Brainstorm
My inquiry project is about Outdoor Education, my topic for this is Spring Outing. I would like to look for a park near a river to take this lesson. I focus on the Elementary School Science Curriculum Standard for grade 1 to 3 students.
- Key highlights from Topic Exploration
Bai (2005) stated that inquiry is quest for meaning or value and so on which starts with the suspicion and realization to help students realize their power. The element of inquiry is the process of it, students can develop their passion and curiosity of unknown things, looking for the connection of different things and the ability of solving problems. Spring outing as an outdoor education activity, it provides students with good opportunities to experience the nature by their bodies. The Elementary School Science Curriculum Standard stresses the importance of inquiry-based learning, and it advocates students to have multiple learning strategies based on inquiry-based learning to promote students’ interest in inquiry.
- Key questions for inquiry within the topic.
(1) Will this inquiry lesson be beneficial for students’ emotion development?
(2) Do this inquiry lesson develop students’ curiosity about the nature?
(3) Will students learn how to communicate with others through inquiry?
(4) Will students learn how to deal with different situations through inquiry?
- A description and broad strokes plan for your proposed Inquiry Project, along with questions that you may have about the proposed project.
My topic is Spring Outing, the place will I take this lesson is a park that near a river. It provides natural environment to teachers and students to take outdoor education. Farmer et al., (2007) stated that outdoor education activities that take children outside the classroom and help them to learn knowledge in a natural environment (as cited in Tas& Gulen, 2019). A park is a good place. Through inquiry activity, Friesen (2009) stated that as students experience these relationships and learning environments that support caring, risk-taking and trust, students’ confidence in themselves as learners grows. In the park, I want to lead students to find some elements of spring and feel the nature to help students learn the basic scientific knowledge related to the common things around, and applied them to daily life, gradually developing scientific behaviour and living habits.
- A short list of the appropriate Learning Principles
Core Competencies: Communication, Thinking, Sharing
Big Ideas (Understand): 1. To observe the scenery of spring and feel the beauty of spring. 2. To help students learn the basic scientific knowledge related to the common things around. 3. Understand the process and methods of scientific inquiry, try to apply them to scientific inquiry activities (Elementary School Science Curriculum Standard, 2017).
Learning Standards for Curricular Competencies (Do): 1. To applied basic scientific knowledge to daily life, gradually developing scientific behaviour and living habits. 2. To communicate with classmates and increase our knowledge(Elementary School Science Curriculum Standard, 2017).
Learning Standards for Curricular Content (Know): 1. To cultivate students’ environmental protection concepts and participation consciousness. 2. To develop students’ consciousness of nature protection (Elementary School Science Curriculum Standard, 2017).
- First Peoples Principles for Learning for the grade level(s) that you anticipate working with.
The participants of my inquiry project are grade 1 to 3 students. I want to use those First Peoples Principles for learning which are “Learning involves patience and time.” “Learning involves recognizing that some knowledge is sacred and only shared with permission and/or in certain situations.”
- An explanation of your current understandings of inquiry-based pedagogy related to your topic and proposed project.
From my perspective, inquiry-based pedagogy is a good way for both teachers and students to develop their capacity of learning, thinking, and communication. Just as Bai (2005) stated that a kind of learning is for uncertain and unpredictable outcomes just like inquiry. Spring Outing is an inquiry-based activity, because teachers and students do not know what is going to happen in this activity and we do not have a specific teaching content for students. We focus on improving students’ comprehensive abilities.
- A reflection based on peer/instructor feedback and your own thoughts that demonstrates your evolving project plan.
I chose outdoor education and my topic is spring outing, but a big difficulty for Chinese students is that we do not have a forest for us to take outdoor education. My classmates advised me to give students a good place to take inquiry lesson, so I decided to look for a riverside park to help students and pursue my teaching. For my evolving project plan, I think I can focus on developing a good relationship between students and the nature.
Reference
First Peoples Principle of Learning, (n. d.), http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/PUB-LFP- POSTER-Principles-of-Learning-First-Peoples-poster-11×17.pdf, on December 29, 2019.
Friesen, S. (2009). What did you do in school today? Teaching Effectiveness: A Framework and Rubric. Toronto: Canadian Education Association.
Friesen, S. (2015). Focus on inquiry. University of Calgary Press https://inquiry.galileo.org
Hare, W., & Portelli, J. P. (2005). Key questions for educators. Halifax, NS: Edphil Books.
Tas, E., & Gulen, S. (2019). Analysis of the Influence of Outdoor Education Activities on Seventh Grade Students. Participatory Educational Research, 6(2), 122–143.
The Ministry of Education. (2017). Elementary School Science Curriculum Standard. http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A26/s8001/201702/W020170215542129302110.pdf