Give the sequence of planning for your science classroom using inquiry…

Concept

A science lesson planned on the inquiry approach must move learners through a fixed direction: first give them open, hands-on experience with materials (exploration), then let them use that experience to construct the target relationship or concept (concept-formation), and only then ask them to apply the newly-formed concept to a new, more demanding problem (application). Planning out of this order breaks the inquiry logic: a relationship cannot be soundly built without prior concrete experience, and a concept cannot be soundly applied before it has been formed.

Application to this item

1. Free exploration first: letting students play with water in a tub with different objects (step b) gives them open-ended, hands-on experience with floating and sinking materials, with no directed question yet.

2. Concept-formation next: asking students to determine the relationship between objects that float and sink (step a) has them use that exploration to construct the density-related relationship themselves.

3. Application last: asking students to design a small boat that can carry 1 kg of weight (step c) has them apply the just-formed relationship to a new, harder problem.

So the planning sequence that matches the inquiry approach is b → a → c.

Cross-check

Try any other order and the logic breaks: asking students to state the floating–sinking relationship before they have handled the objects (a before b) forces a claim with no experiential base, and asking them to design the boat before they have worked out the relationship (c before a) turns the design task into guesswork rather than an application of an understood idea. Only b → a → c keeps exploration, concept-formation, and application in their required order.