This lesson can be used at the beginning of the year to teach students how to conduct inquiries using the essential features described in "Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards" (NRC 1996). The lesson is divided into several activities which may be spread over several days or interspersed with your other beginning-of-the-year lessons. Students learn the essential features of inquiry through direct experience by conducting an initial field-based inquiry, which helps them come to an early understanding that science is not linear. (Contains 5 figures.)