful when it is treated as an ongoing record of the class’s thinking, not a one-day collection of sticky notes.