I went through my teaching licensure program in 2007. At that time, the main objective was to train us to be leaders in inquiry-based learning.  I never questioned why inquiry was so heavily emphasized, I just did what I was told (ironically).

Inquiry allows learners to construct an understanding of the content or concepts through observation, questioning, exploration, experimentation, and so on. As you saw in my last blog post, there are many ways to implement inquiry-based learning experiences into your curriculum. 

After 13 years in education, I now understand why my professors were obsessed with inquiry. I knew the what and the how; what inquiry was and how to facilitate inquiry learning experiences. But I didn't know why, and I didn't ask.

But the "why" is equally as important. If you don't know why you're doing something, why would you do it at all? I trusted that my professors had a great reason for harping on inquiry, and I'm glad I did, because the "why" is powerful, especially when it comes to teaching 21st-century learners.

Inquiry-based learning offers so much more than content development. It creates opportunities for building skills that are CRITICAL to thrive in this fast-paced, technology heavy, information inundated society that we live in. This picture that I've painted is the now and it is the future for our students.

So the "why" do inquiry-based learning for me lies heavily in the skills that come out of it. Inquiry experiences help students build a hefty portfolio of skills, but I'm going to go over a few of my favorites. Before getting into this post, it might help to go back and read my inquiry intro post. 

1. Resourcefulness: 

Inquiry encourages resourcefulness. The process requires students to gather information on their own rather receive information through direct instruction. Some inquiry experiences, such as project-based learning, ask students to explore topics and investigate questions by reaching out to community experts and organizing authentic learning activities.  Utilizing and collaborating with the community is one way to practice being resourceful.

2. Independence/Self-Direction:

This is absolutely one skill that cannot be acquired through didactic instruction. For students to be self-directed, they need to self-direct, to make their own choices as part of the learning process.  Inquiry-based learning sets the stage for self-direction. Students can choose their questions and determine how they will gather information. This is especially true with self-directed project-based learning and scientific open-inquiry investigations.

3. Critical Thinking: 

This 21st-century skill comes up often. Critical thinking is arguably the most important 21st-century skill because it applies to so many facets of life. Inquiry-based learning is an effective way to advance critical thinking skills. Problem-based learning, scientific experimentation, STEM, and project-based learning all pave the way to questioning. They encourage students to challenge what they think they know. Students objectively evaluate their experiences, observational phenomena, and real-world issues. 

4. Creativity:

I often hear people say that they're not creative, they weren't born that way, or they're not the creative one in the family. This just isn't true. Creativity is a skill that can be developed with practice and opportunity. Inquiry-based learning is that opportunity. STEM and maker education are two great learning experiences that promote creativity.

For example, one of my STEM challenges is for students to develop a plant prototype that can successfully "cross-pollinate" with "wind". Students design and build their own prototypes, try them out, fail, make creative adjustments, and try again. There would be little opportunity for creative thinking if I had given a PowerPoint presentation on wind pollinator adaptations instead of facilitating this STEM activity.

5. Problem-Solving:

There are so many great learning experiences that promote problem-solving, problem-based learning being the most obvious. With PrBL, students heavily investigate and assess one issue, question people on a spectrum of perspectives related to the issue, and figure out the most effective way(s) to solve the problem. STEM and design thinking are also great inquiry activities that utilize problem-solving skills. Students investigate the concepts and put those concepts into practice. If something doesn't work as they thought, they ask how the problem can be solved and fix it.

Before I go, check out this simple inquiry activity. The video below shows a mixture of cornstarch and water. When handled, it feels like a liquid at times and a solid at other times. It is a non-Newtonian fluid. A Newtonian fluid is one described as having the properties of an ideal liquid. A cornstarch and water mixture is not that! This challenges our observations and experiences around states of matter, inspiring questioning and the desire to explore the concept!

