Spicewood Elementary School Inquiry learning is about making connections. As learners, we all have experiences from which we draw when facing new challenges. Inquiry is the process by which a learner uses their background knowledge to approach new situations, and asks questions to find out more.
Teachers are always looking for ways to guide the inquiry in their classrooms with significant, relevant, engaging, and challenging learning experiences.One way that teachers at Spicewood Elementary guide inquiry is by reaching out to community and industry professionals. These sessions provide our students with real world connections, in addition to opportunities to ask their own questions to industry experts. Students take their new learning to help further delve into concepts and ideas and/or break down their unit’s central idea.
Richard Dorazil, an advanced level master Beekeeper, presented to our Kindergarten students last week, sharing how bees uniquely communicate with one another, what color bees prefer in nature, and how their body structures help them function in their environments. Students actively asked questions, shared thoughts, and made connections with their learning in the Sharing the Planet unit of inquiry.
Our Spicewood robotics team utilized Nepris, a platform that virtually connects teachers and students with industry experts, to connect with a meteorologist and water quality experts to enhance their research information and get feedback about their innovative solutions for water transportation to communities in need.
How can you facilitate curiosity and inquiry at home? As with all learning, we invite you to extend the inquiry and curiosity at home!
- Model your own wonderings and curiosity about the world around you! Helpful sentence stems include, “I wonder how..”, “What if..”.
- Mirror, A Short Story of Similar Objects by Tanello Production
- Pond by Jim Lamarche
- The Antlered Ship by Dashka Slater and The Fan Brothers
- Provocation Questions (questions to promote questioning with you and your child)
- What does it mean to be curious?
- What is the connection between curiosity and questions?
- What is our responsibility to be curious?