Flipping the Classroom Using the 5E Instructional Model to Promote Inquiry Learning in Online & Hybrid Settings

Nontraditional teaching modalities have become the new normal, where hybrid and online education are bound to become an integral component of education at all levels. This paper suggests the coupling of the flipped classroom model with the 5E instructional model for students to develop science understandings and practices in a hybrid and online environment. We demonstrate our model through a middle school unit on animal adaptation and natural selection. In our model, the teacher involves students with asynchronous online activities that raise students’ curiosity and help them develop the concepts before the face-to-face or synchronous class activities. The complementary interactive online asynchronous and face-to-face or synchronous activities aim to promote critical thinking and communication on one hand and NGSS Core Ideas and Science Practices on the other. This paper concludes that science teachers can benefit from this model to engage students in inquiry-based activities in both hybrid or remote learning.