Hello!

Back at school again with classes! It’s been a great restful one week break, but all good things come to an end (HAHA) I’m kidding. It’s actually really nice to be back at UBC and I sort of missed it.

This week in Inquiry we were tasked to go to the MOA and pick an artifact and make an Inquiry-centred lesson plan based on the artifact.

At first it sounded a bit daunting, like I’m not sure I’ll be able to create a lesson plan so easily at  museum… but I was wrong! The museum is such a a fascinating place — and probably one of the coolest place to plan an Inquiry-centred lesson! My group and I chose this gorgeous porcelain “jewelry box” — or we think it’s a jewelry box, or cabinet of some sort. We then put on our “Inquiry goggles” and suddenly we had all these questions about the box. Where was it made? How did they make it? Who used to own it? Why is it yellow? Why are there paintings along the side? Why is there a hole in the middle? How did it even get to the museum in the first place?
We were buzzing with ideas!

Which made me realize, ANYTHING can turn into an inquiry! It’s such a great way to learn! I know that creating this lesson plan was meant to be an exercise in incorporating inquiry into our classrooms, but this has made me so curious. And I guess that’s the point of Inquiry to  begin with, it’s to get students curious about the world around them. To encourage them to ask questions and to seek answers, not for the gain of the teacher but for their own personal enjoyment and learning. It really is such a cool feeling to be so full of questions and curiosity. It is definitely something I want my future students to experience 🙂