Students best learn science through a combination of science inquiry and language learning. This article presents a series of chemistry lessons on the naming of compounds. The weeklong unit focuses on patterns across compound names and chemical formulas and addresses several of the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013). The author first taught these lessons to a summer class of five students who had failed their grade 10 chemistry course. Since then, multiple student teachers have used these pattern-based inquiry lessons successfully with their regular chemistry classes. In this article, the author emphasizes the inquiry portions of the unit. Overall, students are more interested in naming compounds when they learn the concept through this inductive method, compared to the more traditional method of following rules presented by the teacher. The lessons support struggling students and make the topic more minds-on for those who find chemistry less challenging. Pattern identification within cooperative learning groups encourages students to support each other in their learning.