Inspiring Investigations through Citizen Science

I think that we can be catalysts for students to observe and wonder better by first of all learning ourselves to improve our ability to ask open-ended questions, not just by going outside to observe and wonder but in everything we do, so through modeling. Then with this, it would encourage students to ask more questions and not feel that they may be wrong in their answer, way of thinking, or that they have a "stupid" question, and would allow them to be more of a "free thinker", be more interested in all aspects of learning and how to find answers themselves. It would also be encouraging to them to see your personal "I Wonder boards/journals", and for older students give them light guidance over their own "I Wonder boards/journals". Make the first few introductions to "I Wonder boards/journals" fun or interesting for students to build their morale up about evening doing the boards/journals.

I love that Science is a subject so open to questions, observations, and discovery. When we have hatched eggs in an incubator in the past, I would try to get different colors and sizes of eggs to bring up questions. Adding a turkey egg also encourages discussion. Once a student found a robin egg on the ground, so we added it to the incubator and discussed many questions about that. I think modeling questions and discussions is the best catalyst for observations and wonder. It allows everyone to think about the topic and contribute their curiosity. The "I Wonder" board and journaling helps to keep the questions alive as topics to address as students learn and observe more. When students are encouraged to ask questions without worrying about "right" and "wrong" actions, they are allowed to do what comes naturally to them. Then we can discuss ways to figure out how to answer their curiosities.

My organization takes students out into the field. I have found that if the teachers are excited about going out into the field, the students feed off that excitement. On the other hand, I have sadly had teachers that have said "we're not outdoors people" and complained about being outside. This negative attitude was quickly reflected in the students as well. Even students that were initially enthusiastic and excited, changed course when they saw the reaction of their teacher. Having a curious, open-minded attitude encourages students to also have this same attitude.

As an educator, I can be a catalyst for my students by providing them opportunities.  I love field trips.  Our field trip to the wetlands always encourages students to be in an investigative mode.  Students record what they see and hear (sketching, words, ...).  I like the idea of post-it notes to record "I Wonder" questions.  The use of the Seek app will be motivational.  Each child has an iPad, but team work seems to produce more results.  With safety as an issue at this point, just simply using our playground (trees, flowers, and other plants) will provide a place for observation and I will provide time for Wonder questions.  Also, I like the resources available on the Internet.  Our WVU Extension office has partnered up with Energy Express and is posting daily half hour recordings for students.  Yesterday, 7/14 the topic was bird banding.  I learned a lot about this process while at home.  Success will be utilizing the outdoors for observations and wonderings, but if I am limited on location I will use the Internet and books to enrich my lessons.

We need to be non-judgmental and opening to all observations. We need to encourage that not knowing the answer is a good thing. One of my favourite things to say is "I don't know", why don't we try to figure that out together! We need to help students to think in terms of theories and hypothesis vs only right and wrong. We need to expose them to the wonders of nature (as cheesy as that sounds! ;-)).

T0 be catalysts for students to observe and wonder, we can:

• Take them outside, where there are a lot of things to observe and ask questions about
• Create a safe environment for asking questions
• Model by being curious and asking questions ourselves, being a co-learner, willing to say "I don't know"....
• Guide students to help them be familiar with asking open-ended questions, in order to further the discussion and inquiry process.

I think Jennifer said it so well, that by asking questions that empower a person to make observations that contribute to a theory without making the person feel stupid for not knowing a particular answer. This has changed the way I walk in the woods or other natural setting with kids.  I realized that when I named a particular animal or plant, it sort of stopped the learning process that could happen if time were allowed to make observations and share them. One of the most important things to learn when first encountering  something new  is simply to observe it and its relationship with other things with the fresh mind of a beginner. The mindset of wondering allows for creative thoughts about what you see and can open up thoughts in ways that naming it as either  'right or wrong'  can shut down the process of curiosity.   In my own learning, I am often timid in offering answers because I am afraid of being wrong, but leading a conversation with 'I wonder' statements allows for ideas that may be proven wrong upon further investigation, to flow and be shared and stretched to grow further learning.

I believe, especially after reading several other posts, is that being an enthusiastic model is important to have students observe and wonder. Due to students current experiences; living in an urban/suburban area, tight schedules with after school activities  or spending a lot of time in front of screens, it may be something that has to be developed over time. Children don't have the opportunities to explore in nature like many of us did growing up.

I think getting them excited about learning and peaking their curiosity is step one. Let them explore their passions and interests and make the learning applicable to their lives and place. After that making sure they know their opinions and thoughts are important and valued and that no question or thought is a dumb one. I think students are often worried that they won't say the right thing or get the right answer. But in inquiry based learning there may not be a cut and dry answer and their investigation is what will lead them to the answer. Lastly modeling for the students. If they see that the teacher is excited and that being curious is a life-long skill they too will be excited. It is also ok for the teacher to say they don't have or know the answer. This shows students that even adults don't know everything and often have to do inquiry as well, to find the answer.

