Project Based Learning: Sustained Inquiry

Project Based Learning Part 3: Sustained Inquiry

Inspire students to want to learn! 

Empower them with the skills to find the answers!

Finding Answers

In this incredible information age, our students need to be empowered with the skills to find the answers they need. It is less important for students to memorize scores of facts than it is for them to be able to find credible answers. In student-centered classrooms, students are active participants in the inquiry process, not passive recipients of content. Read more in this article (Deeper Learning: Moving Students Beyond Memorization) from neaToday.

Inquiry Skills

Do our students expect to be able to find "the right answer" on a specific page of a textbook? Do our students just "Google" to find answers? If this is the extent of their inquiry skills, these students are not prepared for future learning.

In fact, with the quantity of information exploding at exponential rates, inquiry (or research) skills are perhaps the most important skill our students can develop during their time in school.

Here are a few questions students need to be able to answer during effective inquiry:

• What information do I need to answer a question or solve a problem?
• What is the best source for finding the information I need (not just Google)?
• What are the best search terms for efficiently and effectively finding the information I am seeking?
• How do I know if the information I find is credible and valid?
• How do I sort through and synthesize the materials I find to pull out the most important information?
• How do I use what I learn to lead me to additional questions and answers?

Tip: Your building media specialist is an expert in the area of inquiry. Contact them for assistance!

Developing Mental Stamina

Our students need to go deep with their inquiry. If they can find the answer on page 36, the question is too simple. We need to provide students will open-ended, challenging questions that require them to dig deep, learn lots and synthesize that information to develop the answers they are seeking.

We need to help them sustain the inquiry process throughout a project. It is not a one and done endeavor. We can help them develop this by asking questions.

• What else do you need to know? 
• Why do you think that? 
• Where could you find that answer? 
• What key words can lead you to that answer?

Resources:

• Your building media specialist!
• Research databases like those from ELM (often linked off the media center website)
• http://webeval.easybib.com/ (for evaluating website credibility)
• How to search on Google
• Resources and Downloads to Facilitate Inquiry Based Learning (Edutopia)
• The Big 6 (Research Process)