Back-to-School with Water Inquiry

Welcome to a new school year! Students are trickling onto the Smith campus, and we are excited to resume our Water Inquiry meetings in September. Inquiry Inc. characters spent the summer relaxing after their hard work saving ducklings in our first interactive storybook and are ready for their next adventure; this fall, they will set to work solving a brand-new water problem, and we can’t wait to share their happenings with you!

The summer months allowed us to give the Water Inquiry website some “TLC.” We hope that you will investigate our updated resources, including:

  1. Our “About” page featuring teachers’ and children’s insights about “Why Water?” and how we work to improve ideas.  
  2. An “Interactive Stories” page comprising a slideshow of local classrooms piloting our interactive story (see below); followed by downloadable PDF’s of Inquiry Inc. and the Case of the Missing Ducklings illustrated story and Educator Toolkit; a link to Pedro’s Coral Reef Adventures, a water conservation tale created by children in Belize working with Smith college students this summer; and a review of literature that informs our storytelling work. **Keep an eye on this page! We hope to offer a flippable, digital version of  Inquiry Inc and the Case of the Missing Ducklings for projection in your classrooms!** 
  3. A “Schoolyard Investigations” page with downloadable PDFs of our learning adventures, as well as teacher resources for teaching and learning about water in the classroom (mapping, thinking strategies, water vocabulary, etc.)

As always, the Water Inquiry team invites all forms of collaboration; please contact Carol Berner at cberner@smith.edu to let us know what additional resources you would like to see on this platform, to join our Water Inquiry efforts, or to pilot our story and unit in your classroom.

We are heartened by the energy of teachers, students, and community members engaged in Water Inquiry and are excited by all that the coming year will bring. Best wishes to you all as you welcome new students into your classrooms– may you enjoy a year of growth and inquiry.

Sincerely,
Brittany Collins on behalf of the Water Inquiry team

“What does inquiry mean?” Maple School Pilot

Water Inquiry Researcher Anna Wysocki ‘21 explores storm drains with first graders.

First grade students in the classrooms of Margaret Betts and Martha Morgan considered this question during a recent pilot of Inquiry Inc. and the Case of the Missing Ducklings at Maple Street School in Easthampton, MA. “Talking about something and seeing what you can do,” one student offered, while others noticed the words “inquire, wonder, investigate” written on a group chart in their classroom. “Can water run out? Is all water the same? Where does water come from? Where does water go?” These guiding questions encouraged students to view an integral resource in new and exciting ways. As they walked around their block to scout for storm drains, first graders were riveted by the facts and mysteries of the everyday wonder that is water, revealing anew the powers of place-based and narrative learning.

These inquisitive scientists were the first in their town to interact with Inquiry Inc. and the Case of the Missing Ducklings story and unit materials, but they will not be the last; we are excited to announce that our unit was officially adopted into the Easthampton public school first-grade science curriculum! In celebration of this achievement, and with reverence for the organic discoveries of collaborative inquiry, we have created a compilation of reflections from members involved in piloting our story.

Water Inquiry Researcher Anna Wysocki ’20 connects the day to her personal experiences with water systems:

“We arrived at Maple Hill Elementary with open minds and eyes and were able to leave with full hearts. The children we worked with were so insightful and full of inquiry, and truly made this adventure so special.

First grader making storm drain observations.

After briefing on the plan for the day with our wonderful host teachers, the students were split into groups of 3 or 4 so that they each had a chance to engage and discuss their observations. Then, we made our way outside with clipboards and pencils and flashlights to see what we could find out about how storm drains work. There were six stations of storm drains to observe, and at each there was something new to ask, to say, and to laugh about for the kids. Funnily enough, in the very beginning, as I was handing a pencil out to a student, it fell down the drain and floated in the water, just as takes place in the story.

 

“Look! There’s a mushroom!”

There were two moments that really stuck with me from the day. First was in the second group, when the four students were observing the storm drain located in their school playground and found a mushroom growing at the bottom of it. They found this to be hilarious and began making songs about the mushroom in the drain, singing for the rest of the time we were there.

Secondly, was once we were back inside and the teacher began reading the book. They approached a section of the story where the Inquiry Inc. “jingle” was to be said, and the whole class full of kids knew it and screamed it. It was amazing to look back to when we were writing those very lines and then now see them being memorized and cheered by people reading the book. It was really an amazing day. The children we worked with came up with so many brilliant questions and observations. It was a day that was truly benevolent to our research and to brightening our spirits.

For me, the water inquiry project was more than writing stories for children to be entertained by. Having grown up in Hoosick Falls, NY, where recently it was discovered that our very own drinking water supply is polluted by a toxic chemical called PFOA, this story was a chance to inform and make a positive difference on the way that people look at water and all that goes with it. This is just the beginning of our journey to informing kids about water safety, and this adventure is making the future look bright!”

Ruth Neils ’19 examines storm drain with students.

