Bioforge 1.1.1 Asking Questions & Defining Problems

Welcome to Bioforge Educator Lab, a Teach Wild North project for building middle school science instruction that is practical, rigorous, and alive with curiosity. In this video, we’re starting with the first Science & Engineering Practice: Asking Questions and Defining Problems. This is the beginning of real science learning. Not memorizing vocabulary first. Not copying definitions. Not marching through a textbook chapter like tiny academic prisoners. Science begins when students notice something in the world and realize: “Wait. What is happening here?” From there, they learn to turn observations into stronger questions, and vague problems into clear design challenges. In this overview, we’ll look at how students move through the Bioforge Question Forge: Notice → Wonder → Choose the Path → Refine → Investigate or Design We’ll also clarify the difference between a testable science question, an engineering problem, a research question, and an opinion or values question—because not every interesting question leads to the same kind of work. The goal is simple: Help students move from learning about science to figuring things out with evidence. Welcome to the forge.