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go to the heart of a discipline. They can be
found in the most historically important (and
controversial) problems and topics in the sciences:
What is adequate "proof" in each field of inquiry?
Is our society more advanced than those of the
past?
have no one obvious "right" answer: essential
"answers" are not self-evidently true. Even if
there are "truths" and essential theories in a
discipline, the student comes to know that there
are other plausible theses and hypotheses to be
considered and sorted through along with the
"sanctioned" views.
are higher-order, in Bloom's sense: they are
always matters of analysis, synthesis, and
evaluative judgment. The student is always asked to
"go beyond" the information given.
recur throughout one's learning. The same
important questions get asked and re-asked, if they
are essential. Our answers to essential questions
may never be adequate, but they should become
increasingly sophisticated.
are framed to provoke and sustain student
interest. Essential questions work best when
the questions are edited to be thought-provoking to
students, likely to generate interesting inquiries,
and able to accommodate diverse interests and
learning styles.
link to other essential questions. Good
questions engender other good questions. It is
therefore useful to think of a family of related
questions as anchoring a course and a unit, and
also to make clear to students that their questions
that arise naturally are part of clarifying the
essential questions.
Examples
Which
would make the better classroom pet--a starfish, or
a hermit crab?
You
are going to be going on a hike with your class
this week. It's your job to choose which day this
week you will go on the hike.
Your
classroom has been asked to give an award to the
most important community helper. Together, decide
which will receive the award and why they deserve
it (Police Officers, Fire Fighters, Paramedics,
Mountain Rescue, etc.)
You
and your partner are zoo directors. At this time,
your zoo has no Australian animals. You have a very
limited budget, but you would like to add one
Australian
animal to your zoo.
Your job is to research at least two Australian
animals, and decide which one would be the easiest
and cheapest to keep in your zoo.
You
have been chosen to select a pet dog
for:
an elderly
person
a family in
Alaska
a family with young
children and no fenced yard
Your
team has been hired by the United State Secretary
of the Interior, to study the current environmental
threats to the polar regions. You have only enough
funding for combating one of those threats. Your
task is to research the threats, and then to select
the threat that you feel should be given priority
for funding.
You
and your team are a travel agency. You are going to
be designing a new travel brochure that will
advertise one of the mountain regions of the world
as an ideal spot for a mountain vacation. Your job
is to investigate three different mountain regions,
through Internet,. Then come to a decision as to
which of those mountain regions would be the best
place for tourists to go for a great vacation in
the mountains.
If
you were stranded on one of the small, uninhabited
islands found in popular childrens' books (Island
of the Blue Dolphins; Robinson Crusoe; The Cay;
Call it
Courage), on which
island would you most prefer to be stranded? How
would you supply your basic needs on this
island?
You
are a poor Italian trader and have heard that there
is great money to be made in selling spices. You
don't know much about spices but have decided to
join with another trader to do some research to
figure out which spice would be the most profitable
to harvest and sell.
You
are a pioneer just starting out on the Oregon Wagon
Trail. You need to decide what you will take with
you in order to survive the trip, and to set up a
new home in the Oregon Territory. Brainstorm, with
your team, what you need to find out about living
conditions on the Trail. After learning about the
living conditions, write a list of items you will
take with you, and explain why you will need each
item.
Would
you rather be an immigrant in 1890 or 1990?
Why?
Your
parents have just lost their jobs. Your family is
being forced, by necessity, to move from the West
Coast to New England. Your job is to help your
parents decide
which New England city
to move to, from the following list of
cities:
Providence, Rhode
Island
Burlington,
Vermont
Hartford,
Connecticut
Boston,
Massachussetts
Questions from
the Bellingham Public Schools
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