Inquiry-Based Project

This week I created a science inquiry project for first graders in a wiki. In this project, we were to find websites that match up with Tennessee State Standards and NETS-S Standards. Then we were to create questions that the students should be able to answer after researching in the sites. This project was very fun for me because I was able to work with content that I might one day teach.

To search for an appropriate topic, I found a first grade science textbook and the teacher book that are used in Tennessee. I learned a lot by looking through the teacher book. Each lesson states what Tennessee State Standards it meets.  This was very helpful. Each lesson was also linked to another content area which will be very useful when I'm teaching my own class.

Another thing I learned about from this activity is the NETS-S Standards. Before this activity, I had never heard of them before, so it was nice to get to look them over. I could see how my inquiry activity fit different standards and how to change or improve my inquiry activity to include more of these standards.

One thing I realized from this lesson is how hard it is to create directions and activities for students who can only read at a first grade level. It was a challenge to make the directions simple enough so that my students could understand it. To make it a little easier on them, I designed it so the students could work in partners. I also put reminders throughout the directions to ask for help if they get lost or confused. So hopefully this will help too.

I could easily see me using this in my classroom. It gives the students a chance to be curious and research topics on their own instead of just reading a textbook or listening to the teacher talk all the time. I would probably use an inquiry project in either science or social studies because there is more research involved in those subjects than in reading or math. Hopefully, the use of technology can help spark an interest in learning.