Two grade eight students knocked on my door
and asked me this question. They explained that they are getting organized to
do a water audit of our school for the next two weeks in an effort to better
understand how a community uses water. I was happy to walk them to the
mechanical room and show them where it was, how to read it, and talk through
first ideas about how to organize the study. Learning about units of
measurement, place value of numbers on the meter, variables in a study, sample
size of research, and more followed out of necessity. What a relevant,
memorable way to learn these things in a process that instantly has purpose!
Kindergarten
students are creating thank-you cards for some local businesses that have
helped us in maintaining and improving our school building. They have an
intended audience for their recently learned communication skills (learning to
write) and the beautiful artwork they create.
A junior student has been captivated by
data management techniques learned at school. A sample of truck traffic was
taken and was interesting enough that the next step was for the student to
reach out to the Ontario Trucking Association with questions about what was
discovered. The student is interested to see if the letter carefully written
and re-written will get a response from this real-world office.
Grade seven geography students recently
heard a presentation about a country in Central America they had limited
knowledge of from someone who has been there. Elsewhere, three classes will be
meeting a falconer tomorrow at school following study of habitats and
biodiversity.
This is connected education! While there
will always be need for introductory skills and concepts to be taught and
practiced, it is exciting for our teachers and students to bring them to
meaningful use and purpose in God’s amazing world. Inquiry is a powerful tool
that we are interested in using to lead students to learn more about how God’s
world works and how they connect to it.
SJ
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