Making Authentic Inquiry Work - Part 1

Written by Lindsay Conrad, Instructional Coach at Percy Pegler

I was lucky enough to attend “Making Authentic Inquiry Work” sponsored by Natural Curiosity and Learning for a Sustainable Future. This was a great two-day inquiry institute where I learned about new resources and practical inquiry-based strategies to use in the classroom.

I would like to share two amazing resources with you:

Natural Curiosity is a teacher resource for building children’s understanding of the world through environmental inquiry.  Check out their website: http://www.naturalcuriosity.ca/

Under books they have a PDF downloadable version in both English and French of their handbook. This offers a guide to bring inquiry-based teaching practices into the classroom and how to make both the content and process of learning about the world more engaging and relevant to students. It gives many strategies and examples for how to make learning visible. Here is a quick link to the PDF versions:

http://www.naturalcuriosity.ca/pdf/NaturalCuriosityManual.pdf

Natural Curiosity is partnered with
Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF).
LSF is a non-profit Canadian organization that was created to integrate sustainability education into Canada’s education system. Their belief is about creating a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable society of engaged citizens who think and act responsibly, today, and for generations to come .http://lsf-lst.ca

Their newest resource is called “Connecting the Dots.” It offers key-learning strategies that transform learning 
from Environmental Education to Citizenship and Sustainability

 Check out these great resources if you are interested in making inquiry work in your class!

Coming Soon Part 2 - Group knowledge building