I’m a big fan of Freakonomics, not because I agree with everything the authors claim, but because it makes me think, and isn’t that what defines a great book?
I’m also a big fan of inquiry-based education, where children learn domain knowledge through problem solving and inquiry. So I enjoyed reading one of the authors of Freakonomics describe on the Freakonomics blog a great inquiry-based first-grade project:
"My son’s first-grade teacher recently held an open house to tell the parents what their kids will be learning this year, and how they’ll be going about it. I have to say, it was pretty impressive. My favorite part had to do with turning the kids into first-grade (if not first-rate) empiricists.
The teacher, a wonderful veteran from Texas named Barbara, described an upcoming project: collecting data on some or all of the 22 playgrounds in Central Park.
First, the kids will vote on their favorite and least favorite playgrounds in the park. Then they will collect data on a variety of metrics: number of swings, amount of open space, shady vs. sunny areas, etc. Then they will try to figure out the factors that make a good playground good and a bad playground bad. They will also consider the safety of each playground, and other measures.
We did not do this kind of project when I was in first grade; frankly, I am envious."
I am envious as well. What a superb learning activity, and what a great teacher!
I have tried to do a couple of inquiry-based activities with my kindergartener to only marginal success. I pulled out all of our leftover wood from various home improvement projects and asked her to measure the pieces and color a graph so we would know how many of each length we had. She thought this was fun for a few minutes, and even though she tired of the task, she did a great job. On a different occasion, I had her plant bean seeds in different cups of soil, and we marked the cups as "water, no sun"; "sun, no water"; "sun + water" and so on. We then did an experiment to see under what conditions the beans would grow.
Well, none of them grew–they must have been duds. So much for that experiment!
Has anyone reading this every had a successful inquiry project with young children? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
Tags: K-12, inquiry, problem solving, home schooling
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