Pilot teacher Margaret Betts discusses her launch of Inquiry Inc. and the Case of the Missing Ducklings:

“The children were so excited to investigate the drains. They immediately took a personal interest in what would be in a drain and what might be good for the drain and bad for the drain. The activity really engaged active looking and wondering. When we returned to the classroom to reflect on our field trip everyone had something to say about what they noticed and wondered. It was a perfect way to engage children into the larger inquiry.”

Margaret Betts (right) shows Ruth Neils ‘19 (left) student diagrams tracing the journey of water from cloud to faucet.

 

First graders began the pilot by identifying the story’s central problem (“She sees ducklings in a storm drain and they’re trapped”) and imagining real-world solutions:

Students’ ideas included:

  • “Pour more water in the drain until it fills up so much that the ducklings float to the surface.”
  • “Use a screwdriver to get the grate off. Then use a rope to catch the ducklings.”
  • “Go get my dad. He would use a technique to get ducklings out.”
  • “Put an umbrella down in the grate and pull the ducklings up.”

Concluding Reflections from Anna Wysocki ‘20

Our fun out-of-the-classroom adventure resulted in inquiry, creativity, and laughs from all participants. One of our main goals as a group is to allow the readers of our stories to gain new thought processes and techniques to use in real-world applications, encouraging them to realize the amazing impacts that they can have on any problem. As silly as saving ducks from a storm drain may sound in terms of implementation in everyday life, we were able to learn that such problems do happen, and that if you’ve “got a problem that won’t go away”, then a little bit of inquiry can “save the day!” In fact, a first grader brought to school breaking news that in our very own city of Northampton, some baby ducks fell into a storm drain and were trapped, leaving their mom above-ground in a panic. Local firefighters and passers-by used inquiry skills to save the ducks, just as Inquiry Inc. and these curious Maple School students could have done.

You never know when a little bit of inquiry can save the day!

Illustration by Zoe Dong ‘17, from Inquiry Inc. and the Case of the Missing Ducklings.

Written by Brittany Collins and Anna Wysocki on behalf of the Water Inquiry team.

A Rainy Day Adventure: Theory into Practice

Katy Butler reads “Inquiry Inc and the Case of the Missing Ducklings” at the Water Story Teacher Workshop.

A heavy April downpour set the perfect tone for our first Water Inquiry Story Workshop, held in the Design Thinking Lab of Smith College. Skilled educators from four elementary schools cast dripping umbrellas aside before digging into the learning adventures of Inquiry Inc. and the Case of the Missing Ducklings, our newly published storybook. Pilot teacher Katy Butler introduced the interactive text as she did with her first graders, saying: “It’s a picture book story with characters… the kind of story where we will stop and talk, stop and think, stop and go. You will get to do the activities.”

Teachers Jan Szymaszek, 3rd Grade Smith Campus School and Renee Bachman, 3rd Grade Leeds Elementary School, sketch their ideas about where the ducklings will go.

Teachers then had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the student mindset, studying images of storm drains and ducklings, discussing the questions: “Where do you think the water goes?” and “Where will the ducklings go?” before working together to show their ideas about drain design and water pathways. In his new book Wait, What? And Life’s Other Essential Questions, James E. Ryan– Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education– writes that, “Inquiry… should always precede advocacy,” and it was, indeed, this sense of participatory engagement that characterized teachers’ efforts to “think… talk… and go” in preparation for doing so with their students.

Illustration by Zoe Dong and Sarah White: story characters investigate how to rescue ducklings from the storm drain.

Opportunities for experimentation and exploration revealed the combined powers of STEM and story. “I love the pauses and premise of the problem” one educator noted, while another shared: “… there is so much that can benefit student writing. It will be powerful for [my students] to have the experience of doing the story activities… it will greatly help their reading and writing.”

Renee Bachman, 3rd grade Leeds Elementary and Margaret Betts, 1st grade Maple Elementary, envision how they will use the story in their classrooms.

 

 

The connective power of this Water Inquiry story was revealed, not only through educators’ energetic collaboration, but through the discussion of relational possibilities between the story and math or reading practices, engineering games, field trips– even fundraisers to support organizations that provide clean water in Haiti. Teachers discussed ways to use the story as a complement to inquiries unique to their classrooms, noting interests in environmental activism and the strengthening of connections to their local and global communities.

Allyson Ciccarone (’17), four-year water inquiry researcher, and Jan Szymaszek, share ideas and questions.

Inspired to revise their initial answers about the path of water (and fate of ducklings!), educators left the workshop with answers, ideas, and– most importantly– new questions with which to guide and challenge their students. With copies of the Water Inquiry picture book and activities binder in hand, they left the workshop with a new perspective of the world beneath their rain boots.

 

 

If you, too, would like to pilot Inquiry Inc. and the Case of the Missing Ducklings in your classroom, please contact Carol Berner at cberner@smith.edu. And, as always, stay tuned for more Water Inquiry updates. The fun has just begun!

