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= = =Free Choice and Animal Inquiry Projects=

My Background and Introduction to the Inquiry:
I currently work in a rural K-12 school. Approximately 40% of our students qualify for free lunch/textbooks. While some students may have internet access at home, this is not true for most students. Students' experiences with computers stem primarily from activities and projects completed at school. As the students get older, the assumption is made that they know how to search the Internet, so little time is spent instructing in this area. I have started "pushing" my way into classrooms to educate students and teachers alike on finding reliable information, searching the Internet effectively, and other similar topics.

Having taught junior high English in the past, I have class experience with guiding students through the research process. As a teacher, I used a modified I-Search with my students, going through the following steps: Brainstorming, narrowing topics, What I Know (about top 2-3 topics), choose topic (have enough resources?), What I Want to Know, Research (keeping a log), What I Learned, Story of My Search (sometimes a short paper, sometimes a visual like a flow chart) and Reflection. I did this as a free choice inquiry because giving students a choice in topic allows them to research something that interests //them//. From my experiences, I knew there must be a way to make this research unit more enjoyable throughout the process. I felt too many students were coming up short. **What could I do to make their experience more productive and successful?**

Through S574 course readings, I discovered that part of the struggles students faced were due to **not** spending enough time at the beginning of the process. Once I learned about the Pre-Search and saw an example by Leslie Preddy, I //knew// this was an area I had spent too little time on with my students. They needed more time sifting through their ideas, looking for possible resources, evaluating resources, and thinking about their quests before beginning.

Navigating My Wiki:
Use the navigation bar to the left to move from page to page. Each grade level has its own page, with a separate page to discuss the differences in inquiry skills at each grade level.