Inquiry Glossary

Problems, then questions, then knowledge

PQK Lab is an inquiry workshop, not a poster factory. This page keeps shared inquiry language on the trail from friction to knowledge. PQK resources are written in the same voice as the tracks: local, empirical, and allergic to fake prestige.

Resources fail when they become decorative worksheets that contradict the lab standard. For shared inquiry language, the lab's answer is inquiry-based STEM: notice a real problem, design a researchable question, gather evidence a peer could inspect, build a knowledge model, and only then communicate.

If shared inquiry language still lives at the level of a theme, PQK will not help a team jump to a showcase title. The sequence is the pedagogy. Problems, questions, knowledge.

The inquiry move this page trains

The habit here is defining terms so critique can be precise. Inquiry Glossary is meant to be used in a real setting. Read it, attempt the next object, then bring the attempt to critique.

Teams keep objects that make shared inquiry language visible: how to use this resource, what it will not do, related track, and related insight. Those objects are the curriculum. They are also the only honest rehearsal for a later science fair, design review, or classroom critique.

Mentors do not seize the build when the work is shared inquiry language. They ask for the trail. A visiting teacher should be able to follow the trail from the first noticing to the latest model without needing a speech.

how to use this resource
what it will not do
related track
related insight

How inquiry quietly turns into display

PQK watches shared inquiry language fail in predictable ways. The failure is usually not a lack of enthusiasm. It is a missing problem, an untestable question, or a knowledge claim that arrived before the evidence log.

Repair is always a return to the trail. Redesigning the poster comes last. For shared inquiry language, PQK would rather keep an ugly notebook with a live question than a beautiful board with a dead one.

treating a template as a project
copying example frictions as if they were observed
skipping the uncomfortable definitions

Problem framing for students

Problem framing is a craft, including when the work is shared inquiry language. Students learn to separate a grievance, a wish, and a problem that can be investigated. A grievance may be true and still too large. A wish may be kind and still untestable. A problem has a setting, a friction, and a possible observation.

From a framed problem, question design produces variants. Some variants are too broad. Some hide the answer. Some require a laboratory the team does not have. The surviving question is researchable because evidence could confirm or embarrass it. That is the PQK meaning of researchable questions in shared inquiry language.

Evidence habits then take over in shared inquiry language. Teams decide what they will count, photograph, measure, or trial, and how they will record a miss. Knowledge is not a paragraph of certainty. It is a model that can be revised when the next trial disagrees.

Evidence, models, and builds

Inquiry Glossary is meant to be used in a real setting. Read it, attempt the next object, then bring the attempt to critique. An evidence log for shared inquiry language is dated, located, and unit-aware. A knowledge model names causes, constraints, and uncertainties. An inquiry build is a test, a prototype, a protocol, or a data story that tries the model in the world.

Showcase communication about shared inquiry language is last because communication should carry knowledge, not conceal its absence. A poster that cannot point to a log is advertising. A talk that cannot admit a failed trial is theatre.

The resource is working when the next object is more local and more measurable.

Who uses this lab page

Students use it to see how shared inquiry language is supposed to feel in the hands: messy at first, then sharper. Families use it to support the trail without replacing the noticing. Schools use it to design inquiry clubs that do not collapse into craft hour.

Inquiry mentors use this page as a shared critique language for shared inquiry language: problem, question, evidence, model, build, communication. Learning partners use it to see how a challenge brief can stay student-scale.

PQK does not publish rankings, invent faculty celebrity, or quote unnamed testimonials about shared inquiry language. The lab's proof is the quality of questions and the inspectability of evidence.

What to do after reading

Return to resources or continue into a track. An inquiry about shared inquiry language should include a real setting, a first-pass problem, any question already attempted, and constraints of time, tools, and school context.

If you need a track for shared inquiry language, open the curriculum. If you need a format, use offerings and the compare page. If you are a school, describe the club or unit the module would sit inside. If you are a family, say how much authorship the student can actually sustain.

The lab will answer shared inquiry language with a smaller question more often than with a larger plan. That is a compliment to the work.

Lab language

Problem canvas: A one-page picture of setting, friction, who is affected, and constraints. Not a slogan.
Friction: The observable snag in a setting. A stranger should be able to see it or measure it.
Researchable question: A question an evidence log could embarrass with the time and tools on hand.
Evidence log: Dated, located, unit-aware notes, including misses. Memory is not a log.
Knowledge model: A revisable picture of causes, constraints, and uncertainties.
Inquiry build: A protocol, prototype, or data story that tests the model. Glue is not automatically a build.
Rival explanation: Another cause that still fits the same observations. A model that cannot face one is still a guess.
Showcase: Communication of knowledge already built, including uncertainty. Not a substitute for the trail.
Field note: A situated observation with time and place. Adjectives without those are not field notes.
Constraint: A limit of time, access, safety, tools, or permission that shapes the question.
Variable: Something the team actually changes or measures. Named variables that never appear in the log are theatre.
Trial: An attempt that can fail. Hidden trials make knowledge look cleaner than it is.
Transfer: What another team would need to try the model elsewhere. Earned by conditions, not by adjectives.
Trail: The inspectable chain from noticing to communication.
Setting: The real place where the problem lives. Global nouns are not settings.
Inspectability: Whether a visiting teacher can follow the work without a speech.