“Inquiry Units/Investigations/Projects” have all become
topics that are frequently brought up in my day-to-day classroom life recently,
and I am more than okay with it. By following along with this idea of inquiry,
we, as teachers, are moving to push our students to actively learn material
rather than passively listen and take notes. A major idea behind inquiry units
is that students are offered choices. These can be open ended choices with
little limitations or they can be guided to fit within a specific topic or
idea, but the students can participate in the decisions either way.
By now I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I always try
to relate everything discussed in this text as well as in class back to the
math classroom and I don’t plan on stopping now! At first, I had no idea how to
incorporate inquiry in a math class. How are kids supposed to do research on
the Pythagorean Theorem in a way that is insightful and thoughtful?
It wasn’t until I reached the second page of this chapter
that I realized that the entire first example was based on math rather than
social studies. While this example might be too advanced for middle schoolers,
the project based on budgeting later in the chapter is not. So many things in
day-to-day life include math, especially if there is money present. It is a
matter of finding situations and topics that students are interested in that
also have an undertone of math concepts that will make inquiry in a middle
school math class work the way it ought to: with actual excitement from all most of your kids.
Hello Maddie!
ReplyDeleteI dunno bout you but I think I’m falling in love with inquiry-based learning. Either that or Mr. Robinson and Dr. Capps have used their mystic abilities to convince us that this type of learning strategy is beneficial in all subject matter! But no really, I think inquiry-based learning should especially be implemented in science classrooms but like your initial thoughts, math can get a little tricky. I think this can be a fun and engaging way to get students to ask questions and explore what they know and conduct research to answer these questions for themselves. Funfunfun! [100 words]
Thanks, Maddie! When I reflect on my experience with math in grade school, I feel strongly that my experience would have been completely different had my teachers--if only just every once in a while--given me opportunities to think about math in a different way, one that connects directly to the real world. My sense is that inquiry projects can make a big difference in a math class.
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