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!

Starting Genius Hour

 After we came up with wonders about our world for our Wonder Window...

...we decided on topics that we were really interested in. 

We each came up with a wonder that we could stick with. Here are a few!

Delilah is wondering about robots.

Thatcher is wondering about spiders.

Erika is wondering how clothes are made.

Quill is wondering about presidents.

Next we got to work and used sources like PebbleGo, books, and youtube videos to learn more about our topics.

Braxton was wondering about teachers. He put together some questions to interview an expert...he  interviewed me!

We wrote down any interesting facts that we learned about our topics.

When we were finished we recorded three of our favorite facts.

Our next step will be to create some kind of project to help us teach others about what we learned!

Owl Inquiry Day!

We have had lots of wonders about owls, porcupines, mice, and owl pellets as we read aloud Poppy, our chapter book by Avi.

Since we had so many wonders and questions, we had an Owl Inquiry Day!

Room 408 loves Research Workshop! We started by brainstorming lingering questions we had about owls:

We reviewed all our sources and started our research by studying photos, reading books, or researching on our ipads on PebbleGo and Epic.

We also explored an owl skull...

...and weighed owl pellets on a balance.

We made connections and collaborated about our learning.

Of course, we always recorded our new learning!

We gathered together to share our learning and answer our questions.

Finally, the time came that we have all been waiting for: dissecting owl pellets! We found it morbidly fascinating.

We found lots of cool bones inside, along with a *lot* of fur.

When we found a bone, we used a diagram to help us identify what kind of bone it was and what kind of animal it came from:

The owl inquiry has been one of our favorite days, so far!🦉