Our FAQs might help with your questions.

Check out our Demos for step-by-step instructions.

The Web of Inquiry elements are based on the work of several researchers. Two of the main publications are:

Epistemic Forms and Epistemic Games: Structures and Strategies to Guide Inquiry (Collins and Ferguson, 1993) view or download

The Web of Inquiry: Computer Support for Playing Epistemic Games (Shimoda and Borge, 2016) view or download

Patterns
Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and classification, and they prompt questions about relationships and the factors that influence them.

• What do I notice after careful observation? Do any features or patterns emerge that are interesting?
• What patterns or relationships do I see in the data?
• Can I explain the causes of these patterns?

Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Explanation
Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts.

• Does it seem likely that some events or changes are causing others?
• What is the mechanism by which one change causes another?
• How can I design a system to cause the desired effect?

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
In considering phenomena, it is critical to recognize what is relevant at different measures of size, time, and energy and to recognize how changes in scale, proportion, or quantity affect a system's structure or performance.

• What should be measured or quantified in order to better understand this phenomenon?
• How can we describe the relationships between different measured quantities?
• Can I use a scale model or prototype to test my design?

Systems and System Models
Defining the system under study-specifying its boundaries and making explicit a model of that system-provides tools for understanding and testing ideas that are applicable throughout science and engineering.

• What is involved in this phenomenon? What is not?
• What are the components of the system under consideration? What are the relationships between them?
• How could I represent this system with a diagram or model?

Energy and Matter: Flows, Cycles, and Conservation
Tracking fluxes of energy and matter into, out of, and within systems helps one understand the systems' possibilities and limitations.

• What matter flows into or out of the system?
• What energy transfers occur into or out of the system?
• What physical or chemical changes happen within the system?

Structure and Function
The way in which an object or living thing is shaped and its substructure determine many of its properties and functions.

• What shapes or structures can I observe within this system?
• What role do these shapes or structures play in how the system functions?
• What features of the shape or structure of this design are desired by the user?

Stability and Change
For natural and built systems alike, conditions of stability and determinants of rates of change or evolution of a system are critical elements of study.

• Under what range of conditions does this system operate effectively?
• What changes would cause the system to become unstable or fail?
• How can I improve the stability of my design?