The objectives of the ONU Agenda 2030 (designed to accompany schools in the ecological and cultural
transition) and the actions outlined in 2020 in the European agenda for skills underline the importance of
bringing students closer to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects, and
consequently promote scientific education. According to a socio-constructivist perspective, we can
understand how students develop scientific thinking by observing their relationship with the social, cultural
and environmental situations they experience (Fleer, 2021). Among innovative teaching strategies, the
"inquiry-based learning" approach can represent a methodology suitable for stimulating the development
of scientific thinking in children, as it places inquiry at the center of the learning process (Worth
& Grollman; 2003; Belland, 2017). In this work, we will present some preliminary data from a case study
that aims to experiment with innovative pedagogical models to stimulate the interest of children in primary
school in scientific reasoning of STEM disciplines. The first phase of the project involved a class of pupils
attending the last year of primary school who participated in an educational experimentation activity on
learning physics based on an inquiry-based learning approach. The analysis of the data collected, using
observational tools, highlighted that the activity has stimulated the flexibility of reasoning; children have
built knowledge collaboratively and have shown a high motivational involvement
