The inquiry/exploration procedure is based on the assumption that students can do research that will result in the construction of deeper knowledge. The procedure presents research as a never-ending, recursive cycle. Like real-world researchers, students produce their own questions, develop ideas or conjectures about why something is the way it is, and then pursue the answers. Through the Inquiry strand of Open Court Reading, the students integrate the knowledge they are gaining of the concepts presented in the program and take the initiative to expand that knowledge through independent and group research.