Day 4: Investigate the Problem

Understand the problem before trying to solve it.

Day 1 gave students a reason to learn.

Day 2 began building the background knowledge and skills they needed.

Day 3 gave students opportunities to use that learning and deepen their understanding.

Now it's time to turn that growing knowledge toward the actual challenge.

Day 4 of our 10-Day Recipe is about investigating the problem.

Students begin looking more closely at the challenge they encountered on Day 1. They gather evidence, examine the situation, consider different perspectives, identify needs, notice patterns, and ask better questions.

And most importantly:

They resist the urge to solve the problem too quickly.

Our 10-Day Recipe is intentionally structured. Each day has a primary job. That doesn't mean students won't continue learning new content or practicing skills. They will.

But Day 4 shifts the purpose of that learning.

Students aren't just learning about a topic anymore.

They're using what they know to better understand the problem they need to solve.

The Goal

One question can guide our planning for Day 4:

What does my student need to understand about this specific problem before they are ready to think about solutions?

Depending on the challenge, students might analyze data, examine photographs, conduct observations, interview stakeholders, read firsthand accounts, compare existing solutions, investigate a site, study a case, analyze a system, or conduct additional research.

The goal isn't to collect as much information as possible.

The goal is to collect the information that matters.

Students should begin distinguishing between what is interesting to know and what they actually need to know in order to address the challenge.

Go Back to the Need-to-Knows

Remember those questions students generated when we launched the challenge?

Bring them back.

Some questions may now have answers. Others may no longer seem important. And students will probably have new questions they couldn't have asked on Day 1.

That's a good thing.

Ask:

• What do we know now?

• What questions have we answered?

• What are we still unsure about?

• What new questions have emerged?

• What do we need to investigate before we can make good decisions?

The Need-to-Know list shouldn't be something we create on Day 1 and forget about.

It should evolve as student understanding evolves.

Day 4 is a great time to revisit it.

Evidence Before Ideas

Here's one of the hardest parts of PBL.

Students want to solve the problem.

Immediately.

Mention designing a playground and someone already knows where the slide should go. Introduce an environmental challenge and someone has invented the recycling machine. Ask students to improve transportation and they're sketching vehicles before we've finished the conversation.

That enthusiasm is valuable.

We don't want to eliminate it.

We want to discipline it with evidence.

When students propose an idea, ask:

What evidence makes you think that?

That simple question changes the conversation.

Instead of:

I think we should...

students begin moving toward:

The evidence suggests...

That's an important shift.

Good solutions begin with good problem understanding.

Look at the Problem From More Than One Angle

Real problems rarely look the same to everyone.

A solution that works for one person may create a problem for someone else. Something that appears simple from the outside may involve needs, limitations, systems, costs, or perspectives students haven't considered.

So give students opportunities to examine the challenge from different angles.

Ask:

• Who is affected by this problem?

• What might they need?

• What evidence do we have about those needs?

• What limitations or conditions exist?

• What is causing the problem?

• What parts of the problem might be connected?

• Whose perspective might we be missing?

This is where empathy can become more than simply imagining how someone feels.

Students begin using evidence to understand the experiences and needs of others.

Don't Confuse Research With Investigation

Day 4 doesn't have to mean:

"Go Google the problem."

Investigation can take many forms.

Students might measure something. Observe a location. Analyze a dataset. Interview an expert. Examine an artifact. Test materials. Compare examples. Conduct a survey. Study a map. Analyze an existing product. Look for patterns in photographs.

Sometimes the best evidence is already sitting in front of us.

The question is:

What evidence will help students understand this particular problem more clearly?

That keeps investigation purposeful instead of turning it into an open-ended research assignment.

Make Sense of the Evidence

Gathering evidence isn't enough.

Students need opportunities to interpret it.

Ask:

• What are we noticing?

• What patterns are emerging?

• What surprised us?

• What seems most important?

• What evidence supports that conclusion?

• What might be causing this?

• What does this tell us about the problem?

• What do we still need to know?

Students may even discover that their original understanding of the problem wasn't quite right.

That's not a setback.

That's investigation doing its job.

Define the Problem

By the end of Day 4, students should be able to explain the problem more clearly than they could on Day 1.

They don't need a perfect formal problem statement.

But they should be moving toward something like:

The problem we are trying to solve is...

The evidence shows...

The people affected by this problem need...

Some important conditions or limitations are...

We still need to understand...

This creates a bridge between investigation and the decisions students will eventually make.

And notice what we haven't asked yet:

What's your solution?

That comes later.

Portrait of a Graduate Connections

Day 4 naturally creates opportunities to practice several Portrait of a Graduate competencies.

Critical Thinking — Analyze evidence, recognize patterns, identify causes, distinguish relevant information, and ask better questions.

Communication — Listen to different perspectives, explain findings, ask questions, and support ideas with evidence.

Collaboration — Investigate together, divide responsibilities, compare findings, challenge assumptions, and build shared understanding.

Global & Civic Awareness — Consider how problems affect different people, communities, environments, and systems.

Again, the goal isn't to check off competencies.

It's to put students in situations where those competencies are actually necessary.

A Simple Day 4 Recipe

Keep Day 4 manageable with four moves:

1. REVISIT
Return to the challenge and the Need-to-Know questions.
What do we know now, and what do we still need to understand?

2. INVESTIGATE
Gather evidence about the specific problem through data, observation, research, interviews, testing, or other appropriate sources.
What can we learn about the problem?

3. MAKE SENSE
Look for patterns, needs, causes, perspectives, and limitations.
What is the evidence telling us?

4. DEFINE
Capture the clearest understanding of the problem so far.
What problem are we actually trying to solve?

That's it.

The Small Bite

If you're trying this tomorrow, keep the investigation focused and manageable. 

Using the challenge you've already introduced and ask:

What are a few pieces of evidence my students could examine that would help them understand the problem better?

Give them that evidence.

Then ask:

What does this tell us about the problem that we didn't understand before?

Have students capture their thinking.

That's Day 4.

Day 1: Launch the Challenge
Give students a reason to learn.

Day 2: Build Background Knowledge
Give students what they need to begin.

Day 3: Deepen the Learning
Give students opportunities to use what they're learning.

Day 4: Investigate the Problem
Give students evidence to understand what they're really trying to solve.

Next, we'll use that understanding to begin determining what a successful solution will actually need to accomplish.

Day 5: Plan the Solution.

In Tapas terms, we've learned about the ingredients and started cooking. Day 4 is when we taste, notice, and figure out what the dish actually needs.

Because before students can design a good solution, they need to understand the problem worth solving.

Evidence before ideas.

Small bites. Big impact.