Oxford University Press: New York, 2000. 247 pp. ISBN 0-8412-3570-8. $39.95.

What is inquiry-based science? What are the hallmarks of an inquiry-based laboratory experiment? Teachers of science at all levels have come to the conclusion that students need much more experience in "doing" science. Most agree that exercises based in inquiry, where students use their laboratory skills to answer a pertinent question, are the most valuable. Unfortunately, many older laboratory manuals and books are limited in their ability to give students this experience; rather, students follow a cookbook-type procedure, taking measurements prescribed by the instructions for the procedure and answering a number of questions at the end. The reason that they need each data point or measurement may not always be clear. The decisions regarding what to measure and when to measure are already made for them. Transcribing tried-and-true procedures into inquiries and giving students control over design is time consuming and difficult, especially for inexperienced teachers.

The author of Inquiry-Based Experiments in Chemistry has transformed many familiar procedures into exercises that challenge high school students to think about how science methods can be used to answer questions. Each exercise is designed to give students freedom (within guidelines) to choose the method and materials needed. The experiments cover methods from qualitative analysis to calorimetry, and topics ranging from kinetics to solution chemistry. In each exercise the student information is organized into a stated purpose; background information; procedure, which is usually a sentence that begins with "design a procedure to..."; safety information; and questions for further thought. What needs to be presented to the student is short enough that it can be written on the board in the classroom rather than presented in a handout. Imagine yourself as a student, coming to class and finding a task presented on the board in which you become the scientist with a question to answer! For the teacher each experiment provides a list of options, helpful notes and suggestions, materials list, required time, sample procedures, common misconceptions, possible procedural and calculation errors, and suggestions for reporting the results.

An example of the flexibility of this book is found as soon as it is opened. The first four experiments are innovative ways to approach what many teachers use as a first quantitative exercise: density. These four experiments offer variations that increase in sophistication and depth, allowing teachers of any level to find an exercise suited to their students' ability and background. The difference between these four begins with how the question is stated: What is the identity of the metal? Is density an intensive or extensive property? What is the relationship between mass and volume in the same material? In these experiments, students may measure volume by water displacement, compare different forms of the same material, see the value of multiple trials, compare results between groups, or use graphical analysis.

In each experiment are options that teachers may choose to save time, to increase the complexity, to guide younger or less experienced students, or to divide the class to get more variety in the results. For example, Experiment 16 asks students to design a procedure to determine the heat of solution. Notes to the teacher suggest that the amount of water not be specified, allowing the students to determine what amount would yield precise results with less relative error. Stirring or not stirring the solid while it dissolves is another factor the students would need to consider in their design. Both present different possible sources of error. It is also suggested that using a solid with DH < 0 for half the class and DH > 0 for the rest allows demonstration of both endothermic and exothermic solution processes. The teacher could either specify the unit for DH or allow the students to decide which unit they want to report.

This book is a tremendous resource for the high-school teacher, offering suggestions about how to implement each experiment. In many cases, the author describes misconceptions that might lead to errors, allowing the teacher to anticipate and address these misconceptions either before or during the exercise. Suggestions are given on how to either prepare students ahead of time to anticipate problems, or if one should choose to do so, how to allow students to make these mistakes and then guide them in learning from the mistakes they make. It is flexible enough to be useful for most students from a strong middle school science program or 9th grade physical science through Honors and AP Chemistry. Finally, by gaining some experience in how laboratory can be taught using this approach, many teachers may feel more confident modifying some of their own procedures.