Climate Change in Sudan: Home

An old adage states: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand." The last part of this statement is the essence of inquiry-based learning.  Inquiry implies involvement that leads to understanding. Furthermore, involvement in learning implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit you to seek resolutions to questions and issues while you construct new knowledge.

During inquiry-based projects, students should be drawn into thinking critically and creatively about big ideas and key concepts. Good questions enable students to learn and apply learning to wider circumstances and can be posed by the teacher or students. These good or 'essential' questions have several common characteristics, including:

• relevance to the learner
• open-ended and higher-order (have no right or wrong answer)
• answers are not already known
• multiple possible answers
• not too personal
• cannot be answered without careful and lengthy research—answers have to be more than simple facts
• able to be researched given the available resources—must be answerable
• make learners question their basic assumptions
• promote further inquiry

adapted from Barell, John. Why are school buses always yellow? p.91

This article is a starting point to gain background information so you can develop a well thought out Essential Question to drive your Inquiry Project.

Dates:  January 17 - 27

Wiseman Hours 3 - 6:  Meet in 8th gr lab Jan. 17 - 18, Meet in 7th gr lab Jan 19 - 27

Wiseman Hours 7 - 8:   Meet in library

Cooper Hour 8:  Meet in library