Vol. 12, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2001

“Inquiry science is really science for all children,” says Dot Moss, a project development specialist at the Anderson-Oconee-Pickens Hub of the South Carolina Statewide Systemic Initiative, in a workshop on teaching science to special needs students at the 2001 Next Step Institute.

Workshop panel members Kathy Whitmire, principal of the James Brown Elementary School in Walhalla, SC; special education teacher Judy Brunhuber and fourth-grade teacher Tammy Garland, also from James Brown Elementary School; and Carole McAfee, who teaches special education at Ambler Elementary School in Pickens, SC, shared their experiences working with different types of special needs students. They agreed that children in all types of special needs classrooms enormously benefited from inquiry-centered science.

“Kits level the playing field,” says Garland. For example:

• Kits challenge all styles of learning and perception (concrete and abstract). Kits allow students to learn in the way they learn best—touching, observing, arguing, listening.
• Special needs students learning science by inquiry display more interest and enthusiasm in class, want to come back to school the next day, and can apply what they’ve learned to their real lives. Many show interest in science careers.
• Kits are not dependent on reading and writing skills. Poor readers can learn process skills and inquiry without the stress of reading a cumbersome text or writing an assessment. Students can be assessed through oral presentations, demonstrations, labeled diagrams, charts, or teaching the concepts to others.
• Kits build confidence. Students who can’t keep up in the traditional classroom can understand the concepts and are able to demonstrate and teach them to others.
• Kits break classroom stereotypes. They allow special needs students to become the star pupils and make it clear that every child is gifted.
• Students can be grouped to bring out their best talents and feel safe enough to take risks, or individuals can work on a single kit at their own speed.

Kits have advantages for teachers, too. Brunhuber was surprised by how few accommodations she had to make for her special needs students. Garland reported that the kits let her integrate other skills, such as reading, math, research, and social skills, into science class.

In sum, kits give students a chance to excel. Inquiry science allows all students to be mainstreamed, and works just as well in the self-contained special education classroom as it does in an integrated regular classroom. Kits give students who are otherwise ignored or frustrated in a traditional classroom—no matter what their special needs—an opportunity to be challenged to meet their potential. —F.A.