Sincerely,
Brittany Collins writing for the Water Inquiry Story Group

Problem-solving jingle of Inquiry Inc. characters

Katy Butler
Allyson Ciccarone
Brittany Collins
Zoe Dong
Meghan Johnson
Ruth Neils
Hannah Searles
Sarah White
Anna Wysocki
Carol Berner & Al Rudnitsky

 

Planning and Piloting: Water Inquiry Update, January 2017

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Members of Inquiry Inc. prepare to save ducklings. Illustration courtesy of Zoe Dong ‘18J and Sarah White ‘20

“I have too many ideas” was a pleasing lament to hear on an icy afternoon in mid-December. Nestled inside a first-grade classroom at Jackson Street Elementary School, Katy Butler (’12, MAT ’18), classroom teacher and Water Inquirer extraordinaire, guided her students through an exciting encounter with our interactive story, Inquiry, Inc. and the Case of the Missing Ducklings.

Collaboration was the modus operandi of our Water Inquiry team this semester. Together, we refined our duckling rescue story—from detailed illustrations courtesy of Zoe Dong ‘18J and Sarah White ‘20, to planful “hand-off” activities that allow students and teachers to “stop and think; stop and talk; stop and do” during their reading experience. We also conferred with community members to finalize our inaugural publication; to better understand the plight our fictional ducklings might face in the real world, for example, we spoke with Doug McDonald, Stormwater Manager of Northampton, about the design and function of catch basins in town, adapting our plot with his insights in mind.

First-graders explored storm drains on their playground, just like Inquiry Inc!

First-graders explored storm drains on their playground, just like Inquiry Inc!

Rich collaboration continued when our story made its way into the hands and minds of first-grade readers. Spread across multiple thirty minute lessons, our piloting program introduced students to “Inquiry Inc.,” the cohort of characters that solves problems (with the help of young readers) throughout our text. After giggles were shared over the irony of “duct tape” being mentioned in a story about ducklings (“[that stuff is] not made out of ducks!”), readers brought wise analytical feedback to our work; upon studying an illustration of a duckling rescue conflict, one student suggested that “Anna [a main character] needs to get closer to the grate, lean down, and reach in,” an instructive comment that guided our artist’s revisions of the scene. Similarly, during a “stop and do” hand-off in which students searched their playground for storm drains, one unlucky group member lost her pencil down the grate of a catch basin! An apt accident for the task at hand, students were thrilled to contemplate this real-world dilemma. Speculating that “my shoe could not [fit down the drain], but my toe could,” they thought of other probable items subject to this perilous fall and predicted the fate of their lost writing utensil. Students’ enthusiasm inspired our authors to construct a surprise ending; you must read our story to see for yourself, but we’ll give you a hint (shh!), the pencil makes a cameo.

Katy Butler '12 MAT '18 read our story to her first-grade class.

Katy Butler ’12 MAT ’18 read our story to her first-grade class.

There are few contexts in which organic exchanges can occur between authors, artists, and readers in the way that our team had the privilege of experiencing this term; our colleagues more than our students, first graders brought honest feedback to our conceptual work, and we integrated their feedback into our final product: a story that extends beyond its pages by asking readers to explore the outdoors, ask probing questions, build, create, and collaborate.

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Students worked in groups to create model storm drains during one of our hand-off activities.

With an educative eye to the importance of inquiry, we designed our unit to transcend its topic. While our story interrogates the mysterious intricacy of storm-drains and weather patterns, a basal interest in knowledge building tactics informed our creative decisions. Woven into the fibers of our narrative, the transmission of these skills was best tested by observing reader discourse and engagement; in our pilot classroom, critical thinking was potently illustrated by our final hand-off activity, a project in which students designed and built model storm drains to better prevent real ducks from the entrapment our fictional ducklings endure. During this activity, student comments exposed careful attention: “How about we each draw what we think,” one student suggested, while another said, “I think we should have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D so if it doesn’t work we can do the next one.” An excited reader boisterously repeated, “I have an idea!” while his group member scribbled carefully on a sheet of red construction paper so as not to forget her theory. Inquiry Inc. characters model problem-solving skills, which similarly transcend the plot of our story. Characters’ slogan, “Got a problem that won’t go away? Inquiry Inc. will save the day!” was quickly adopted by our chorus of readers. In the text, one character encourages the sharing of “half-formed thoughts” while another asks a multitude of questions without timidity. The efficacy of these latent lessons is most tellingly illustrated by students’ comments, as cited above. Their sentiments show the ways in which stories, especially those that are interactive, serve as catalysts for powerful ingenuity.

Students quickly took to this Inquiry Inc. jingle!

Students quickly took to this Inquiry Inc. jingle!

