Using the Question Formulation Technique in AP Science

A group of AP STEM teachers from across Indiana used the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) to build the skill of asking questions alongside subject-specific learning in multiple areas of science. Below, you can explore how they used the QFT for AP coursework in chemistry, environmental science, physics, and biology

The group is part of the Advanced Placement Teacher Investment Program (AP-TIP), housed at the Center for STEM Education at the University of Notre Dame. The center strives to bring high quality STEM education to all young people, especially those in underserved communities.

Every year, AP-TIP enrolls a cohort of AP teachers, and the program provides professional development opportunities throughout the year to support AP coursework in schools.

The Right Question Institute presented at AP-TIP’s fall conference in 2022, and in 2023 the program’s science support team — consisting of Maureen McGrail, Kevin Morse, Melissa Burger, Jacob Bowman, and Kristi Phillippe — chose Make Just One Change, by RQI co-founders Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana, as the book to study for the year. They each piloted the QFT process in their classrooms and created a series of short video presentations to showcase their work.

Here are their classroom examples, and you can also watch their video presentations to learn more.

AP Chemistry (VIDEO)

Kevin Morse is an AP chemistry teacher who’s been using the QFT for about a year. He started by using it to introduce several unit topics, such as equilibrium and reversible reactions (using a demo showing the equilibrium principle in action) and thermodynamics (using the prompt “Diamonds are NOT forever” accompanied by the reaction equation of diamond breaking down into graphite). He likes the QFT best for unit introductions, transitions, or for topics he wants students to think deeper about, and he often uses QFT in connection with the demonstrations he does in class.

Morse’s students have already taken an intro chemistry course at some point before joining his AP class, so the concepts aren’t entirely new, just taught with more complexity. He says the idea with using the QFT for these old-but-new topics is, “You’ve seen things like this before, what do you need to know to understand it?” Using the QFT is about “taking the skills they already have, and building on them, and getting the student out of the habit of just doing what we’re telling them to do, in the way we’re telling them to do it.”

Chemistry QFT Example from Kevin Morse’s Class:

Context and purpose: Morse did this lesson on the first day of AP Chemistry. He wanted students to connect what they remember from Chemistry I about chemical reactions to AP Chemistry.

QFocus: The “Whoosh” bottle demonstration, a popular, dramatic demonstration of “rapid combustion” when alcohol and air are mixed in a bottle and then ignited. It shows the chemical reaction that occurs when the alcohol (specifically, ethanol) evaporates and mixes with oxygen.

Student questions: What chemical was left at the end? How much gas was created? C –> How and why did the gas change colors? O How much liquid is needed? Why did we use a water jug? O –> Is it a water jug? C What is the volume of the jug? Why is the bottle foggy? What liquid was that? What gas was released? What did the liquid do to the fire? Why did the fire go out?

Other thoughts and tips: Morse also uses the QFT to help students parse tricky topics. In a unit on oxidation reduction, he gives students an equation that can’t be balanced by the normal rules. Rather than answer the question, students “asked good questions that helped them understand what was confusing about balancing this equation.” Morse notes that students can ask a lot of questions, but improving upon the quality of questions takes time. They need to be given the opportunity and practice to get better at it. He also learned that students need to see their questions tied to something with weight and importance in the class (such as homework, a quiz, or a project) so that it doesn’t feel like they are just doing a process to do it, but rather involving themselves in “framing the unit in terms of things they are curious about.”

AP Environmental Science (VIDEO)

Melissa Burger, an AP environmental science teacher, starts her first QFT of the year by asking students, “Why is it important to be able to ask questions?” At first, her students say “to get the right answer.” However, with a little more time to think about it, they start to think about scenarios in which being able to ask good questions would be helpful. They mention times when something is new to them, or stressful. One students says, “when I buy my first new car.” Another mentions when their mind goes blank at the end of a job interview. Burger’s takeaway from this conversation is that “it is important to give students a reason why” when asking them to engage in the QFT.

Burger’s early QFTs gave students a statement to ponder. In Unit 2 of the AP Environmental Science curriculum (in which students learn about the biodiversity within ecosystems), Burger gives the QFocus: “Ecosystems can recover from disturbances in many different ways.” Students wondered about what types of disturbances were occurring, why different ecosystems may respond differently, and what sorts of things are different about ecosystems. In Unit 6 (Energy Resources and Consumption), Burger used a slightly more provocative statement, which inspired even more questions: “America NEEDS to change the way it produces energy.” Students asked, Why do we need to change? How could we change? Who says we need to change? Ultimately, Burger’s favorite QFT was one that centered around a set of data, which you can read more about below.

Environmental Science QFT Example from Melissa Burger’s Class:

Context and purpose: The purpose of this lesson was to give students practice in interpreting data and thinking about the relationship between different variables. Students watch a documentary in class called “Don’t Panic” (about human trends in recent history and how world populations are changing, sometimes more positively than we would expect) and then examine for themselves some of the data that was shared in the documentary, which comes from the Gapminder website.

