Those of you who have been to the Guided Inquiry Design Institute in the past two years have heard me read aloud from this book Lab Girl. In this novel, Hope Jahren, a geobiologist and author, has a way of telling a story that weaves story, science, and life together. It's also filled with her expert knowledge of plants. Things you'd never know and are fascinating bits about the plant world that will inspire more curiosities in you as you read.Recently on BigThink she did an interview where she said that the childlike kid questions driven by curiosity are what are at the core of science.
She says the wonderful thing about science is how surprising and pleasing it is to think about something you know, but you haven't "turned it over in your mind" in such a way as to examine it with new eyes. I love this. |
| Hope Jahren video on BigThink |
Inquiry based learning like Guided Inquiry Design gives our students the opportunity to turn things they know over and over and look at many sides of things that they didn't know existed when they saw it only from one angle.
Through the first phase of Guided Inquiry, we introduce our students to something somewhat familiar, a concept that resonates with them. In the second phase, we design the experience so we offer some new information to help our learners expand what they know through experiences in the field, or science labs, or a visit to a museum, or by examining objects. Armed with some new information, having turned what they know over a bit, they then reach out to explore what it means to them and what might be interesting to them about these ideas they are turning over. They identify a curious question, research that question, and create something to communicate their new understanding to the world. Through this process our students have opportunities in GID to engage in new ways of thinking about the world.
Hope Jahren places a strong scientific value on the "childlike" questions that are driven from curiosities. She says that buried deep down in the answers to those seemingly simple questions, like "Why don't trees like that grow at my house?" are applications to some new discovery about how to grow food, or use something in the marketplace, or for medicine, or in construction... The implications of those simple questions can be addressed by experts in different areas, and the knowledge gained from those core questions help many to apply the information to innovate.
In schools , of course, we are always reaching for the deeper better question. Avid has offered a guide by leveling questions. These guides created by educators can be a helpful starting place.
But, I wonder if we can analyze questions differently. What if we used interest and curiosity as one of our main measures of a great question? Of course, we want it to be deep, which can be addressed by thinking about -
1. Can it be easily answered? Is the answer easily found and answered by a few simple facts? If so, students may need a little more probing. into that question to let the curiosity bubble out.
But I think what's maybe even more important is....Is there true curiosity in the student's question? So, how do we get to, how curious is this student?
Curiosity lies in their interest.
So we can think about:2. Does the student want to know about this? How much?
Is it related to their life in some way? How do we know?
But, how can you tell if it truly comes from students' curiosities...
True curiosity lies in the Third Space- the question that comes out of my curiosities comes from my real life, has a connection to me, and the content we are talking about. In turn, I have a lot of interest in answering this question.
So, asking kids to tell you, 'how interested are you in this question,' might help us to know how curious are they about it. You can simply ask if they are interested in this question.
Or, you can even have them rate it on a scale from 1 not so much 10 REALLY interested. If we can get to the upper levels of this scale, I think we've nailed a curious question.
Jahren says there is no substitute for a curious question and they have great value to science, scientists and even experts in their field.
So stay curious inquirers and have fun playing with this in your work with students.
Leslie Maniotes, PhD
