Researcher Jacques Cousteau

 We did a mini-inquiry about Jacques Cousteau.

We started the day by making predictions on the Morning Message out what this object was:

We had lots of questions:

After making lots of predictions and inferences about the photograph, we reviewed different sources where we could research for more information.  We added photos to our list of learning resources.  We reviewed the big question for our inquiry:

For our Jacques Cousteau mini-inquiry, we would be using books, PebbleGo, and photos as resources.  We talked about how to record important information on post-it notes.  Then we went off to figure out why Jacques Cousteau was so famous!

Some started by investigating photos.  They found lots of great information: matching diagrams and photos of inventions and ships.  They were able to infer quite a bit about Jacques Cousteau!

Others got right into PebbleGo. We learned how to pause a video in order to write down important learning.

Some chose to research in books.

Regardless of what sources they were using, Room 408 was busy recording their new learning about Jacques Cousteau. We had so much new learning!  Our brains were like sponges!

We are proud of our research!

We even inferred that Jacques likes to wear a red hat!

We got together after our research time for sharing our discoveries.

We were amazed at how much learning we did!

Here are two great books about his life.

We learned that he had a hope and dream to be able to breathe underwater and to discover more about the undersea world that he loved so much. This dream sounded impossible, but he eventually invented the Aqualung!

He also bought an old war boat and turned it into an exploring ship, and named it Calypso.

He went on to invent other wonderful ways to explore under the sea.

Even though his dreams seemed impossible, he didn't give up until each one became a reality.

Later he realized that people were harming the ocean with garbage and chemicals.  Jacques Cousteau decided to educate the world so everyone could help to preserve the waters in our world.

Here are some videos, if you'd like to learn more about Jacques Cousteau.

Essentially we understood why Jacques Cousteau was famous...

What a great example of inquiry in action!

Mrs. Henning is Stuck in Washington DC!

 My husband, daughter and I went to visit our son CJ who is in the Air Force on our long weekend. 

Unfortunately our flight back home on Sunday was canceled and we couldn't return until Tuesday! We took the opportunity to do some more sightseeing in Washington DC, but I had to get a substitute teacher.

Room 408 did some research on what I might be doing in Washington DC. Here are some things they researched:

The White House

The Washington Monument

The Lincoln Memorial

Abraham Lincoln

The Capitol (Do you see it in the background of the Washington Monument?)

I was even able to get a picture of a famous site that we will research in January....do you know who made a famous speech in this place?

Our First Inquiry!

  We have been learning about the life of the researcher, Jane Goodall.

For our first inquiry, we started wondering about Jane by looking at some photographs.

We started to have lots of questions.

We started thinking about how we can learn from various sources. Some great ways to learn are through photographs, PebbleGo, and books. Each of us started learning about Jane by choosing how we were going to start our own research.

Declan, Delilah, and Braxton comparing research of similar findings.

They were so excited to have all found information about Jane's chimpanzee stuffed animal!

Kendrick is recording his research off of PebbleGo.

Braxton found out that she lived in a tent.

Mason found the same thing in a National Geographic magazine!

Piper is being told that she can confirm her prediction that she thought she liked animals, because Braxton found a magazine cover that said, "Animal Scientist and Activist."

Franklin is focused in his research.

Asher recorded so much research, his clipboard is full!

Delilah and Mason are comparing information across lots of print sources.

So many great conversations happen as they share their research with each other.

We got together as a big group to share and compare our findings about Jane.

Everyone was so proud of all our hard work as researchers!

We then read the book The Watcher, which told us more about how Jane accomplished her dream to work and study with chimpanzees in Gombe, Africa.  We also got some of our questions answered!

Jane was not only a researcher, but also a writer.  She kept piles and piles of research in her tent when she was working with the chimpanzees.

We learned that one of her favorite chimp companions was named David Greybeard.

However, after many years Jane realized that the chimpanzees she loved were in danger of becoming extinct.  She realized that the best way to help the chimpanzees was to share their story with the world.

Jane Goodall is an excellent example of the 3 A's:  Activism, Awareness, and Aid.  When we do our inquiries this year, Room 408 will keep these 3 A's in mind.

This is a National Geographic video that we watched so we could see Jane in action:

What inspires you about Jane Goodall?