Smriti

@Amy Hi Amy, you are very welcome!  I, too, am trying to use iNaturalist data to support inquiry with my students (albeit in secondary school), especially since they have to do independent projects/investigations in from Gr. 9 - 12.  I have found the "filter" function in iNat to be very useful for sorting through the database and allowing students to follow their interests based on taxa. Next time I think I would like to also supplement the iNat data with students own observations using a more friendly GIS method - using Google MyMaps. Here is a map I just made in less than 10 minutes of downloading the data from iNaturalist using the filter parameters: birds, observed from Jan - March 2020, Hong Kong region, threatened species, research grade.  What I love about Google MyMaps is the flexibility to present your spatial data and represent it using colours and icons to show the metadata.  I've used it with primary school students and they've found it quite intuitive too. How have you used this tool in your settings?

@Kathleen Thank you so much, Kathleen - that is very kind of you to say.  I'm a firm believer of "if I'm not excited about what's going on in the courses I teach, then neither are the students".   This is what drives me to keep adapting and refreshing what I do in education.  The pitfall is that my brain often doesn't "shut off" since there is always more to research, learn, try, observe (even when I'm out and about) and that eats up lots of my personal time.  I've been very bad at the 'work-life balance' thing for all my 13 years teaching - haha!! How do you manage?

@Nini Hi Nini, Thanks so much for your feedback!  I love sparks and can't help but think about my students' experience when they are in my class.  I really work on the principal that "if I'm bored, then the students are bored", so I'm conscious of their socio-emotional state as well as their cognitive state whenever I'm working with them. As for the 'overdoing reflections' - I have seen many instances of reflections being demanded of students after every piece of work or every activity, and it gets tiresome and disingenuous.  I think there is a time and place for reflections, and when done at the right times, can be very powerful.  Some of the times I think that are appropriate may not be universal for all students, so I think we could differentiate reflections based on that too.  For example, I've found reflection works well when a student:

• makes a discovery or has an 'aha!' moment
• arrives at/overcomes challenges in thought or process
• has an emotional reaction to their learning

The mode of doing reflections could also be varied and youth-friendly (too often I've seen reflections had to be written, which limits some of the critical and creative thinking that goes into reflecting), so I try to keep it flexible and appropriate for the objective of the reflections.  It doesn't mean that reflections are always easy - I would argue that sometimes they should be hard because it requires thinking about thoughts and feelings, which takes effort.  For example, if I want to capture quite spontaneous reflections, I would suggest voice/video or diagrammatic reflections.  If the reflections require a little more time, then perhaps a written form would be more appropriate, but I leave it up to the student.  If ever a reflection is part of a summative assessment (usually they are only formative), then I make clear the objectives and provide some rubric for guidance in terms of content. Please share how you do reflections with your students - I'd love to learn from your perspective!

In my experience with secondary-school students in international schools, one of the most challenging experiences students have are:

• honing in on their own researchable question to inquire: I like to use "I notice that..." (with the older kids, rather than the "I wonder...", which seems to work better with younger students); because it already has some inherent thoughts about generalizations, perspectives, relationships, potential cause-and-effect directionality, assumptions, etc. --> all of which is great fodder for testing and the inquiry process!
• giving meaningful peer feedback: the 1st step I want to support students with is recognizing their own value as a giver of ideas, thoughts, perspectives and voice, and how that fits in with peer feedback.  The 2nd step is showing that meaningful feedback is thoughtful, respectful and helps to also shape the reviewers own way of thinking (since peer reviewing techniques is a form of assessment as learning, it works in both directions: for the reviewer and the reviewee).  I use various rubrics, checklists or templates with varying degrees of detail (depending on the needs of the students), and tools/strategies to make the review process suit the type of project: (1) use of sticky notes, colour-coded highlighters, etc. for printed materials needing feedback; (2) "kaizena" or other voice-recording add-on tools directly commenting in Googledocs; (3) color-coded written comment functions in PDFs or Googledocs.  The audience and strategy for sharing also varies based on the requirements of the project: peers in different grades, based on interest, even working in the wider teaching, parent and staff groups within the school, and on occasion, with the wider local and global communities.

I work mostly with 15 - 18 year olds, so I like to start off with hooks or sparks that are one or more of these kinds of activities (depending on what is more appropriate for the topic):

• a prop related to the topic; something relatable or unusual doesn't seem to matter, they all get a good series of question-building happening
• controversial headlines from local/global news or magazine articles
• story time! : read a story out loud (high school students miss that from their primary school days!)
• field trip (in a different part of our campus or completely off-campus)
• graphic/visual prompts: photo/photo exhibitions, videos, 360-degree VR video experiences
• meeting/hearing from someone who 'lives and breathes' the topic

In addition to many of the great prompts others have mentioned below about making observations and questioning, I also ask students to consider what information may be missing and why they may not be able to find the answer just yet (or what would they need to try to find out?).

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.