Katy Butler spoke of her students’ engagement, too, stating: “Students were immediately engaged in this lesson and very motivated by the tiny duckling pictures. It was interesting to see what they thought might be underground and definitely motivated me to think past just the story to their developing understanding of water systems.” In reflecting on their experience, students mentioned the thrill of doing “experiments,” or hand-off activities, “at the same time” as Inquiry Inc. characters, introducing an additional layer of collaboration: that of the interaction between characters and readers. One student exclaimed, “I am glad [Inquiry Inc.] rescued the ducklings. They even used our idea about the stick and the net!”

img_1605 img_1604Students designed storm drains with an eye towards function and duckling safety.This group titled their project “The Scooper.” The fly swatter pictured above is actually used to catch leaves. Of their project, kids said: “I think people could really make a drain like ours with a scooper. So maybe we can share our ideas and they will build it. Cause we know a lot about drains now. And ducklings!”

Adaptability is another great feature of our Teaching as Storytelling text. While we encourage educators to delve into the projects and discussions prompted by our book, our story is equally enjoyable when read cover-to-cover in traditional read-aloud format. Teachers may also choose to institute new “hand-offs” where they see fit, continuing our tradition of collaboration. Though our final product is artfully packaged, we hope that it serves as an invitation for adaptation, evolving with each student encounter, turn of the page, and eager hand stretched into the air.

This emphasis on adaptation allows for seamless implementation in multiple educational contexts, too. Most notably, our field investigations, engineering design challenges, and emphasis on group discourse and theory-building, align perfectly with updated standards for Next Generation Science and Engineering Practice. These guidelines mandate that students ask questions and define problems; develop and use models; plan and carry out investigations; analyze and interpret data; construct explanations, design solutions, and engage in argument from evidence. Students’ reactions aligned with the goals of NGSS; one first-grader shared: “My favorite part was when we found out how to make the water go through the pipe so it could go from one drain to the other. My group even figured out you can hold the straw down and then let it up and more water goes through!”

water2

Students then modeled the downhill flow of water through pipes to explain scientific processes to Inquiry Inc.

What better way to meet new standards and promote holistic, interdisciplinary thinking than to conduct scientific inquiry through the affective mode of story? Narrative theorists discuss the prospect of making the “ordinary extraordinary” by way of story-form, and we concur given our readers’ enthusiasm.

Making the "ordinary extraordinary" was exemplified by this group's storm drain entitled "Too Many Ideas!"

Making the “ordinary extraordinary” was exemplified by this group’s storm drain entitled “Too Many Ideas!”

Our story encourages students to be aware of the world around them, fostering inquisitive participation rather than passive reception. Regardless of topic or academic discipline, we care about students’ habits of mind, and we were thrilled to hear one student say: “I never thought so much about drains! Now I see them and wonder what is down there.” Katy Butler noted, too, that students’ discussions “extended beyond our water study times,” which affirms our contention that stories have a way of deepening students’ responsiveness to, not only academic material, but the people and communities around them. One student even announced, “Guess what? That half dollar I brought in yesterday fell down into a storm drain before school. I was wishing Inquiry Inc. was there to help!”

waterstory6

In this illustration created by Zoe Dong ‘18J and Sarah White ‘20, Inquiry Inc. saves the day (and the ducklings)!

As we look towards 2017, the Water Inquiry team eagerly awaits the opportunity to share our story with teachers. If you would like to pilot our illustrated story and its accompanying unit materials in your classroom, please contact Carol Berner at cberner@smith.edu for more information. Our first grade pilot teacher and group member Katy Butler will lead a professional development workshop this winter in which educators may learn about her experience teaching our scientific story unit. Stay tuned for more details, and we will see you next semester—Inquiry Inc. is ready to solve their next problem, and we will soon set to work drafting a new story (with pencils in hand, kept carefully away from storm drains)!

Best wishes to you, readers, for a wonderful year ahead! May it be filled with exploration, teaching, and learning.

Sincerely,
The Water Inquiry Team

 

Written and published by Brittany Collins on behalf of the Water Inquiry Team

Collaboration and Character Development: Fall 2016 Water Inquiry

As temperatures and leaves begin to change in Western Massachusetts, members of the Water Inquiry project are commencing their time at Smith with awakened fervor. Summer months did not stymie our productivity; in fact, group members collaborated online to work on character development and illustrations for our forthcoming narrative– a compelling account of a duckling rescue that is rife with opportunities for reader engagement and problem solving.

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Group members used storyboards like the one pictured above to consider character development. Photo courtesy of storyboardthat.com

 Just as rivers flow disparately into the ocean, so, too, do we find ourselves in the midst of a greater community this year– a storytelling “ocean” in which the Water Inquiry team is a subset of the overarching Teaching as Storytelling project chaired by professors Carol Berner and Al Rudnitsky. Together, we are joining similar focus groups to share writing, editing, and knowledge building techniques that strengthen our individual stories and allow us to interrogate “story form” thinking.

Our inaugural meeting occurred in Neilson Library’s new Knowledge Lab– a space that simultaneously provides structure and freedom in the pursuit of collaboration. Brightly colored beanbag chairs and large projector screens are just some of the tools that comprise this intellectual “clubhouse,” a space in which think-tanks like ours may refine developed projects or nurture nascent ideas. After sharing our work and listening to others’ stories, we were attuned to the subjectivity and commonality of our narrative research, considering that which is unique to Water Inquiry while engaging with intersecting goals and challenges that span all subsets (or all rivers, if we indulge our previous metaphor) of the Teaching as Storytelling research project.