I agree that learners must feel comfortable and safe in the classroom setting in order to be vunerable and learn that 'I don't know' is a perfectly acceptable answer. Modeling this behavior by also showing that there are many discoveries for us (educators) to explore can help students understand learning is a life-long process. Encouraging observation and acknowledging the contributions of all learners, through the 'I Wonder' board, is a great way to practice this in the "classroom". Repetition seems key too - learners have to see this process over and over to really develop a critically thinking mind. As an educator, I must learn to provide great follow up questions to help students expand upon their initial observations, guiding the curiosity into the process of open-inquiry.

What students have taught me over the years:

• the energy that teachers bring into the room is a powerful source to draw from, especially when they are tired or not intrinsically interested in what the topic/activity/question that day is.
• the way teachers welcome or respond to a particular observation, question or contribution will determine the emotional reaction and teach students what is acceptable or not; and students pick up on response patterns that build open or closed class atmospheres
• taking some ordinary and making it extraordinary is a profound way to open minds (e.g. beach sand is partly made up of fish poop from underwater rocks they nibbled on earlier!! - this is a great one to reveal after spending some time doing a beach clean-up, or using sand for constructing shapes, during a coastal fieldtrip, etc., which prompts LOTS of great questions.  And having a giggle is always a good thing too!)
• recognize that observations and questioning can happen anywhere: yes, taking students outdoors is always great, but if you can't take them out, use the campus, the classroom, the playground - doing I WONDER or I NOTICE or "WHAT, WHERE, WHY THERE, WHY CARE?" activities can be universally applied.

How can educators be catalysts for students to observe and wonder? Educators are tasked to introduce students to knowledge and expand their horizons?  This is a tremendous responsibility that can further society and community depending on the approach. As discussed initially in this class,  the learning environment needs to be  welcoming, safe and comfortable for kids to learn.   A place where they can make mistakes and grow from these experiences. When kids feel safe to learn and explore, then there are numerous opportunities to encourage students to observe and wonder.  One of the best places to observe and wonder is the GREAT outdoors.  The possibilities to observe natural phenomena are endless. No matter where you live there is always something to see and learn outdoors.  The outdoor classroom is a gateway for exploration.   It is a perfect place for educators  to spark learning and get students excited about it.   It is not easy to learn in the outdoors.  Educators need to plan and utilize the practices and frameworks offered thus far in the class.  Using the I wonder board will help keep safe some of the questions that the students want to know.  In addition, asking open ended questions is an important consideration.  For me, this will take practice to develop this habit.  Teachers also need to act excited to be excited - curiosity and excitement are contagious.  By teachers modeling the learning behaviors that they want students to emulate, this will begin a new classroom culture. Also, it is important to engage partners like parents and local organizations that can provide expertise or even equipment.

Sometimes "I don't know" may be the best teacher answer.  Then follow up with, "I wonder if we can figure out how best to find the answer".

I agree that taking kids out to experience nature first-hand is a fantastic way to support wondering and questioning. This reminds me very much of some of the professional development I've done around working with primary sources and also VTS (visual thinking strategies).  I admit that I do struggle with this in science, however.  Since there is pressure to "cover material" and get through several science and social studies units in a year, I think I sometimes don't allow enough time for this kind of open-ended questioning in science.  Also, I sometimes struggle with the I Wonder board.  It usually fills up pretty quickly and then can become unruly.  Some of the questions we come back to or do lead to student investigations, but a lot of times they just stay up there indefinitely.  Do people change out their I Wonder boards with each unit?  How do you keep them fresh and meaningful for students?

I agree that taking children outdoors is probably one of the best ways to get students motivated and encourage them to observe and wonder. I also think teachers and adults in general can provide other opportunities for children to explore and mess about with things.  We must in some settings let children know that they can just explore. Inviting exploration and play in unstructured situations can lead to inquiry. Setting out various natural objects and materials can start children to wondering what has been done and what else can be done with those objects and materials. Just setting out pine cones and other tree seeds can lead to inquiry and investigations about trees. In addition questions to extend learning can be interjected as children explore. The open ended questions are most useful because they lead children to understand that we don't always need a hard and fast answer and often questions are there to help us look at things in new ways therefore stretching our thinking towards other possibilities.

