CSEL SCIENCE
Promoting Inquiry-based Learning
(middle school)
The
Kinetic and Potential Energy module illustrates CSEL Science’s inquiry-based learning approach. Students encounter a problem: a roller coaster cannot complete its loops. This problem gives students a reason to investigate how energy works in a system. Across the module, students explore focused questions such as how height, mass, speed, and elasticity affect energy and motion. They conduct hands-on investigations with rubber bands, dropped balls, and collisions; record and compare data; identify patterns; and use evidence to support claims. In the culminating session, students use a digital roller coaster simulation to test changes to the system and explain how those changes affect the coaster’s motion. This sequence supports sustained sensemaking: students build understanding over time, revise their ideas as they gather evidence, and use scientific models and data to explain a meaningful real-world problem.
Phenomenon-Based Learning
The module is anchored in a central phenomenon: a roller coaster cannot complete its loops because it lacks sufficient energy. This phenomenon is introduced through a science scenario rather than definitions, revisited across investigations, and resolved when students apply evidence and models to propose solutions.
Inquiry-based Learning
In addition to strong alignment with NGSS three-dimensional learning, Session 5: Roller Coaster Rescue reflects core principles of high-quality project-based learning (PBL). Students engage in an extended, authentic problem—repairing a broken roller coaster—over multiple sessions. The project is driven by a meaningful question that requires students to apply scientific concepts, analyze data, investigate sub-questions (e.g., how height, mass, and elasticity affect energy), conduct hands-on investigations, and use a digital simulation to model and revise their ideas. Learning culminates in a solution-focused task in which students use experimental and modeling evidence to justify design changes that enable the roller coaster to function. This structure aligns with PBL design elements such as authentic context, sustained inquiry, student collaboration, iterative reasoning, and public explanation of solutions, while maintaining conceptual rigor and coherence with NGSS expectations.