1. Inquiry Learning in Pukeko 1
By Yolande Mathlay
What did Inquiry Learning
look like in my class
2. Inquiry learning in Pukeko 1
• Inquiry teaching allowed the students to ask questions and
to drive the curriculum with their curiosities.
• Our Inquiry began with gathering information and it
encouraged children to question, research and make
discoveries on their own.
• Inquiry transformed me, as a teacher, into a learner with the
students and the students became teachers with me.
• Inquiry teaching allowed me to use my previous experiences
and knowledge and also take on new perspectives when we
explored issues and questions.
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3. Creating a learning community
• The success of our inquiry unit came from a
shift in my role from teacher to facilitator.
• I became the leader, the coach, the question
asker and “resource finder expert”.
• Although I presented lots of information to the
children I was not solely responsible for
imparting all the information.
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4. Creating a learning community cont..
• I created learning experiences based on the
students' prior knowledge and interests, and
linked the Science strand into the learning.
• Students' progress was documented with
ongoing (formative) and final (summative)
assessments.
• In addition, I created a variety of “hands on”
assessments for students to "show what they
know."
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5. Building our learning community
• I started our Inquiry unit by
stating clear expectations and
high standards and I maintained
this throughout.
• I outlined clear “ground rules”
and a zero tolerance for
disrespectful or hurtful actions to
others.
• I believe for inquiry to be
successful, students need to feel
safe to take risks, share ideas, and
believe ideas can lead to more
ideas and questions, even if they
are not correct.
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Behaviour agreement decided by
students
6. Where we started…
We brainstormed some ideas and came up
with our big idea and decided on a topic for
our Inquiry
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9. Each group chose a name and questions
to research
• The students were
divided into 5 groups
and each group had 2
questions that they
had to research
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10. To start off the Inquiry, the students wanted to see if and how
fast rubbish will break down if it is sent to the landfill
So they decided to make mini landfills ….
• This was a little project for 7 weeks…
• They had a food scraps landfill….
• A paper landfill…
• A glass landfill….
• And a plastics landfill
• Each student formed their own hypothesis
and kept a journal over the 7 weeks to record
their findings
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15. They dug up their landfills each week to see the
changes that took place
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16. They dug up their landfills each week to see what
changes took place cont….
• We found that after just 1 week the
food scraps has already started to break
down
• No changes in the glass, plastics and
paper…
• Some of us had to rethink our
hypotheses
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18. Paper landfill after 1 week
• No changes took
place in the plastic
and the glass. They
learnt that plastic
bottles and glass
takes about 450 years
to break down
• A slight change in the
paper was noticed
after 4 weeks..
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21. Their Findings
• No changes took place in the plastic and the glass.
• The Food scraps broke down and became part of
the soil
• Plastic bottles and glass takes about 450 years to
break down
• They noticed a slight change in the paper after 4
weeks..
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35. Some of the children’s learning….
Did you know that trucks have thick tyres so
that the glass will not pop them.
Every year 85,000 tons of rubbish is delivered
to Visy.
When the rubbish gets dropped off it gets sent
to the factory [MERF].
MERF stands for Material Recovery Factory.
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37. The students also learnt about biodegradable waste and
decided to make a worm farm
They used an old
recycled bath and
they had to prepare
the worm bedding
thoroughly……
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40. Covering the worms
• They learnt so much, like:
• Worms need to be
covered to protect them
from the sun and pests.
• Some food that worms
like are, tea bags, egg
shells, nail clippings, hair,
food scraps and coffee
beans.
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41. Student voice……
• The worms produce worm castings that can be
used as fertilizer for the plants.
• It helps the plants and it also helps the
environment.
• Worm farming is important because it teaches us
to be clean and green.
• You can sell worm castings.
• In this way we can re-use our food scraps instead
of putting it in the bin.
• You don’t need to waste money to buy fertilizer –
just make it yourself with your worm castings!
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42. Bringing the inquiry together
• Assessment formed a huge part of the unit.
• Children wrote letters to Susannah
persuading her to have recycling bins at our
school and requesting permission to continue
their worm farm.
• The Inquiry celebration day was a big success
and students looked forward and enjoyed
sharing their learning journey with their
parents.
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