This video along with the guiding questions is an example of an inquiry activity that offers the opportunity to practice resourcefulness, self-direction, critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving, among others. Try it out and use it as inspiration for your own inquiry activities!

If you appreciate this kind of guiding prompt, subscribe to my email list to gain access to my free experiential learning resource library, which includes short activities like this one. You also receive a free Project Assessment e-Portolio that students can use to showcase their cumulative work in one space.

1. What do you observe? 
2. What does this video make you wonder?
3. What do you believe the mixture is made of? 
4. Does the content of this video remind you of something else or an experience that you have had in the past?
5. Do you think the material is a liquid, solid, both, neither, something else entirely?
6. If you aren't sure, how could you find out? 

There are so many more skills that can be refined by doing inquiry-based learning. I encourage you to check out my 21st-century skills portfolio resource (printable and digital options) where students can compile evidence of skill-building and showcase their achievements. Inquiry activities could be that evidence! 

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Almost every learning experience that I facilitate with my own children and my high school students centers around inquiry. Direct instruction is rare.

Inquiry-based learning is a powerful learning tool for so many reasons. It is a child-centered learning experience where students construct their own explanations of variety of concepts. Students do this by making observations, drawing on their own experiences, identifying assumptions, asking questions, experimenting (in some cases) and comparing their personal assessment of the information to current expert thought.

The benefits? Students are engaged. Isn't this THE educator conquest, to engage students? My kids' eyes glaze over when I talk at them. Talk with them, or better yet, don't talk at all. Let them do  the talking; the exploring. Inquiry is an experience. Lecture is not.

If children are not experiencing the content, they're not invested. The passion for learning fizzles and students become disinterested, apathetic, bored, and yes, disengaged. My goal as a teacher is to create a learning environment for my students that offers the exact opposite of all of those barriers to deeper learning.

​So let's take a look at exactly what inquiry-based learning is, and some great activities to get you started. 

The Inquiry-Spectrum: 

Before moving on, let's clarify the different levels of inquiry. Inquiry falls on a spectrum. 

• Structured-Inquiry: The teacher has a specific topic in mind, provides a driving question, makes specific materials available, determines what the students will create to showcase new skills and knowledge, etc.
• Guided-Inquiry: The inquiry experience is teacher-guided. The teacher determines the topic or theme and decides the driving question while students determine how they will gather the information. Bits and pieces are laid out to guide the experience while still offering opportunities for student choice. The bulk of my inquiry resources are guided.
• Open-Inquiry: Students lead and direct the experience from start to finish. They determine the topic based on their own interests, they develop their own questions to investigate, determine how they will demonstrate learning, and more. 

If you and your students are new to inquiry, it often helps to start with structured experiences, then move onto guided, until they are confident and ready for open. ​That's one way to do it. Or they can just dive right in and embrace the trial and error!

So without further ado, let's go over some awesome instructional methods that emphasize inquiry.

Inquiry is at the heart of each of the following instructional approaches. These are the ones that I use the most often, but there are certainly others. Peruse your options and try out a few that get you excited. Good luck! 

1. Project-Based Learning: 

Students investigate a topic, which includes asking a driving question, reaching out to community experts, and arranging authentic learning experiences. Students demonstrate learning in an innovative way and present their information to an authentic audience. Get PBL details by perusing these posts.

Students are not given information directly from the educators mouth during PBL. They make their own discoveries by engaging with the community in a deep and meaningful way. My PBL advisory students spend the bulk of their time doing open-inquiry PBL. They determine the project topic, design the experience, and lead it from start to finish. I do more guided-inquiry PBL experiences in my subject classes, such as env. bio. I offer a theme or set of standards to focus on, and the students plan the rest of their experience. Check out some of those resources here. 

2. Scientific-Inquiry

I commonly use scientific-inquiry in my science classes. Rather than give students a recipe lab experiment, where they follow step-by-step instructions and the results are uniform and expected, students design and execute their own experiments based on their personal observations and questions.