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Students work alongside Professors Al Rudnitsky, Susan Ethridge, and Carol Berner in the Knowledge Lab.

To ground our creative work together, we have researched the import and efficacy of story form to greater understand the neurobiological and developmental merits of its interdisciplinary presence in classrooms.  Why, in other words, should we care about stories, and what makes them powerful tools for learning?

In doing so, we have found Kieran Egan’s Teaching as Storytelling and Kendall Haven’s Story Proof particularly useful resources in understanding narratology– a field of study that examines stories’ effects on perception– and the role of binarisms, schema theory, and cognitive development in story reception. Haven (2007) writes, “[stories create] context and relevance…evoke prior knowledge, provide details, [and] improve comprehension.” Did you know that the brain releases oxytocin, a neurochemical responsible for empathy and compassion, when one listens to (or reads) a story? Or that babies are born with a neurological predisposition for understanding the world through narrative formats? Our culture has utilized stories for so long, they have become genetically encoded in our species. Sounds like a powerful educational tool, if we do say so ourselves!

Story Proof and Teaching as Storytelling were helpful resources when researching narrative science.

Story Proof and Teaching as Storytelling were helpful resources when researching narrative science.

We approach our work this year with a desire to scaffold scientific thinking and action in our readers; we hope that our stories transcend the page by inviting students to problem-solve, collaborate, and explore the world around them– creating “context and relevance” that excites and ignites. To meet these goals, we are using frequent group meetings to refine our creative methods and challenge our own schemas, rethinking the role of stories in students’ lives so that we may target our readers, not as passive recipients, but as active and engaged scholars who may intertwine their thoughts and ideas with our texts.

The Water Inquiry team gathers to revise its forthcoming duckling rescue story.

The Water Inquiry team gathers to revise its forthcoming duckling rescue story.

The efficacy of our work is best gauged by young readers, and it is with great excitement that we await the piloting of our duckling rescue story in classrooms. In the coming weeks, first grade students will put our newly strengthened characters to the test, and we look forward to a new method of collaboration– the reciprocal exchange between reader, author, and story.

Joining the Water Inquiry team this year are the following student participants:

bio-7Brittany Collins is an English and Education double major from Westhampton, MA. She attended the Smith College Campus School for three years and loves going to college on the same campus she explored as a child. In addition to her Water Inquiry work, she is the Editor in Chief of Voices & Visions, a literary journal sponsored by the Kahn Institute, and she will soon join the Jacobson Center tutoring staff. Outside of the classroom, Brittany enjoys dancing, powerlifting, and hiking; she completed her first 39.3 mile Avon walk after freshman year and has a special affinity for the trails of Northampton since her training process. Distance walking reawakened her love of nature—a love that she hopes to channel into Water Inquiry stories, inspiring young readers to explore books and backyards alike.

bio-1Anna Wysocki is a first year of Smith College who is from a small town called Hoosick Falls in upstate New York. She is undecided right now, but is considering to major in Neuroscience. She is excited to add her own interesting perspective to the water stories. Just this past year, Anna and the rest of the citizens living in her town discovered that their local water supply had been poisoned by a pollutant known as PFOA, which can have serious side effects overtime by accumulating in the blood and causing serious illnesses and cancers. Everyone had to stop drinking, cooking, and even bathing for long periods of time with the water. Anna represented the student body at a local press conference to bring about social change and ease the hysteria. She is excited to use this insight in the stories, and looks forward to what can stem from them!

bio4Sarah White is a first year student at Smith College, and is excited to be working on the Water Inquiry Project. She is planning on majoring in studio art or the Study of Women and Gender. She is from Burlington, Vermont and spent most of her childhood exploring the forests and water around her home with her sisters. Before arriving at Smith she took a year off to road trip around the United States, camping and farming as she went. She is interested in writing and art, and in her free time can usually be found reading, cooking or outside.

 

bio-2Zoe Dong is a junior Studio Art major at Smith from Akron, Ohio. She’s very excited to be working as the illustrator for this project. You can view some of her work at www.zoedong.weebly.com.

 

 

 

 

To learn more about the characters who create our characters, please visit our About Us page.

Stay tuned for more exciting news from the Water Inquiry Team!

 

by Brittany Collins on behalf of the Water Inquiry Team

Reflections on Water Inquiry, July 2015-June 2016

 

Water Inquiry group observing pond in botanic garden

Water Inquiry group observing pond at Botanic Garden

What can you do with 100 hours?  Ask any of the eleven K-3 teachers who collaborated with Smith students and faculty on the 2015-16 Water Inquiry project, or read on to see what we discovered about inquiry-based learning, water as a topic and outdoor exploration. At our final meeting in May, we asked teachers to reflect on what they learned not only in the hundred hours they invested in group discussion, but also in countless water investigations at Jackson Street, Leeds Elementary and the Campus School. Jan Szymaszek, third grade teacher, summed up what the collaboration offered: “Time and space to come together… to pursue vexing issues of teaching, learning and instructing in a way that supports and sustains rich and rigorous learning in science and overall.”  We want to thank Smith’s Center for the Environment, Ecological Design and Sustainability for providing us with the time, space and tea to sustain our year-long inquiry.

