Unit Of Inquiry Topic- Some Questions To Ask Yourself

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I hope that you are all starting to think about some topics that interest you for our Unit of Inquiry. We will not actually be choosing topics until next week, but here are some questions that I want you to ask yourselves when you are brainstorming ideas:

Question #1:  Will this hold my attention and interest for 8-10 weeks?

Please remember that this topic will be the basis for all of your work and research until the end of the term, and you will be doing much of the research and work on your own. Therefore, it is very important that you choose a topic that really interests you, and that you will keep wanting to learn more about If you think that you are only "kind of" interested in your topic, you may want to continue brainstorming!

Question #2:  Is my topic something that will require me to do a lot of work outside of class/school? If it is, am I organized enough to handle that?

Please be honest with yourself about this, as it is very important to your project. If you want to learn about different ways to make pizza, you will not be able to make pizza during class time.  You would be able to do the research and gather ideas during class, but much of your practice and learning would take place at home. If you are not a student who usually handles doing things on your own and meeting deadlines, you may want to choose another topic that will be more manageable during school hours.

Question #3:  Is this something that I will be able to learn in 8-10 weeks?

This is HUGELY important when you are choosing your topic! If you decide that you want to learn everything there is to know about the history of Indonesia, or how to play your favorite song on the guitar (and before starting the unit, you have NO IDEA how to play the guitar), this will most likely not be done in the short amount of time that we have, at least not without spending a lot of time outside of class on it.  Now, 8-10 weeks may seem like a looooooong time to a student, but considering that classes only meet 3 times a week for one hour, it is actually not much time.  Please keep this in mind.

Question #4:  Do you have what you will need in order to learn about your topic?

 I don't think that I need to tell you that if you decide that you want to learn how to play a basic song on the piano, but you don't HAVE a piano, or know anyone who has a piano that you can use, this may not be the best topic for you. Please make sure that you have REGULAR access to the things that you will need in order to complete your unit project.

Question #5: Is this topic something that I will be able to understand?

 I may decide that I am very interested in learning about Quantum Physics, but unless I have a strong science background and know a lot of scientific vocabulary, this would probably be extremely difficult for me to do. You will want to make sure that you have the following things in order to be able to successfully learn about your topic: the language skills to understand it, some background knowledge (if necessary), and the skills to be able to learn it.

                                  Good luck and have fun!