{"id":749,"date":"2018-12-08T05:16:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T05:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/labschool\/?p=749"},"modified":"2018-12-11T21:14:13","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T21:14:13","slug":"inquiry-inc-comes-to-campus-school-student-teachers-student-researchers-and-steam-at-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/labschool\/2018\/12\/08\/inquiry-inc-comes-to-campus-school-student-teachers-student-researchers-and-steam-at-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Inquiry, Inc. Comes to Campus School: Student Teachers, Student Researchers, and STE(A)M at Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cParadise Pond wouldn\u2019t be so paradisey if all of the trash went into it!\u201d an eager third grader exclaimed on a warm October morning. Circled on the carpet in Jan Szymaszek\u2019s classroom, Smith College senior and Campus School student teacher Ruth Neils led her students through a pilot lesson of Inquiry, Inc. and the Case of the Missing Ducklings<\/i>, an interactive storybook and unit designed by a group of student researchers at Smith. \u201cThe Water Inquiry project of Smith College works to improve children\u2019s understandings of water while advancing idea-centered learning,\u201d the program\u2019s website reads:<\/p>\n

\u201cParticipants investigate water as a topic<\/i> that stimulates curiosity and provokes problems of understanding, as well as a medium for inquiry<\/i> with which to explore the development of ideas and theories. The creation and revision of classroom resources\u2014interactive stories, learning adventures, and tools for inspiring inquiry\u2014allows Smith student researchers to learn alongside elementary students and educators in a dynamic, collaborative design process. Members of Water Inquiry explore best practices for sustaining scientific inquiry in schoolyards, classrooms, and communities, drawing children\u2019s attention and imagination to water and thought\u2013 two essential, yet \u2018hidden\u2019 resources.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ruth began her work with the Water Inquiry project four years ago, when she entered Smith as a STRIDE student. The STRIDE program (Student Researchers In Departments) offers incoming first-year students a scholarship that includes a paid research position with a Smith professor, in this case Carol Berner, professor of Education and Child Study at Smith, who facilitates the Water Inquiry group.<\/p>\n

Now in her senior year studying environmental science and education, Ruth joined Ms. Szymaszek\u2019s classroom for the start of her student teaching practicum, bringing with her the first in a series of Inquiry, Inc<\/i>. stories centered around the questions \u201cWhere does water come from?\u201d and \u201cWhere does water go?\u201d In the storybook, a cast of characters known as Inquiry, Inc. discovers baby ducklings that have fallen down a storm drain. Together with the help of readers, they must save the day, answering scientific questions and practicing design-thinking skills along the way.<\/p>\n

Ruth introduced students to the unit\u2019s guiding questions through an interactive investigation of storm drains on the Campus School playground. Peering underground, students huddled over clipboards, jotting notes about their observations and questions.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

Back in their Campus School classroom during snack time, Ruth read aloud from the book, stopping at a \u201chand-off\u201d embedded in the text. Hand-offs were designed by Water Inquiry researchers to encourage students and teachers to \u201cstop and think\u201d; \u201cstop and talk\u201d; or \u201cstop and make\u201d models, diagrams, and maps in alignment with NGSS Science & Engineering Standards throughout the reading process. In this way, researchers and teachers utilize narrative structure to guide and challenge students\u2019 interdisciplinary thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere do you think the ducklings went?\u201d Ruth asked during one provocation, her students eagerly raising their hands while rustling chip bags and cardboard boxes of raisins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two ducks might\u2019ve went down the pipe,\u201d one student shared. \u201cI\u2019ve seen this kind of drain before,\u201d her table-mate noted. \u201cSome are just a grate with water underneath, and the water stretches really far. Maybe they went to the river.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they\u2019re bobbing around like at an amusement park!\u201d one student interjected with a giggle. \u201cYou know those pipes that connected [the drains]? They could\u2019ve gone down there and into <\/i>another drain!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ideas about connectivity spurred a chorus of agreement from classmates, and served as a segue into thinking about the rain-to-river journey of water. Students\u2019 ideas about where water goes after it enters a storm drain (\u201csewer,\u201d \u201ceventually the ocean,\u201d \u201cParadise Pond\u201d), coupled with their observations of storm drain contents on their playground (candy wrappers, pennies), inspired discussions about water stewardship and pollution. \u201cWater pollution is made by sewer water or drain water flowing through the pipes to a water source that then releases it into the ocean,\u201d shared one concerned student. \u201cThat\u2019s why you don\u2019t want to leave paper and things on the sidewalk, because it can be washed into drains and all go to a water source, then to the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut some gets cleaned before it goes to a water source,\u201d another student added, allowing Ruth to shift her class\u2019 focus to the activity of the day: drawing diagrams to represent their ideas about what happens beneath storm drains, underground.<\/p>\n

Jan and Ruth emphasized the idea of revision during this exercise– a concept that students were also grappling with in math class– by speaking to students about the drafting process, allowing them the opportunity to sketch initial ideas and hone them, on larger paper, one lesson later. This practice imbued students\u2019 learning experiences with emphases on idea improvement, making their thinking visible to themselves as well as peers and teachers. Students shared their final products in a \u201cGallery Walk,\u201d pictured below:<\/p>\n