Inquiry-Week 4 in Review

The Week in Review

This week has been difficult for many reasons. The first activity we were asked to do required us to sort facts and concepts.  Facts are discrete pieces of information that can easily be tested or proven.  Concepts are overarching ideas that are often abstract. The task was challenging for me, because there are some things that seem to be abstract for my young learners that as their experience and knowledge increases become known facts.  It was also difficult for me to sort the facts and concepts, because I really like being right, and I could tell that this was one of those activities in which I would never be 100% certain.  This realization made me think of my students who erase and rewrite and erase again in class, afraid to take a risk and be wrong. 

I also learned the differences between investigable and non-investigable questions.  It was very helpful to have had the opportunity to read my classmates examples.  Additionally I found an excellent resource that contained suggestions for teaching students the difference between these types of questions and also how to compose their own investigable questions.  The book, Picture-Perfect Science Lessons: Using Children’s Books to Guide Inquiry, is also available to read online, and has many good inquiry-based lesson examples for elementary and middle school students.

It was most helpful this week to integrate these two activities in practice.  I chose a “Big Idea “ and a related concept from the www.pdesas.org site, and then developed a list of facts, and investigable questions to support inquiry of the related concept.  This practice was very concrete and it is something that I will be able to use with my current students.