Asking Important Questions to Guide Our Research

Our day started by completing a pretest KWL on the animal each child is about to research.  The students listed facts they Knew about their animal and wrote questions about What they wanted to learn about it.   At the end our individual research unit, they will record what they Learned about the animal.   

We reviewed how to access the district's research data base.  We used the Smart Board to explore Searchasaurus, World Book Online, Kid's Search and Kids Info Bits.  Once in the computer lab, we dealt with one technical glitch after another.  Suffice it to say, our lab time wasn't as productive as I had hoped.  Impressively, your children really rolled with it all and transitioned into our next tasks.

We discussed the scope of our research and the types of sources we will be learning to use and cite.  We also looked over the research packet we will be using to keep our research organized.  In the afternoon, with the printing problem corrected, we managed to get a time in the library to go back to the district's research database.  This time, the students succeeded in printing a Searchasaurus article and scan other brief articles in the other online applications.  Finally, we were able to check off our progress on our research, task list.

This is a new twist on the animal unit I have taught for many years.  I wanted the students to select an endangered animal so we could find relevant, real world problems to explore and, to the best of our ability, do what we can to bring about a solution.  I also wanted to involve them in the planning process.  By helping to define the direction of their research and the potential projects and products they will complete, they will be more invested, engaged and motivated throughout their research.  The students brainstormed ways they can individually, in small groups or as a class help endangered animals.  I guess I was a little surprised.  All three 2nd grade classes approached the problems in very similar ways.  It was a very interesting, and for me, enlightening discussion.  

We (both teachers and parents) have taught our children to problem solve and think the way we have always done--even the way our parents, their grandparents, have done.  Their ideas began with: 

• "We can make posters to teach others about endangered animals and hang them up around our school and on (telephone) poles in our neighborhood."
• "We can take the endangered animals out of the forest so they aren't in danger any more."
• "We can make flyers and hand them out to people at our schools and at our open house."
• "We can send letters to our government and President and tell them to protect the animals."
• One student even suggested, "We have a fund raiser so we can all fly to Washington to meet with the President or government officials to convince them to save endangered animals."
• "We can make phone calls or send letters to scientists working with the animals to ask them questions."
• "We can go to the radio station and be interviewed about our research."
• "We can make a video and have it shown on TV."
• "We can write a play about protecting the animals and perform it at our Open House."
• "We can make a wax museum where we share what we learn with the people that come to Open House."

I was really dumbfounded!  I know they are young and have limited life experiences, but they are all "tech" experienced.  They are our digital natives.  They are unafraid of the Internet.  They text, email and interact with others on the computer as if it is completely natural to them, yet in all three classes, the first 8-10 suggestions included no technology beyond a telephone.  I teased them and told them they were thinking like their great grandparents did when they were eight years old!  It still took a little prodding and a few example suggestions before they opened up and started thinking of 21 Century skills.  Once they were rolling, they suggested:

• sending email, texting, video conferencing, and tweeting
• making a video and putting it (embedding it) on our blog
• making a podcast news show to add to our blog
• making a video about saving the animals and uploading it to You Tube
• making a website to teach others about endangered animals
• blogging about our research
• use digital images to share information about the animals on our blog or on website
• making a website to share our research and digital posters
• doing an online auction as a fund raiser
• making an electronic newspaper

Yeah!  Maybe they will be ready for the demands they will face as adults in a technology driven world after all.  Research supports my belief that our children must learn to think differently; must learn to collaborate from a distance as well as face to face.  They need to have a broad knowledge of the digital tools available to them and be able to quickly assimilate and evaluate Internet based applications.  We know the Internet and the digital world will change faster than we can ever master the skills.  Our children will be prepared if we can teach them to think.  

Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock says, 'We need to teach students to learn how to learn, learn how to unlearn and learn how to relearn, because that's the real skill."  Loosely quoting Psychologist Herbert Gerjuoy, Toffler said, "Tomorrow's illiterate will not be the man who can't read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn."  That is our job.

Fortunately, their ideas raised even more questions and this will be the starting point for their research.  The actual projects they will complete will be determined when they have learned more about their topic.

Another busy, but satisfying day!