Some Liberty Middle School students got a hands-on introduction to a new program during an open house Saturday.A blindfolded student guessed that he had been sticking his hand in a bowl filled with oats — something he had helped bake with at home a few days earlier.Teacher Alyssa Emert didn’t say if the answer was correct, but she praised the method he used to reach a conclusion.“You connected the experience to real life,” Emert said. “That’s what iTeam’s all about.”Liberty will pilot the iTeam program this year with some seventh-graders who opted to participate in the inquiry-based learning style.The teaching method puts students at the helm of questioning and making connections, said iTeam social studies teacher Misty Williams.“It’s not just finding the answer but finding out why it’s the answer, and learning for them to question themselves,” Williams said. “Even if we give them an answer, they should be thinking, ‘How did she get to that answer?’”A brochure from the school defines it as “a student-centered and teacher-guided instructional approach that engages students in investigating real world questions that they choose within a broad thematic framework.”Emert, the iTeam math teacher, said each discipline taught will work together on themed concepts so the students can connect ideas from one class to another.The teachers will “loop” with the students, so they’ll all move to teach these groups in eighth grade next year, Emert said.“[The parents] are excited,” she said.