After the project’s challenge question is stated and the class begins inquiry with an activity such as Know/Need-to-Know/Ideas, students work in small groups and individually. The groups have inquiry questions their members will investigate.
Here are some questions from two of the groups in Helen Hurgin’s class’s “How can we reduce our school’s energy usage and related costs?” project.
To begin investigation of an inquiry question that was listed on the class Know/Need-to-Know/Ideas chart or another inquiry question, groups can create their own (think I )Know/Need-to-Know/Ideas chart.
Individually or with a partner, group members connect to resources to find answers to their group’s inquiry questions. They bring their findings back to the group so the group can consolidate findings.
As group members investigate to find answers to questions, new questions will come to mind. For example, one of Helen Hurgin’s class’s initial Need-to-Know questions was: “What appliances use the most energy?” A group that took this as an inquiry question, then came up with “How much energy does a document camera use?” and “How much energy do our classroom lights use”?
You and possibly an assistant or project mentor will go from group to group to see if students need extra support or enrichment. Also from outlines, drafts and other assignments, exit tickets, students reporting out, students’ self-assessments, and individual conferences with some students, you will know what mini-lessons, anchor charts, or other scaffolds might be appropriate. Suggested scaffolds include: Inquiry Organizer, Inquiry Flow Chart, Inquiry Checklist/Self-Assessment. Structure and scaffolds are important at any grade level – from early childhood through college and graduate programs. For advanced students, at any grade level, students can be supported in providing their own structures.
Upon investigation and deeper understanding, students might realize the project’s challenge question does not reflect the complexity of the situation and the class decides to adjust it. In the conserving energy project, for example, the initial challenge question was: “How can we reduce energy usage at our school?” But upon investigation students learned some ways to conserve energy could be expensive. Since the school is on a tight budget they adjusted the challenge question to “How can we reduce our school’s energy usage – and related costs?”
Students’ research sources might include interviews with those affected or with special knowledge (whether in person, video chat, emails, or telephone), websites, articles, readings in books, observations, surveys, videos, and experiments.
You might provide one or more required sources and/or a list of recommended sources from which your students can choose. For some students it is appropriate they locate their own sources or some of their own sources. In the case of students choosing websites or other articles on their own, students need to know how to evaluate the quality of a source. If your school has a media center director that person could be a great resource for teaching students how to evaluate a source for possible misinformation, bias or propaganda. In addition, here is a website evaluation chart from Southeastern Local Schools: 5 Ws of Website Evaluation .
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