Maria Garcia, K teacher, Jackson Street

What did we learn?

One way to think about what we learned is to check in on three goals we set at the beginning of the year:

  1. Learn in and from outdoor surroundings, especially school yards.
  2. Explore “water” as a topic that offers promising questions and problems of understanding.
  3. Improve our understanding of how to spark and sustain scientific inquiry.

 

 

First graders map storm drains on the Jackson Street school grounds.

First graders map storm drains at Jackson Street

Outdoor investigations were highlights of the water inquiry project, both for teachers and kids.  Going out in a downpour, looking up at clouds, peering down storm drains and watching the river after a storm, were moments that stood out for teachers because their students were deeply engaged in trying to explain phenomena in their world.  Like their students, teachers’ curiosity and sense of wonder were inspired by exploring the Botanic Garden and following water downstream from the MacLeish Field Station.  As third grade teacher Amanda Newton reflected, “Exploring the garden and bouncing half-formed ideas was helpful and inspiring.” Most recently, first graders in Katy Butler’s class have been mapping drains on their school grounds and discovering that there are actually three different kinds of water moving through underground pipes:  clean, dirty and in-between.

Questions and diagrams by first graders, Jackson Street

Questions and diagrams by first graders, Jackson Street

“There is something compelling about water.”
Everyone echoed this teacher’s comment. Building on initial ideas about “why water?” – it’s everywhere, it keeps changing forms, it sustains life, we have to improve how we manage it as a resource – teachers were struck by the vigor and persistence with which their students developed water questions, theories and explanations.  A third grader wrote in her
Nature Notes journal, “I love studying water.”  

Teachers intend to continue working with overarching questions about water that emerge from children’s discussions, experiments, diagrams and outdoor investigations.  We identified key ideas that raise promising problems of understanding, including: movement, cleanliness, human interactions, changing states and ownership.

  • Where does water come from? Where does water go?
  • What does water do? What do we do to water?
  • What do we mean by clean/dirty water? How/why/where does water get clean or dirty?  
  • Who does water belong to?

One teacher reflected that water questions are “still alive” even when the classroom focus shifts to another topic: children bring new questions; revise their theories; and construct new explanations based on something that happens outside of school, like flying through clouds on an airplane (“Why is it bumpy inside the cloud but not outside the cloud?”)

Chart from Natural Curiosity, Dr. Eric Jackman Institute, University of Toronto

Chart from Natural Curiosity, University of Toronto

What are we learning about how to spark and sustain scientific inquiry?
Teachers identified strategies, or “teacher moves,” from the water inquiry project that they found most helpful in supporting and advancing inquiry-based learning:

  • Start with a question to create a problem of understanding and “disturb thinking.
  • Draw (and revise) diagrams to imagine and map water flow (e.g. cloud-to-faucet).
  • Question each other’s work, using post-it notes to develop and classify group ideas.  
  • Be on the lookout for teachable moments.
  • Design experiments to investigate problems of understanding.
  • Be a co—learner (in collaboration/communication with students and colleagues).

The role of teacher as facilitator of idea-building, rather than transmitter of knowledge, was an important discussion throughout the year.  As Kindergarten teacher Mary Ellen Reed reflected, “It is okay to let children/adults develop their own ideas over time through more observations, conversations, exploration.”  Re-framing the role of the teacher raised lingering questions, including when and how to introduce authoritative sources.  Teachers agreed unanimously that they want to continue with this collaborative approach to learning. They conclude that it is “fun and provocative,” gets them “engaged and involved in deep thinking about practice,” and “it’s refreshing to collaborate on how to move ideas forward.”

STUDENT PERSPECTIVES
What were our favorite parts of working on the project this year?

Hannah and Ruth analyzing student diagrams

Ruth Neils is a rising sophomore at Smith College and is double majoring in Education and Environmental Science and Policy:
Throughout this year, what I found to be the most compelling, and also the most challenging, aspect of the project involved working with the water inquiry group to find ways to develop  and foster student thinking. Looking at student work during classroom visits and roundtable discussions provided opportunities to focus on ideas and concepts that children were working to understand. It was challenging  to uncover ways to guide students’ thinking while ensuring that questions and ideas about these topics were not just answered but discovered and understood. While this aspect of the project was difficult, I also found it incredibly valuable because it involved collaboration and problem solving using every member of the water inquiry group, which allowed ideas and half formed thoughts to develop into possible solutions and actions that could become an aid for all of the members of the group when they encountered a similar dilemma.