This is not a strategy reserved exclusively for science classes. I have a psychology PBL resources that includes conducting an experiment and writing a lab report as a final product option. I also have an intro to inquiry resource coming out this week about consumer products. 

An example of a guided-inquiry experience would be asking my psychology students to design and conduct experiments that fall under the theme of social norms. My students do this to practice experimental design. Check out my introduction to experimental design resource to prepare students for student-led open-inquiry experimentation. Down the line they conduct open-scientific inquiry experiments by choosing their own topics. Check out my open-scientific inquiry tool kit. This is for students that ALREADY have the skills to design their own experiments. 

3. Problem-Based Learning

Problem-based learning is when students investigate real-world and relevant issues in an authentic way. They talk to people from every point of view, question experts, research old and new strategies for tackling the issue, and add novel ideas of their own. They formulate a hypothetical comprehensive plan to solve the issue, or if you choose, it does not have to be hypothetical. 

These experiences make a profound and lasting impact on students because they have become such a part of the issue. You can take it a step further and have students conduct community action projects, where their plans become a reality rather than a hypothetical. 

Again guided vs. open is simply a difference in the guidelines that are offered. To see an example of a guided-PrBL experience, check out this one on invasive species. For open-PrBL experiences, check out my tool kit.

4. Making/Design Thinking:

Making has become one of my favorite inquiry activities. Sometimes you just need a quick, but powerful learning experience. This is it. Maker education is more than crafting or DIY. The experience should incorporate principles of design thinking, which includes building, yes, but takes it a few steps further than that. Students make a prototype, test it out on a relevant audience, tweak their design, test it again, and the cycle continues until they have a useable, effective final product.

Inquiry comes in as students create their prototypes and during the trial and error phase. They ask questions while researching effective designs. They ask questions while creating their prototypes: "what is working well?; what isn't working well?; "what could I change or alter to make my prototype more effective?"; and so on. 

For more information about maker education and design thinking check out these posts. You can also check out my guided-inquiry maker projects and my open-inquiry maker tool kit.  

5. STEM/STEAM

STEM is another instructional approach that incorporates inquiry. STEM activities can span several weeks of deep exploration or cover a one-hour class period. I like the flexibility of STEM.

STEM activities follow a similar pattern as the one I described in #4, maker/design thinking. During this process of trial and error students ask questions and test their prior understanding of a concept. Their assumptions get flipped upside down. What they thought they knew is challenged. Your students then alter their line of thinking based on what they're experiencing, and this goes on and on until they have constructed an understanding of the concepts on their own, without you having to deliver it verbatim.

For more on STEM, take a look at these posts. For an example of a STEM resource, check out my students' favorite STEM challenge, Wind Pollinator Adaptations.

There are other ways to execute inquiry-based learning beside the ones that I mentioned here. I have an inquiry activity about climate drivers that does not seamlessly fit into any of the categories included above.

Inquiry does not function on strict rules. That is the beauty of it.  Do what you want! Try some things out. Look for what inspires curiosity and gets your kids excited. Organize learning experiences that ask students to actively think, explore, and investigate, vs. passively sitting back while information flies through one ear and out the other. You will not regret it! 

When you subscribe to Experiential Learning Depot you get instant access to a growing free resource library. There you will find inquiry prompts that inspire curiosity! Subscribe to receive a welcome email with the library password. 

Visit us next week or our second post in our inquiry-based learning series.

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1. "I don't know how to do project-based learning.":

There are specific components of PBL that are important to understand before undertaking the process with your students. Project-based learning is very different than a project. The short explanation is that PBL incorporates the community, emphasizes real-world topics or issues, and includes authentic learning experiences from how students demonstrate learning to who they share their new skills and knowledge with. 

What can you do right now to learn more about PBL?

