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The author, an elementary school teacher, describes a way of incorporating an inquiry approach to teaching by refining a crayfish unit originally found in an ESS (Elementary Science Study) module. She used a "coupled-inquiry" approach, a combination of guided-inquiry and open-inquiry, with an application used for assessment purposes. In five or six class periods using a few, easy-to-find materials, students can investigate crayfish in the classroom. She sought to have students learn both process and content skills through both a guided and an open-inquiry approach. Later, she used the same investigations with her eighth-grade life science students and even with her college-level preservice teachers. All the students marveled at the behavior of the small, brown lobsterlike creatures. The author found that the coupled-inquiry model was useful in enabling her to achieve her teaching objectives while enabling her students to design their own investigations. (Contains 4 resources.)

Discusses the application of a crayfish in helping science teachers provide inquiry-based teaching to school children. Background information on crayfish; Materials used in the activity; Procedure of the science activity.

Focuses on a classroom activity for grades four to eight, for the investigation of crayfish. Background of crayfish; Materials and procedure of the activity; Tips on caring for crayfish.