We've been busy this week beginning our final unit inquiry on Electricity. Before we can inquire about anything, we needed to figure out what makes a GOOD inquiry question. Students read different sections of an article in partners, and narrowed down the main points from those sections. Then, we mixed partnerships into larger groups to share what each partnership learned from the smaller section that they read. Below, you can see a few of the ideas students jotted down on the whiteboards. Important qualities of an inquiry question include:
Below, I began my own model inquiry, on the 1971 construction of the hydroelectric dam on the James Bay in Quebec. This was a huge project for the government of Quebec, set to allow them to harness the power of the water to create electricity, but also had a disastrous impact on the environment and the Cree who lived in the region. My question is: What could the government do differently if they were to construct this dam today? We learned how my question needs a lot of background in order for me to answer it. I need to know the basic facts of the project (think: who, what, where, when, why), I need to know the original impact, the perspectives of different groups, and more. Only then might I be able to look into current day policies and technologies surrounding the construction of a project like this to be able to suggest what the government could have done better. Students helped (on the sticky notes below) write these smaller questions that could be asked to support my larger inquiry, as practice. Now, students have created their own inquiry questions on the theme of electricity, energy conservation, and the environment.
I invite you to check out your child's inquiry question by clicking HERE and chatting with them about it. The questions are really neat, and cover a wide range of topics! Below you can see two groups beginning the preliminary stages of creating their larger question with mini-questions to go with it. Comments are closed.
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March 2020
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