the act of seeking information by questioning Inquiry is the process of investigating a topic of interest in order to find out more about it.

the process of objectively investigating and collecting information regarding a particular subject in order to discover facts, theories, or perspectives

When doing research, students are expected to be involved in an ongoing process of gathering and examining information in different ways and for a variety of purposes. Depending on the stage of the research work, the topic, or the questions that students have generated, this process can focus on specific aspects of the topic being studied (e.g., the life cycle of the monarch butterfly) or be sustained throughout the study (e.g., the conditions that affect the migration pattern of the monarch butterfly). The former is an example of a short-term inquiry; the latter illustrates a sustained recursive (or repetitive) inquiry.