Twiddla

Found an online interactive whiteboard website called twiddla. Thought I would use it with the class to brainstorm questions for our research task. It went well once all got over the over the top excitement! The children had to write down any question they thought could be part of our research project about animals. We then grouped the questions together according to likeness eg where the animal lives, what it looks like, what it eats etc.

Kids loved it!

And the Search continues...

Thought I'd try and get some hints as to how to begin an inquiry approach. Found this site after completing a search using- "how to start inquiry based learning"

thirteen edonline

BCE TL Big Day Out

Went to the BCE TL Big Day out today. It was excellent as usual. Came away with lots of info and ideas. Loved the session from BCE Resource Link. They highlighted a resource wiki they have developed devoted to successful searching. I've yet to look closely, but wanted to blog it before I forgot it!

Kidcyber

Had a look at Kidcyber (http://www.kidcyber.com.au) and it has a great list of animals, and age appropriate info- Yay!

starting up

Thought I'd try to find some info about how to begin an inquiry based unit.
Searched for 'starting inquiry based learning' and cgot 527 000 hits (blah). Liked the first one- YouthLearn http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/planning/lesson-planning/how-inquiry/how-inquiry. Will have a closer look at this.

Obviously ned to think about more effective search terms too to narrow down the 527 000 hits!

And the search begins

Due to the age of the students, the CT and I agreed that we would provide the students with various types of information- online, texts, fact sheets, pictures.
I started the search today to find appropriate online information. I have found in the past that it is quite difficult to find age appropriate info, plus this group of children have very little research experience, and no experience with inquiry.
Search #1
Terms used- research middle primary
Result- not good. Got heaps of sites about research about middle primary, which, in hindsight, makes sense really!
Search #2- information for kids
Result- better. checked out yahooligans first. I used to use this a lot years ago. It has been considerably revamped since then. Looks much groovier, but still lots of links to get through to get to the info. Once I found it, it was worth it. I'll use this- http://kids.yahoo.com/animals
Search #3- information for kids au
Result- added au on the end in the hope that I would get some Australian sites devoted to 8 and 9 year olds, didn't work. Got lots of sites with info about Australia... aaagghhh!!!

...to be continued

Questionnaire reponses

Click on the Questionnaire Tab to read my answers to the first questionnaire.
Leave your comments here!

In the beginning

As part of their Life and Living Science unit the Year 3 and 4 classes are researching an animal. The classroom teachers were keen to give the students a choice of 5 preselected animals to research. As well as the usual information about habitat, description and behaviour, the teachers wanted the children to identify where the animal fits in to a food chain.

After talking to the year 4 teacher, we both decided to give the students a wider choice of animals to research. We will use the Australia Zoo website to choose an animal as they will be going on an excursion there at the end of the term.

I also spoke to the Classroom Teacher (CT) about discussing and negotiating with the students about what questions they would research. I was really pleased when she agreed and was really interested in letting the chn come up with their own set of questions to research.

It should be interesting working with this group of children as they have had very little experience with inquiry based learning, and while this task will be very limited as far as true inquiry goes, I'm hoping it may lead to more complex tasks in the future.