Hannah Searles is a rising junior at Smith College and is double majoring in Education and Psychology:
What I found most compelling this year was thinking about how to begin and continue inquiry. There are so many intriguing questions and mysteries to be found in the world around us, and the genuine curiosity that it inspires is a perfect starting point. One of the things we talked about at the roundtables was how the teacher can be a co-learner. During the year, I realized how many gaps I had in my own knowledge about water! Using real questions inspired by natural curiosity seems to be a key to sustaining inquiry. One question that I found both compelling and challenging was how to balance natural inquiry and the introduction of authoritative sources. When should they be introduced? Should they? One of the things that I took away from this year is that it’s okay not to know the answers – inquiry can be messy, non-linear, and branch out in many different directions! The process is just as important, if not more, than the end product.

Images from Bob's third grade water study in art

Images from Bob Hepner’s art studio, third grade water study, Campus School

Thank you to all of the teachers and children, and Smith students and faculty, who make this work exciting and productive. We look forward to collaborating next year and hope you and your students will help us rescue ducklings from a storm drain in our upcoming teaching-as-storytelling adventure (in the works this summer).

by Carol Berner, Ruth Neils and Hannah Searles on behalf of the Water Inquiry Group.

Investigating and Using Community Resources

Follow up to the Questioning Activity
by Katy Butler, First Grade Teacher, Jackson Street School

Katy Butler sorting questions

Katy Butler sorting questions

At our last round table discussion, Renee presented work she had done with her class.
Each student was given an image of a cloud and a faucet and asked to show how the water got from one to the other (just as we did this summer). Then she had her students look closely at the representations and ask questions they had or that would push their friends’ thinking. We tried this activity ourselves, organizing and categorizing our questions.

I tried this questioning activity with my first graders (they had just recently made their own cloud to faucet representations so I could see how their thinking had evolved since the fall). I collected and typed up their questions, and noticed a couple common themes. I am planning to organize the questions with them when we return from spring vacation, but I wanted to tap into a few more resources in the meantime. After searching the Northampton Public Works website, I emailed the directors of stormwater and wastewater treatment. They sent me two resources that I wanted to share with everyone!

Here is a section of the email I sent Northampton Public Works
We came up with many questions, but most centered around gutters, drains, sewers, pipes and cleanliness. Here are some examples:

Does it fall in the sewer? Where does the water land? Does all water go in the sewer?
Does water always go in the gutter? Where does it go after the rain? Where does it go in the pipes? Where does it get transported? How does it go in the sewer? How does it get to the home?
Which house does it go to? How does the pipe go to everyones house with one pipe?
Why is there only one pipe? Which drain does it go in? How does the water get to the faucet?
Where is the cleaner? How does it get clean?

Up until now, much of our inquiry has been investigated with experiments or observable phenomenon. Now I am unsure how to help students follow these questions without being able to “see” all the pipes. I also see a misconception about waste water and drinking water that is very interesting. I am writing to see if either of you might be able to help with our inquiry. Are there maps of the water pipe lines in Northampton? Is there a location where we could visit and see the gutter connecting to a pipe or series of pipes?

I heard back immediately, and here is part of one response that may be helpful to others:
“I know the most about the stormwater system in the City of Northampton and I would be happy to help explain how the City’s different utilities work. There are three separate systems in the City:

  1. Water (clean drinking water)
  2. Sanitary Sewer (waste water from houses and buildings)
  3. Stormwater (rain water and snow melt)

I made a map of the three sets of pipes that are around Jackson Street School.

Detail from JSS map of three pipe systems

Detail from JSS map of three pipe systems

Solid blue is drinking water, red is sewer and green is stormwater with green squares for catch basins which are the grates in the roadways where rain water goes in.  I believe there are more catch basins at Jackson Street School in the parking lot and around the property that are not on the map. The students could look for these and help us add them to the map. The dashed blue lines are brooks. I know maps may be difficult for the kids to understand so I’ll look for some pictures or diagrams that might help explain all these hidden systems and where water comes from and where it goes.

Here’s a quick description. The drinking water in Northampton comes from reservoirs in Whately and Williamsburg and runs through a water filtration plant in Williamsburg before flowing through pipes to everybody’s faucet. The waste water (toilets and drains inside buildings) from houses and buildings all flows through sanitary sewer pipes to the waste water treatment plant located off of Hockanum Road. The waste water treatment plant cleans up the waste water and then sends clean water to the Connecticut River. The stormwater that is collected in roads and parking lots flows through separate pipes to the nearest brook, wetland or river and does not go through any treatment plant. That’s why we need to be careful that we don’t put anything in the storm drains except clean water.”

