A Discerning Day

I have found being indoors, particularly under bright lights, to be significantly more draining than working, learning, and teaching out-of-doors. However, it is important to recognize that, logistically, it will sometimes just make more sense to be indoors. Today was one of those days...we were designing and planning our group inquiry-based research projects. The process was a few hours, longer than I had thought it would be; but that is because I almost always underestimate the amount of time it will take to accomplish a specific task. I learned today that for a group of 15, it really will take a couple hours to generate and x general project questions; then, a couple more to divide into groups and really narrow our scopes of research.

I do not have a concept of how long it might take with, an elementary or middle school group of students; but it was definitely beneficial to see the whole process of wheetling down topics.

Ideas on board
Scratchy Scratch
Questions in hoards
Oochy Aach
Brain function
Wants to look outside
See the questions coming
from every side
Write it down
Plots abound
Talk it through
...and away we go!

Allowing students to take full responsibility for their projects is pertinent to helping them (us) develop a sense of self-confidence in inquiry based science as well an "ownership" and care for the project at hand...even though it can be difficult for a teacher to step back and let her or his students go through the frustration, brain-blocks, and long process of group decision making. So, thank you teachers for letting us do that today!