Learning Through Inquiry

October 4, 2011

Today we experienced inquiry learning without even knowing. We started class by completing the task of drawing pictures of the four seasons we experience and writing the dates that each season starts on.  Here is the poster my group created.  

Notice the dates and identifying factors we have included such as rain boots, a bikini, leaves and snowmen. After completing this rather simple task we were then asked why the seasons change.  Most of us had an idea that it had to do with the angle of the earth and the proximity to the sun, but none of us were absolutely sure.  Through the use of models, like globes, we began to consider the possibilities.

Throughout this task it was frustrating to never be given or told the right answer as to why the seasons occur.  We thought we knew the answer, but never being told whether we were right or wrong was not something I am used to because I have always been told whether an answer is wrong, and even after a few guess I was always told the correct answer.  Instead we worked in our co-operative learning groups coming up with many different hypotheses based on our previous knowledge.  Are seasons caused by the tilt of the Earth, are they caused by it’s path around the sun, or is it a combination of both ideas plus the way the Earth turns when the days change? We were given the opportunity to use globes and models to help our own understanding all while trying to answer the question presented to us as well as any other questions that arose in our group as we were trying to answer the initial question.

This activity was a demonstration of inquiry based learning in the sense that it posed one question that we, the students, were able to investigate at our own rate, and we were able to come up with our own ideas as to why the seasons change and choose the answer that seemed most reasonable and made the most sense, rather than being told why the seasons change, what causes the changes without being involved in our learning.