Our Space Inquiry Journey

Our Space Systems curricular inquiry has been a long one...partly because of holiday interruptions and pausing for January assessments, but also because of the deep thinking and learning we have been doing.  Room 408 has been "space crazy" these past few months!
I thought it would be neat to revisit our journey.
We started by thinking about the schema (what we thought we knew) that we had about Earth and Space Systems & Cycles.  We posted on our Kidblogs and shared our schema with each other.

Next, we found out that our brains are like sponges during the Immersion Stage, soaking up new learning.  We used lots of sources to learn as much as we can about Earth & Space--models, photos, books, iPad apps, videos--and left tracks of our thinking and learning on sticky notes.

At the end of the Immersion Stage we thought about our schema from the beginning of our inquiry and reflected on whether we could confirm our schema, whether we had a misconception, or if we needed to do more research to find out.  

The paper mounted on the green is schema from the beginning of the inquiry, the paper mounted on the blue is reflection about that schema.

The paper mounted on the green is schema from the beginning of the inquiry, the paper mounted on the blue is reflection about that schema.

Next, we thought about our lingering questions and interests from the Immersion Stage.  We signed up for small inquiry groups based on our questions and interests.

Drew eventually joined the Mars Exploration Research Club.

Nikolaus eventually joined the Stars & Space Junk Research Club.

Once Research Clubs were formed, we started the Investigation Stage of our curricular inquiry on space.  We collaborated with the rest of our small inquiry groups to collect information about our Research Club topics.  We had Research Clubs about Mars Exploration, Moon & Astronauts, Stars & Space Junk, and Outer Planets & Dwarf Planets.

Nikolaus & Samuel found some pretty cool facts about meteors hitting the earth and even found the locations on Google Earth!

Shealee & Allie used iPad to find dwarf planets.

Owen, Andrea & Gabbie used lots of different sources to research.

Our Solar System model donated by Mrs. Thiel was a great model for research.

Of course, we had our Space Party!

After more research in our Investigation Stage we finally reached the Coalescing Stage.  In this stage we looked at all the learning and research we had done about our topics and grouped them into categories so we could begin to think about how we could teach our topic to others.

Once we coalesced our learning and figured out topics, we decided who would teach what topic and what facts we thought were most important for others to know.

To get ready for the Go Public Stage we planned out our teaching visuals.  We included posters, photographs, paintings, labels, and models in our teaching visuals.

Later this week we'll be "Going Public" by presenting to other classes and our parents.  We have a lot to teach about space!