She explained that the natural processes of geological erosion could be effectively duplicated and modeled accurately enough on a small scale to learn about geological erosion in the real world on the large scale. She explained that following the directions for examining the effects of different variables (i.e. material composition, slope angle of natural deposits, and the amount of water fall, etc.) would enable students to draw conclusions and answer quiz questions about geological erosion. Teachable Moments

A teachable moment arose repeatedly when three different work groups seemed to be having difficulty differentiating between the effects of multiple variables. The teacher took that opportunity to explain to the entire class how important it is to test all potential variables one at a time. During that instruction, she explained why altering multiple variables simultaneously undermined the value of any empirical experiment. Afterwards, the working groups returned...

Subsequently, they changed the water flow but kept the composition and slope angles constant.
Takeaway

The primary takeaway was that the active inquiry process seems to engage student interest much more than the traditional passive lecture approach. The secondary takeaway was the apparent value of using teacher-selected working group composition to increase cooperation and decrease distraction and disruption that can occur with random group assignment or group selection based on student preference.