Construct
Construct Stage of Inquiry
Construct new understadnings connected to previous knowledge
Draw conclusions about questions and hypothesis
Stripling About this Stage
Educators and students may find this phase challenging. Now is the time to draw conclusions from the introductory questions and their investigations. Students must develop their individual opinions based on their results in the investigation.
Stripling, B. (2009) Teaching Inquiry with Primary Sources. Teaching with Primary Sources Quarterly. 2(3), 3-4https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/teachers/about-this-program/teaching-with-primary-sources-partner-program/documents/inquiry-learning.pdf
Let’s Look Back at Where We Started!
Since this is the stage where previous knowledge is connected to new knowledge after the investigation, it is good to have short rewind of the starting point.
...we used Padlet and Mentimeter for the children to respond and gather their knowledge
This was some of the prior knowledge about precipitation we gathered from Padlet and Mentimeter:
jumping in large puddles
rain drops on car windows
Snow formes when its below 0 degrees celcius
rain proof cloths is needed when it rains or has rained
Rain comes from the sea
Humans and animals drinks water - I drank puddle water once!
...we made Wonder Walls to gather all of the questions and wonders the students had. Some groups used Bitmoji Classroom.
We also used videos about rain, books from Epic! and DK Findout to get the kids more interested and curious about precipitation.
These are a few of the questions from the wonder wall:
How do people collect and use rainwater?
What would life be like without rain?
Why is rain heavier sometimes and lighter at times?
Is rain important?
How is rain formed?
How Does Precipitation Form?
Investigation how precipitation is formed, lead the students to realise that temperature is a key component. The bags of water in the windows in the classroom exemplified the impact of diverse temperatures and weather conditions on the phases of water.
Hypothesis:
The Water will get warmer or colder depending on the weather outside the window. We think that all the water will be gone if the sun is shining and it's above 15 degrees outside.
Conclusions: when the sun was out, a lot of the water evaporated gathering at the top of the bag and through out the day the evaporation formed into water droplets and ran down on the side of the bag. We did not notice that any of the water disappeared and did some further research and realised that the atmosphere stopped the clouds and water from evaporating out into space!
Why Use Quizlet
Quizlet helps the student learn terms and definitions with flashcards, generates tests to quiz the student, or match the definition and terms with a stop watch that students can compete in being the fastest. Quizlet has a new function of Q-AI, similar to ChatGTP this AI can quiz you, teach you or help you apply your knowledge. With a teacher account, you have the function of Quizlet Live where students have to collaborate to win, each student having a device with four different answers each and the questions are on a big screen.
Quizlet can help students with other first languages than English to remember new and difficult words, making it easier to integrate them into their daily or academic language.
Plant Growth
Hypothesis:
The seeds that are watered will grow faster than the those who are not. Some of the children compared the seed to themselves and said that the seed must be thirsty like them.
Conclusion:
Water was more important than sun, like the students thought. However, some of the students noticed that the sprouts got weaker near the end of the investigation, and that the sprouts didn't have the bright dark green colour but rather a light green - almost white! This lead to an investigation about how the photosynthesis works.
Why Use Book Creator?
We chose to use Book Creator as an option for the children to journal their findings. The children have already used this app/website earlier and had knowledge about how to use it so it would not be time consuming when starting this inquiry cycle.
Book Creator has lots of options for the children to use the app, and in the presented example from a pupil, a pre-made template was used to note the findings during the investigation.
Side Note:
In one of the pots, there were another growth that were different from the sunflowers so the students used the app PictureThis to figure out what plant this was and how to care for it. The app told the students that it was a chili sprout and we teachers revealed that we put it there to see if they were observing closely enough.
