One of the difficulties in establishing an inquiry-based classroom is determining whose inquiry will be pursued, the teacher's or the students'. Teachers find that students often don't ask *researchable questions. Also, teachers fear they don't know enough science content to support students' learning if the children ask their own questions. Or, teachers believe that they will not be able to coordinate all the various investigations. In response to these concerns, among others, teachers frequently declare the question that the entire class will explore together.

Although commercial and university laboratories do have research agendas and principal investigators that determine the area of study, specific lines of inquiry most often are developed by the interests of individual scientists. Therefore, the ability to delineate a course of study, typically represented by a research question or series of questions, is critical. The question(s), of course, must be **good. But, what makes a question good?

Attributes such as: clear, defined, original, etc., are often cited as some of those that contribute to making a question good. If students are aware of the characteristics of good questions, they are more likely to ask questions containing them.

The question itself, if it contains attributes like those mentioned above, will help the student decide what procedures should be organized and what evidence must be collected to answer it. Students can revisit their questions during the course of the investigation to assess if their procedures and evidence will indeed address the question asked.

Finally, the evidence must be analyzed, interpreted, and represented to develop an argument that fits the results obtained. This argument must then be communicated to a larger audience in such a way as to convince them of the interpretation made by the researcher. The ability to convince is solidly based on the quality of the evidence in relation to the question asked.