The following is an excerpt from the revised Massachusetts ABE Science and Technology Curriculum Framework. For teachers interested in incorporating science into the ABE, GED, or ESOL classroom, this framework is an invaluable resource. You can get a copy at: www.doe.mass.edu/acls/frameworks

Inquiry
One way of choosing and incorporating science topics into your teaching is by doing what scientists do: ask questions about what interests you, make observations and reasoned explanations, then collect and analyze data and information from a variety of sources, and finally draw conclusions and share them with others. This process is often referred to as the scientific method. Here we call it inquiry. Learning and practicing the inquiry process is fundamental to life-long learning. An important step in this process is to ask questions. This curriculum framework encourages both teachers and learners to pose a variety of questions.

Asking Questions
Asking probing questions is a tried and true teaching strategy. Teachers naturally ask questions of learners to encourage them to think deeply, articulate their interests, share their experiences, help clarify or expand understanding, or to become aware of their thinking. It is also important to encourage learners to ask their own questions. Routinely modeling the questioning process for students encourages skills for independent learning. Who, what, where, why and how are often the beginnings of questions and explorations.

What might it look like to use questioning as a jumping off point for building an interesting reading and writing activity or for choosing a curriculum topic that involves science?

Pathways in to Science
A learner's concern: A learner is distracted because her young daughter has been diagnosed with lead poisoning. Her teacher might ask any number of questions to determine what the mother understands and what she might want to know more about. The questions posed might look like this:

• What is lead?
• What were the levels of lead found in your daughter?
• How did the doctors determine the level?
• What is considered a safe range?
• Can lead be removed from a child's system?
• How do you think the lead got into your daughter's system?
• How can you prevent other children in the household from getting lead poisoning?
• What other questions do you have?

These questions and many others might lead to an inquiry into a variety of science topics such as lead poisoning, circulatory system, makeup of blood, where lead comes from, what it is used for, and so on.

An observation activity: On a lovely fall day, ask your learners to sit outside for 10 minutes and record what they see, hear, smell, feel. Invite them to think of questions that might arise as they are making their observation. When they have gathered back in the classroom, ask learners to share their questions and list them on a flip chart. Check in with the class to see if there are questions that they would like to pursue as a group, such as the following:

• Why do leaves change colors in fall?
• Where does the trash go that collects in the street drains?
• Why does the air by the marsh smell like rotten eggs?

Classroom sharings: Often questions connected to science and technology are naturally embedded in accounts of family events, cultural practices, children's schooling, etc., that are shared by learners in the classroom. For example, from a learner's recounting of her family's tradition of baking "unleavened" bread for a particular holiday, questions to explore might be:

• What makes bread unleavened?
• What are different ways to leaven?
• What's the difference between baking powder and baking soda? Between these and yeast?

And you are off exploring what happens to these different substances when you add water, when they are heated, when they are mixed with different ingredients with and without gluten, crossing over a variety of science concepts that include gases, elasticity, volume, acids and bases, etc. A possible activity to try comes from "Tons of Provocative and Socially Acceptable Things to Do with Balloons Under the Guise of Teaching Science." The directions invite you to put yeast, gelatin, and warm water in a soda bottle capped with an uninflated balloon and watch the slow expansion. You might try it with other leavening agents as well and see if there is a difference.

Class readings: You never know when a science or technology topic might appear in a novel, poem, or article that the class is reading. A well-placed question asked by the instructor can stir the natural curiosity of the class. One example from an ABE teacher is recorded below.

Developing Curriculum
You and your students are excited about exploring a topic or question that involves science. Now what? You could look up helpful information in the library, ask an expert, or search the Web. In addition, we recommend that one of the most effective ways to organize an instructional activity around exploring science questions or problems is first to turn to Strand 1: "Doing Science & Technology/Science & Technology as Inquiry and Problem Solving." The Learning Standards that accompany this strand outline the various activities of the inquiry process. And what is the inquiry process? An effective way to explore a question or solve a problem!

Cara Anaam, Roxanne Heller, Joan Keiran, Ethel McCoy, Garrett Sullivan, Judy Titzel, and Patricia Vorfeld all worked on the 2001 Revision Team for the Massachusetts ABE Science and Technology Curriculum Framework.