Inquiry-based learning is a type of learning that takes place around a specific topic that is often student-generated. Within this type of learning, students ask questions, pose problems, and do research. As educators, we watch students during play to see what their interests are. If we notice an interest that multiple students have, we decide to learn more about that topic. From here, we plan centres, lessons, and activities around this topic.
Last year, we had two inquiry topics: volcanoes and the world. You can see all of the learning we did around those two topics under the tab "Our Current Inquiry" :)
It sometimes takes awhile to see what students are interested in, especially multiple students! However, we witnessed some of our friends taking an interest in something, and this is our story so far!
We decided to use this idea to investigate broken bones, and the human body in general. We wanted to know what the students knew already and what they wanted to learn. Here are some examples of what students knew:
"Our legs can move" - Maxwell
"Our arms can move" - Olivia
"We know that there's blood in everyone's body" - Vienna
"Skeletons will get up with muscles" - Stefan
"You have blood pipes in your body" - Grayson
"Everyone has a heart" - Alyssa
"Our heads can move" - Tania
"Our fingers can move" - Milorad
"Our hands can move" - Yousef
"Our toes can move" - Adem
"Everyone can move" - Janiyah
"Our eyes can move" - Ryder
"Some parts of our body can't move. Some parts don't have bones" - Lily
"Our bodies can stretch" - Marko
"Our hair can move" - Alessandra
"Our white blood cells help us move" - Anwen
This is what students had to say when we asked them what they wanted to learn more about:
"How many bones do we have in our body?" - Miss Pliura
"What does our skull do?" - Miss McKinlay
"How do I grow? "- Mrs. Rossi
"Why do we have bones?" - Vienna
"How do our knees and bones bend?" - Alyssa
"Why can our bones hit the floor?" - Yousef
"Why are our bones there?" - Ryder
"How do our eyes blink?" - Marko
"How come our legs move?" - Maxwell
"How do our bones break?" - Lily
"How does our head move?" - Janiyah
"Why are our bones inside our bodies?" - Stefan
"How can our fingers move?" - Milorad and Mohit
This gave us an idea of what students already know and where we can take our learning :)
Over the PA day, Miss McKinlay and I did some rearranging of our classroom to create our very own doctor's office to help foster this learning :) Here are some pictures!
We are so excited to do some more learning about this topic. Stay tuned! :)