One of the after-school programs that I offer is for 5 and 6 grade students.  The program is broken up into 4 in-school sessions and 1 day in the field.  The 4 sessions are teaching youth how to use a plant identification book, looking at animal skins, scats and prints, identifying parts of a flower by dissecting it and identifying trees during different times of the year.   The field day is spent at a local nature preserve called the Dwass Kill and Usher’s Road State Forest, we invite local scientists to help students along the way and talk about their research.  Students can observe the hemlock forests and how that is different to the Deciduous Forest, find signs of animals being present in the forest, find new plants to identify and much more.  Students start a notebook in school that they carry with them, along with a pencil and hand lens on the field trip. I would agree that getting the youth outside is where the real questions begin to form and concepts that they have learned in school start to make more sense.  Kids work together to identify what they are seeing and hearing, they begin asking real scientist thoughtful questions about their findings.  They make drawings, take leaf imprints, and write questions down to look into when they return to school. I wonder what this program would look like reversed, the field trip first and then giving youth 4 weeks to do research on what they found interesting and had more questions about.

I believe there needs to be a culture within the classroom where students are able to ask questions about things they are curious about.  Often, students look towards the teacher as the individual who knows all the answers and is going to divulge all the information they are ever going to need. This style of teaching does not encourage students to think that their own questions are worthy or even valid.  When teachers ask open ended questions, value student ideas and have those ideas help to drive lessons it can make a huge impact on the learning of students. It helps them believe that their ideas are valid and worth investigating. providing time for observations, integrating the I wonder boards can help teacher become facilitators and partners in learning, rather than the professor that knows it all.

I believe the first step for educators to be catalysts for students is to get them out of their seats, observing and wondering.  We must constantly be thinking of innovative ways to to spark our students 'Inquiry'.  We need to provide a focused platform by providing open-ended questions for them to ponder and wonder, and then an area to explore. Students through exploration will develop their own questions and 'I Wonder' moments.  Sometimes I feel we are so driven by curriculum and time that we do not take time (or have time) for students to just explore.  Our students are the scientists of tomorrow and they need time and a place to explore.

I have found that the more time the students spend outside, the more they naturally learn to observe and wonder.  They spot birds' nests camouflaged, follow sounds to discover a woodpecker making a home in a tree, wonder why a hawk is flying around, why a flock of birds fly on the ground and then into a tree and do it again, why birds flock to our grounds after a rainy day, and which plants attract butterflies and bees in our own garden of native plants.  These are all great experiences to ask the important open-ended questions to encourage thinking and learning.

As educators we can provide the space and the time for students to make observations and share their questions. If we provide positive feedback and model how we make observations and freely share our questions we encourage our students to do the same. In my experience, recognizing a student's questions as a positive can help encourage them to continue and possibly create their own investigation to help them answer their question. Sharing observations and questions with peers can also encourage students to join in.

We can expose them to a variety of circumstances and topics which would be foreign to them. Or perhaps prompt them with inquiry learning to look at familiar situations differently. We can help them by practicing observation and I wonder questions (in a nature journal, on a board or in a sharing circle).

I believe that we can be catalysts for our students by modeling.  Sometimes students don't understand how to ask a question.  As educators we want them to feel confident in what they ask.  The observations and thoughts that they wonder about are important to them.  It's essential that we accept the ideas and questions that they present.  I think the "I Wonder" board is such a powerful way to show that all questions are valued.  When teaching students about the "I Wonder" board it's important in the beginning to model the difference between open-ended questions and closed questions.  The open-ended questions will lead in turn lead to a richer discussion and will make it easier for children to conduct investigations and research about the topic being studied.  In order for questions to occur we need to provide our students with experiences that allow them to observe and wonder about the world around them.  Outdoor activities, nature walks, and watching video clips about a particular topic are things that educators can do to with their students.  The more time and opportunities students are allowed to ask questions, the more experience they will have with asking open-ended questions.

It is important for teachers to establish and nurture a class environment in which all students know that they are valued participants.  This is crucial for students to feel comfortable in sharing their thoughts and questions during activities.  As a teacher, I have always been aware of the questions that I ask when I am trying to generate discussion and bring about deeper thought on the part of my students.  There are occasions where I slip back into the simple, closed-ended questions.  I recognize that these questions are not generating the thought processes in my students that I am trying to achieve.  Sometimes, it helps to think in advance about some of the questions to ask to generate discussion.  Teachers might also write key phrases in advance to help word open-ended questions so that in a moment of quick discovery or an unexpected event, we do not reduce the event to a closed-ended question.

I think one important way we can be catalysts for students to observe and wonder is by giving them good opportunities -- for example, both the bird video we watched and pictures in the presentation were all really interesting. We can also both model asking and encourage asking open-ended questions. We can also make these  opportunities a regular part of the classroom, such as with the ?I wonder" board, so that students can develop these skills.

One way we can be catalysts for students to observe and wonder, I think, is by making learning a "we" process. Like I mentioned in an earlier reply, the idea of being a co-learner fosters children's confidence, their willingness to participate. Open-ended questions go hand in hand with acting as a co-learner, and providing space for interpretation, not just simple yes or no answers that can create boredom or children not participating for fear of not having the -right- answer.