QFocus: A graph similar to the one below showing income and lifespan in the world today, from the Gapminder website.

Student questions: Students asked about: a) How to read the graph: What determines the size of the circles? b) Patterns and trends: Why are there so many blue circles in the bottom left? Why do we see so many bubbles in a line going up? c) Outliers in the graph: What are two big red bubbles? d) Tying it into events in their life: Did COVID affect life expectancy? e) The information source itself: Who made this graph? Why was this made?

Other thoughts and tips: Burger also uses QFT when a current event happens that relates to their course. For example, in 2023, when a major train derailment happened in neighboring Ohio, Burger paused and took a day to do a QFT about it. She wanted students to think about how the event related to their course content and then do some research about it. For Burger, the benefit of QFT is that “it helps [students] get used to the rigor of an AP Science class.” She added, “They can no longer just regurgitate information for the test, they need critical thinking skills,” and the QFT helps them develop those skills.

AP Physics (VIDEO)

Jacob Bowman’s go-to QFocus is very simple: He holds a tennis ball and racquet ball out at the same height and has students watch what happens as he drops them. Before doing this, each student is given a sheet of computer paper. This part of the QFT is very quiet as students are observing what happens and writing down their questions. Bowman repeats the ball drop demonstration a few times so that students have ample time to form observations and write questions. He reminds them that whatever they think to ask is okay, as long as it is related to the QFocus and is a question. As he sees students slowing down with their questions, he encourages them to try to write at least one more.

Physics QFT Example from Jacob Bowman’s Class:

Context and purpose: This lesson introduces Unit 4 in the AP Physics curriculum, which is energy. The racquet ball and tennis ball demonstration connects to the idea of gravitational potential energy and how systems lose energy. The questions students ask during the demonstration help to determine what kind of data to collect in a subsequent lab investigation to better understand what they are seeing.

QFocus: Bowman holds a tennis ball and racquet ball out at shoulder height and drops them at the same time. He lets them bounce until they stop bouncing. Then, he repeats this demonstration several times as students write questions about what they are observing. Students often notice that the racquet ball bounces higher for a longer period, that the tennis ball stops bouncing faster, and that both reach a smaller height after each bounce.

Student questions: Students first ask questions individually, then they get into small groups and prioritize six to eight questions they consider to be most important from the combined questions, and they put those on poster paper. Then, the whole class comes together to narrow the questions even further. The top three to four questions make it onto yet another poster paper, and the class decides on the specific questions that will best help them guide an investigation into the QFocus they saw. One class’s final two questions were, “Why does the tennis ball stop bouncing before the racquet ball?” and, “How does the material the ball is made of and the bounce surface affect how the ball bounces?” Students then decide on how to test and collect data on these questions.

Individual Student’s Questions

Small Group Questions

Whole Class Questions

Other thoughts and tips: At the end of the process, Bowman has students reflect on what they thought about the process, what they learned, and even what could be improved about the process. Bowman has noticed that though students got stuck asking questions the first time, now they are asking more questions both within and outside of the QFT. To other teachers, Bowman suggests that you don’t need to start from scratch when coming up with QFocus ideas. In fact, “there’s no shame in using a diagram from a free response or multiple choice question that you already use.”

AP Biology (VIDEO)

Kristi Phillippe saw a statistic from Edutopia that said students who studied a lesson and then wrote their own questions outperformed students who simply restudied — by 33% on a follow up test. That was her initial motivation to invest in the QFT with her students. From there, she started giving students diagrams — of the endomembrane system, the ATP cycle, photosynthesis, and more — as QFocus prompts. She wanted students to see the whole process and all the associated vocabulary before they learned the material so that they could start to build background knowledge that would help them better digest and internalize the concepts later. Background knowledge is an important concept connected to disciplinary literacy that involves providing students with key material, concepts, and vocabulary before teaching a skill or concept. It is distinct from prior knowledge (which is the knowledge students already have from past experiences). As she did the QFT more and more with students, she saw them start to successfully use new vocabulary to talk about concepts they hadn’t learned yet, and be better able to see the whole picture and understand the underlying purpose behind these life science processes.

Biology QFT Example from Kristi Phillippe’s Class:

Context and purpose: This lesson introduces the endomembrane system in cells. Phillippe chose this topic in particular for the QFT because it’s one that students often find difficult to understand, and they often forget the underlying purpose of the system.

QFocus: A picture of the endomembrane system:

Students’ priority questions: 1. What organelles are part of the endomembrane system? 2. Are ribosomes part of the endomembrane system? 3. Why are proteins expelled from the cell? That last question is Phillippe’s favorite because “now they know that the purpose of the process is to expel proteins before we even talk or learn about the process.”

Other thoughts and tips: Phillippe has seen her approach thus far be successful in bringing out the key questions that were going to be answered by the unit anyway, introducing key terms, introducing students to the outcome of a process, and breaking down the barriers students have with content. Next, she wants to try using the QFT as a tool for review.

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