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Section 1: Overview

Initiating Inquiry

We will learn about the purposes of research and the methods and processes we will use in our inquiry. We will meet in small teams to explore our chosen topic and formulate our Central Research Question. We will generate inquiry questions to use as we begin our search for sources.

  • Lesson 1:

    Introduction to Research

    We will discuss the importance of a researched perspective and the research process. We will then form small research teams and begin developing our research topic.

  • Lesson 2:

    Explore a Topic

    We will work independently and in our research teams to explore our topics. We will further explore our topics through initial Internet searches and discussions with our learning community.

  • Lesson 3:

    Explore Potential Central Research Questions

    We will discuss our topic exploration with our research teams, determine the viability of and refine our Central Research Questions, and conduct pre-searches using the Potential Sources Tool.

  • Lesson 4:

    Craft a Central Research Question

    With our teacher’s help, we will use our work so far to fine-tune, sharpen, and deepen our inquiry question into the subject of our team’s final presentation to our learning community.

  • Lesson 5:

    Draft Inquiry Questions

    We will draft narrower inquiry questions and plan to present our research ideas to the class.

  • Lesson 6:

    Present to Peers

    We will present our findings, notes, and ideas about our research project to our peers, who will actively listen and give us valuable feedback about the strengths and challenges of our work so far.

  • Lesson 7:

    We will reflect on our work and process, submit our research materials for feedback and formative assessment, and prepare for the next section of the unit, in which we begin collecting sources.