Inquiry Training is a model of instruction that looks a lot like 20 Questions. You’ll teach your students to ask more helpful questions and to avoid rushing to a hypothesis too quickly.
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Scholar’s Cafe
Get students moving, thinking, writing, and reading each others’ ideas with a Scholar’s Cafe.
A Classic: “Who’s On First” and 21st Century Kids
My 21st century 12-year-olds absolutely died watching Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s On First” skit. And we got a great homophone activity out of it too.
Add Criteria to Improve “Evaluate” Questions
With some small changes, we can turn fluffy opinion questions into thought-provoking evaluation questions.
Remix the Song “Help!”
Students took the classic song, Help!, and rewrote it to be about their collective summers.
Could we fit 1,000 kids on the playground? 10,000?
If your students can find the area of a square then, armed with Google Earth, they can also figure out how many students you could pack into your school’s playground.
Concept Formation: A Model for Inductive Thinking
Here’s are the steps for running an inductive lesson based on Hilda Taba’s model of Concept Formation. Plus a sample lesson about the Nile River.
The Marshmallow Challenge
A fantastic fuzzy problem to start the year. Students use pasta and tape to try to get a marshmallow up as high as possible.
What could we do with this Wax Museum event?
How one might revamp a “Wax Museum” project into something that focuses more on thinking than product.
Fizz Buzz – A Divisibility Game
Here’s a quick to learn but difficult to master math game. Start with some basic divisibility rules, but then feel free to extend it to any math topic.