In collaboration with participating high school science teachers (n = 5), we identified in phase 1 a series of scientific inquiry tasks and a series of engineering design tasks from tasks available on the Internet or in major textbooks. Tasks were modified to align with Massachusetts’ high school biology curriculum and to reflect a common format:
- Question/problem given;
- Open (student-designed) procedure and solution;
- Selection of materials given; and, if necessary,
- Prompts for different steps given (e.g., for note taking/drawings of experimental design or engineering design, for argument development).
Table 1 shows brief sketches of possible inquiry and engineering design tasks. Additionally, we work with and prepare teachers on how best to implement these tasks based on cooperative learning, inquiry and engineering design principles, and to ensure similar conditions to allow comparison across classes.