Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

We describe the initial prototypes of several Intelligent tutoring systems designed to build students' scientific Inquiry skills. These Inquiry skills are taught In the context of acquiring knowledge of principles from a mlcroworld that models a specific domain. We have Implemented microworlds for microeconomics, electricity, and light refraction. All of the systems are highly interactive; students can pose questions, conduct experiments by manipulating domain specific factors, and record results. Using protocol studies of expert and non-expert learners using these microworlds we identify important inquiry strategies. W e have represented these strategies formally, allowing the mlcroworld to detect effective and ineffective Inquiry strategies. W e conclude with a description of a partially implemented 'inquiry coach*. This coach will be incorporated into the microworlds and teach the Inquiry strategies in the context of the specific mlcroworld domain knowledge.