• Do some research! Go back into my project-based learning series and peruse some of my posts. A great place to start is "What is Project-Based Learning Anyway?" and "Important Components of Project-Based Learning". 
• I highly recommend visiting project-based learning schools, sitting in a PBL classroom or home learning environment, observing a veteran PBL educator and asking questions. It can be really inspiring. Feel free to reach out to me. 
• Check out examples of project-based learning experiences. I write a lot about my student's projects in my blog. Check out my free endangered species PBL resource on TPT to get a good idea of what PBL looks like and the essential components. If you like that project and would like to do more. 
• Take a look at my Project-Based Learning instruction manual that includes 20 projects and all of the guiding templates helpful for successfully executing project-based learning.

2. "I'm don't feel confident starting project-based learning."

I understand this feeling. It is hard to be confident about something that is new to you. On the upside, the worst that could happen is that something doesn't go the way you thought it would. If this is the worst thing that could happen, you are right on track. Trial and error is a good thing! To get better at something you have to try it and learn from it.

What can you do right now to gain confidence? 

• The first step is to try it! Get the idea that it will not go well out of your head. It might not go well. Who cares! Take it as a learning opportunity.  
• Develop a network of project-based educators to learn from, bounce ideas off of, and possibly collaborate with.
• Use ready-made project-based learning resources created by a project-based educator at the beginning of this journey. I have a variety of project-based learning resources to get you started. Check out my Project-Based Learning Bundle for Beginners or peruse all of my pre-made PBL resources for inspiration or guidance.

3) "How do I differentiate project-based learning?"

Project-based learning, when student-directed, is personalized by nature. It works for AP and IB students, homeschool learners, kids that are schooling on the road, distance learners, ELL students, and more. Students design their own projects based on their interests, needs, backgrounds, strengths, challenges, and more. 

For example, if you are focusing on ecosystems, each student could choose one type of ecosystem as their project topic, choose how they will gather information, demonstrate learning, who they will share their new skills and knowledge with, and so on. Choice in process and outcome is what differentiates the experience. 

What can you do right now to make PBL work for YOUR student population? 

• Practice helping students design their own PBL experiences. Consider trying the process of developing a project on a spouse, one of your kids, or a friend. Give them the theme or concept, ask them what they wonder about this theme, and continue to walk through the project design phase of developing a driving question, choosing a way to demonstrate learning, and so on. Check out my PBL Tool Kit and Planner to guide you and your students through this process. 
• Try self-directed project-based learning with your students using the PBL tool kit mentioned above, any of the ready-made project-based learning resources from Experiential Learning Depot or your own guiding materials. 

4) "Doesn't project-based learning take a lot of time? I don't think I could fit in in."

This a common perception from educators about many experiential learning activities, including PBL, that they take too much time away from checking off the mandatory standards (look at #5 for more on standards). 

Yes, project-based learning experiences can take weeks. That is because they require students to dig deep, which is a good thing! You could lecture, give students a worksheet, or even assign them a project that is not an authentic PBL experience, but students would likely forget the information quickly, and that is if they ever absorbed (or even heard) that information to begin with. It is necessary and IMPORTANT that PBL takes time.

The question still remains, then, how can you fit it into your day?

• Design projects to cover many concepts at once. Project-based learning experiences take time, yes, but they also cover a lot of content when designed with intention.
• Have students do 2-3 projects at once. When it comes to self-directed project-based learning, there can be times when a project is at a stand-still. For example, a student may be waiting on a community expert. Have students bounce between a couple of projects at a time to better manage time​.

5) "How can I cover all of the required standards and do PBL at the same time?"

I wish that this didn't have to be a concern for teachers, but it is the reality - in the U.S., anyway.

So how do you incorporate standards into a project-based learning experience AND cover the unrealistic number of standards that is expected of you? 

Design one project that covers an entire "unit" of standards. For example, my environmental science students do a PBL experience on endangered species every year. Their objective is to put together a comprehensive species protection plan for their chosen species. To do this successfully, students would have to learn about the natural history of the species, their behaviors, threats, habitat, territory, and more. 

