Rachel,
you have captured the essential elements of inquiry learning in your summary of the lesson activity. SESE Science skills use the language of guess
Predicting
• guess and suggest what will happen next in structured situations
What will happen to the ruler if we place it in water?
I think it will float/I think it will sink
but for children to improve their science thinking they need to use their understanding to make a prediction based on their understanding. This often means that the children will need to play with a bowl of water and a range of items to get a sense of what is happening before they pose a starter question and predict in relation to it.
The child who has noticed that it isn’t just the mass of the object that matters, but its density (phrased as ‘heavy for its size’) is showing a deep understanding of a complex idea, and an idea that can be tested.