This time I decided to measure the noise using my Decibel X app on my phone (I use this for other fieldwork around Hong Kong), just to see what the averages and maximums were - it says it is still a quiet street.  I beg to differ with all the construction nearby and the general urban buzz that permeates my space! Once you get in the mode to do this activity, it sometimes is hard to stop after the set amount of time because one's curiosity has been triggered and you want to know: (1) what else is out there?; (2) how frequently do I hear the things I've heard before?; (3) what do I recognize vs. what I don't recognize?; and of course, (4) what is that? and (5) why is the noise happening? When I've done this activity with students before, it has usually been in the country park areas, rather than amongst buildings, but this being Hong Kong, you can often still hear a variety of city noises that bounce up the hillsides, so students still mentioned construction or urban transport noises alongside bird chirps.  I encourage them to consider distance and direction, and to try to represent them on their sketches as accurately as they can.  Certain noises repeat and often in the same area, so I ask them to keep a tally of frequency.  You can end up with quite a lot of data this way, and can be analyzed using some descriptive statistics too (depends on how analytical you want to get)!  Usually it is with eyes closed for the first chunk of time, and then with the eyes open.  Students recognize that it's helpful to start with just "listening" because it reduces the information overload, unlike with "seeing" - where there is lots to distract you.  The listening first exercise helps to focus the second "seeing & listening" part of the exercise and they 'look' for the noise, rather than just look anywhere and everywhere.  When I've done it with younger students (primary and middle school), it hinges on curiosity and questioning; with older students (high school), we layered it with mindfulness and well-being as well. If students are generally in the same area, it is interesting to also consider the similarities and differences in what the students picked up on - a great opportunity to consider consciousness/awareness and how it is linked to what we know.  e.g. some don't 'hear' birds having different songs because they may not recognize these differences based on lack of experience or knowledge about different bird species.  Or, sometimes the habitualization of noise means that some noises are really heard anymore.  There is fascinating research on urban birds that have shown that they've adjusted the pitch of their songs to be higher than the background urban noise just to be heard (U. of HK ecology department research).

I'm completely biased about how awesome UC Davis is: I did my undergrad in Geology there, and almost chose to do my PhD in citizen science there too! Ok, back to the question. I wish to model all of them because they are equally important. 1. Positioning Youth As People Who Do Science: Even though I don't teach science, I feel like 'doing science' is actually about building the capacity for inquiry and the confidence to investigate a phenomenon.  I apply this in geography (in topics like environmental sustainability, urban environments, quality of life, etc.).  This also instills a sense of independence and open-mindedness, because CS project answers/conclusions aren't often "google-able" and it takes some critical and creative thinking to find answers.  These are transferable skills of value across disciplines, and students of any age can appreciate this mindset.  I would do this more by creating opportunities for mini-investigations throughout my topics based on their own issues of interest. 2. Frame the World Locally and Globally:  I would actually put the 'local' first, and then the 'global' because so often in international school education (where I've taught) we look beyond our own neighbourhoods and consider the big, often-used case-studies that have caught media attention, but forget to recognize opportunities closer to home.  This can then expand on opportunities for experiential learning, place-based learning, project or challenge-based learning addressing issues that are arguably even more relevant to students because it's about their place/school/neighborhood/culture, etc.  If projects involve addressing local issues, then this is where some tangible impact can be measured (measuring it at a global scale is rather difficult in the time frames of schools years/terms/lessons).  But this isn't to say that recognizing one's place in the global context is not as important - it is very important.  The key lesson about how one's actions impacts others is one of the most important values to teach in a variety of contexts and disciplines.  This applies in social sciences as well as the natural sciences. 3. Attend to the Unexpected: Being ready for the unknown and being comfortable in that space allows for honest reflection, motivated inquiry and open-ended discussions.  It is often hard to build time for these in regular lessons because of the need to cover curriculum (external examination pressure, etc.) though I do often go down these types of tangents to see how far the students want to go, but I find that field trips and field experiences provide easier opportunities for this.  Otherwise, in order to try to 'make time', I would try to use online tools to garner ideas and discussions that stemmed from unusual discoveries in the classroom.  It takes skills to recognize when these 'teachable moments' can be grasped by teachers and students alike, so I would like to support my students more in being able to follow a line of thinking, with peer feedback, modelling and reflective discussions.

I don't teach science, but instead teach physical and human geography (which includes some scientific topics leaning towards geology, climate, etc.).  However, there is just as much inquiry potential in geography as there is in science (I like to dream wide!).  The most complex project, which I would say is an 'open inquiry' type, is the extended essay project for Grade 11 students (16-17 year olds), which for geography requires students to:

• come up with their own investigation question
• develop a protocol or method to gather data to answer the question
• use statistical and visual analytical tools,
• develop their conclusions based on their results
• evaluate their methods and determine ways to improve their studies considering any limitations or factors that impacted their investigation process.

Students would have the experience earlier in the year to carry out a structured inquiry field experience with an umbrella research question provided ("What is the pattern of urban stress in Sham Shui Po, in Hong Kong?") - students are expected to create their own specific question that they will test using a plethora of methods of their own choosing (based on what is most appropriate for the urban stress factors related to their question).  The field work, data entry and data discussions are done in groups, though the specific question and subsequent data analysis is presented individually in a field report.  This is a significant undertaking over a 6-week period, but students would have had experience doing structured inquiry in an interdisciplinary geo-science field trip about coastal biodiversity and marine waste in Grade 9 (14-15 years old), so this wouldn't be an insurmountable leap in terms of skills and confidence.