Inquiry Wheel

After learning about the inquiry wheel, I'm disappointed my middle and high school classes never introduced it to me.  Science is rarely ever done in a specific order, let alone in a structured format.  Plus the scientific method doesn't include questions you ask throughout your study.  If our group were to just do our research in the steps of the scientific method we probably wouldn't get the best results we could.  I like how the inquiry wheel always circles back around to questions because after every step we take in the research, whether it's articulating an expectation, observing, or reflecting on our findings, we're always going to be asking new and better questions which will help us become closer to what we want to achieve.  We're going to have to do multiple tests because there can be many different things that could give us different results each time, but that's just a part of science.  If we weren't going to run a couple of tests, how would we know if our results are accurate or not?  When writing up the final report, however, that is when I will use the guideline of the scientific method because it thoroughly states all of the steps necessary to convey thoughts across in a written form.  But when it comes to actually doing the hands-on experiment, the inquiry wheel is the best option because science is a never ending process.
 
One example of an inquiry wheel.  (Photo credit:universaldomainexchange).