Because endangered species are largely the result of human activity, this PBL experience covers a large number of - if not all of - the NGSS's "Earth and Human Activity" standards - six of them (HS-ESS3-1 through 6) as well as others about ecology, evolution, climate, and more. 

If possible, create a list of concept map of the standards that need to be met, and design projects using my PBL tool kit that incorporate many of the standards at once. 

Self-directed project-based learning is not reserved for homeschoolers and project-based learning schools. It is for everyone. Those of you that are tied to specific curriculum may have to do some convincing to higher-ups, but I assure you, it's worth it.

If you cannot make project-based learning the norm in your learning environment, try to slip a few PBL experiences in here and there. You won't regret it. 

Good luck to you all! Let me know how I can help, any questions I can answer, and what you need to get rolling on PBL. 

Yes! We have arrived to our final post in our distance project-based learning series. It has been fun, but I'm ready to wrap it up. What better way to do that than with assessments and reflections? Makes good sense.

A newbie to project-based learning asked me this week how I test my students on content after project-based learning experiences have wrapped up. The very short and sweet answer to that question is that I don't. Testing does not improve quality of work, assess skill-development, incorporate personal and/or academic growth, or intrinsically motivate students to learn.

I understand that some educators are required to test their students, and if that is a must, then go for it. But ALSO complete project rubrics (some student-generated), provide narratives, and help learners develop project portfolios as they go. Thankfully, all of this can be done virtually using Google Apps.

My project-based learning digital resources are Google Slides that can be assigned and monitored using Google Classroom, Canvas, NearPod, and exported to Powerpoint. Unfortunately, my expertise lies in Google Classroom, so that will be the focus of this post.

I you have purchased some of my digital resources, go back and peruse the last 2-3 posts that offer step-by-step instructions and tips on assigning them using Google Classroom and communication and feedback using Google Apps.

You can also go back a bit further to look over project brainstorming, final products, community experts,  and authentic presentations digitally. 

So let's go over some of the project-based learning assessment strategies that I use and how to apply them virtually.

1. Project Rubrics

Self, peer, and community expert assessments are encouraged in project-based learning, and not just at the end of a project. My students use their project rubrics to self-assess throughout the project experience in order to stay on track and produce quality work. 

All of my digital project-based learning resources include a generic project rubric that students can evaluate right on the slide. When peers, experts, and teachers evaluate student progress or project outcomes, students simply duplicate the rubric slide. 

Students and teachers can communicate about assessments right in the Google Slides resource. Look back at last weeks post for tips on virtual communication and project feedback. 

If you're only looking for project rubrics, check out my generic PBL rubric and my student-generated rubric, which works well for self-directed learning experiences of all kinds, not just PBL. 

2. Project Narratives

This is an important piece of project-based learning as well. Providing a letter grade is fine, but illuminating specific strengths, challenges, and areas of growth is difficult to accomplish with a test alone. Observe students as they work. Make note of their personal accomplishments. 

My students develop a personal learning plan at the beginning of the session/class. They then look back on their PLP's periodically throughout the PBL experience and again at the end of the project to reflect on whether they've met their goals, where they've improved, what they've gained from the experience, and more. 

My personal learning plan is an editable Google Slides. Use this as one method of including a teacher narrative and student-reflection piece to project-based learning experiences. ​

3. Project Portfolio

Rather than demonstrate learning through testing, which I would argue gathers an inaccurate depiction of learning, have students add their project outcomes (evidence of skill-building, photos of final products, standards met, videos of students working with experts, project rubrics, student reflections, teacher narratives, etc. ) to their portfolio throughout the course of a class or learning session.

My (free) project-based learning assessment portfolio is an editable Google Slides that can be completed right online or printed and assembled into a binder. Subscribe to my mailing list and get this critical PBL assessment resource on the house. 

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