inquiry & project-based learning.

Session 2
Rita Paz

Inquiry-based learning is a way of seeking for truth or information by asking questions. The process of inquiry is something that is natural in all human beings. We are all born with the desire to need or want know something. No one can ever know everything, but it is the educators job to help children build their skills and nurture the inquiring minds. Inquiry dates all the way back to Socrates, however John Dewy led the first inquiry-based learning methods in the United States. Dewy encouraged child centered learning based on real world activities. The components of inquiry based learning are well explained by Howard Gardener who claims that all humans have multiple intelligences. He believed that these intelligences can be nurtured, strengthened, ignored, or weakened. Our intelligences are: verbal, mathematical, musical, bodily, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, and existential. In the classroom we can teach children how to inquiry knowledge and turn it in to something useful. This is a skill that they will take with them through out their entire life. One way that I would like to use inquiry-based learning is to answer a really big question that may have several answers like "How can I save the earth"; this question alone can generate endless possibilities. There are also many activities I could have the students do like, recycling, planting trees, or research what types of animals are becoming extinct due to humans, and how can we put a stop to it. There is a website called Earth911 that is full of information and tips about preserving our planet that would be useful to students.
http://earth911.com/ Another very useful site is one that is called America's Power. In this site you can blog, ask experts questions, and get facts on pollution in America. http://www.americaspower.org/The-Facts/.
Project-based learning is an instructional approach to build upon real life learning activities. The activities are designed to answer questions or solve a problem that we would normally do in a classroom. Project-based learning usually done in groups. It teaches skills such as : communication, presentation skills, organization, time management, research, inquiry, self-assessment, reflection, group participation, and leadership skills. These are all higher order thinking skills, or better known as Bloom's Taxonomy. In 1999 John Thomas with the help of Andrew Michaelson and John R. Mergendoller prepared the first edition of the Buck Institute for Education Project Based Learning Handbook. Since then thousands of educators in the U.S. and other countries have used the handbook. It has been an important factor in the spread of project based teaching. One project that I would like to do would be recycling. I would like my students to learn how it is done, why we should do it, and how much good it would do for the environment. I would have students visit a recycling plant, participate in various local clean-ups, and recycle what they have collected. I would also want my student to visit a landfill so that they can see all of the land we are wasting on our trash. I also want to show my students how giving unwanted things we have could help out others . Collecting cans could be a fundraiser to give monies to local charities. A great website that shows how and what to recycle is called Funding Factory.
http://www.fundingfactory.com/. Another great website to visit is called Recycle City. On this site you will see how recycling can save our city money, and lots of interesting information on getting started. http://www.epa.gov/recyclecity/.

References
Szalavitz, Maia (2004). Concept to classroom a series of workshops. Retrieved February 5, 2009, from Inquiry-based learning Web site: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index.html