Perhaps we could all help fill in catch basin maps!
The map of Jackson Street School’s surrounding pipelines is especially exciting, and I plan to find more catch basins with the kids next week. I am working to plan a field trip to “see” this system in action, and may invite one of the water directors to our classroom once we have completed the storm drain map. I would be happy to help others get in contact with wastewater and stormwater departments if they are interested – perhaps we could all help fill in catch basin maps!

written by Katy & posted by Carol

Questions about Water: Cloud to Faucet Student Drawings

COMING SOON: FINAL WATER INQUIRY ROUNDTABLE MONDAY APRIL 25 3:30-5:30  RSVP cberner@smith.edu


Questions about Water: Cloud to Faucet Student Drawings
Water Inquiry Teacher Roundtable

Renee Bachman shows a student drawing

How does water travel?
On the sunny afternoon of March 31, teachers from three elementary schools joined Smith students and faculty to investigate children’s maps tracing the journey of water from cloud to faucet. Renee Bachman brought student work from Leeds Elementary School, where her third graders have been exploring rain, water droplets and the river as part of a year-long water inquiry.  Children’s diagrams stimulated a flurry of questions about how water travels and about advancing inquiry.

 

Hannah Searles writes questions

Questioning as a Tool for Deepening Inquiry
Teachers spent several minutes looking closely at each drawing and crafting questions on sticky notes in response to the prompt:  What questions does this student work stimulate for you?
Questions included:

“How are those pipes connected to the faucet?”

“It says clean water goes in, but how does the water get cleaned?”

“How does the cloud know to let the rain go?”

 

Sorting Questions
Participants sorted their questions into clusters of ideas by taking turns reading aloud a question and deciding if and how it connected to other questions.  The biggest cluster focused on the overarching question,  “How does water get clean?” One child’s drawing and explanation of the “water mill” provoked follow-up questions about where, why and how water gets clean (and what makes it dirty).

Water mill detail from 3rd grade drawing

Water mill detail from 3rd grade drawings

Katy Butler and Al Rudnitsky sort questions

Katy Butler and Al Rudnitsky sort questions

Identifying Overarching Questions
Teachers worked in pairs with clusters of questions to look for overarching questions and think about next steps for student inquiry:
What makes water dirty?
How does water get cleaned?
What do pipes do?
How do clouds work?
One teacher discovered an overarching theme, “What does water do by itself, and what do we control?”

 

Maria Garcia pointing to questions about "dirty" water

Maria Garcia examines “dirty water” questions

Where do we go from here?
Teachers exchanged ideas about adapting questioning strategies for K-3 classrooms. Marcia Garcia highlighted the importance of students asking their own questions and thought her Kindergarteners would want to investigate what makes water dirty. Bob Hepner had the idea of exploring how pipes work by building marble mazes. Katy Butler brainstormed ways to help first graders write and sort questions. Al Rudnitsky discovered a cycle of questions in the “cloud” cluster and  Hannah Searles was curious about the “creatures” living in the “dirty” ocean water pictured in one child’s drawing.



https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwivxpqD7YTMAhUEWT4KHT9JD_0QjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.queensu.ca%2Fsecurity%2Fgraphics%2F2004%2Fducks-without-security.html&psig=AFQjCNG-7SwhumGF6BfQi1R7E8j8xj-UdQ&ust=1460404541799605&cad=rja

Sneak Peek! Water Story for Classrooms
Ruth Neils and Hannah Searles read aloud their working draft of a water inquiry adventure story designed to engage children in asking questions and solving problems to rescue ducklings from a storm drain. Al connected the water story to his research using story-telling as a tool for teaching first grade math Investigations. Participating teachers gave valuable feedback about the story, which students are eager to revise and pilot in classrooms.  Stay tuned for more!

Written by Carol Berner on behalf of the Water Inquiry Team
Ruth Neils (’19)  Hannah Searles (’18) and Al Rudnitsky
(with Pinn Janvatanavit contributing images and ideas)

Reflections on the Fall Semester

The Water Inquiry Team held two roundtable sessions this year, bringing together participating teachers from four schools to discuss classroom initiatives and reflect on idea-centered learning. We enjoyed these chances to hear about the real challenges of sustaining inquiry in the classroom and, of course, to examine student work. In the coming year, we hope to move these avenues of inquiry forward as a group and develop new resources for teachers interested in furthering idea-centered learning and improving children’s understanding of water.  

Learning from water inquiry roundtable discussions

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Jan Szymaszek contributes to the group chart at the November 9 roundtable.

On September 29, Jan Szymaszek, third grade teacher from Smith College Campus School, presented student work from her class’s first group discussions of fog. The work brought up a number of questions. Most importantly, perhaps, the group discussed the relationship between students’ noticing and wondering vs scientific fact. Where does the teacher’s responsibility lie when students wander down an unforeseen path (for example, if students postulate that fog is not water at all!)? How do we document the rich discussions that may happen spontaneously on the playground, or during lunch? Or how can a teacher bring different forms of water (fog, in this case) to the students? Some teachers wondered about launching their own water inquiries, allowing other teachers to offer advice and resources.

Sealed bags and open cups of water are prominently displayed in Katy Butler's classroom.

Sealed bags and open cups of water are prominently displayed in Katy Butler’s classroom.

We reconvened as a group on November 9. Katy Butler, first grade teacher from Jackson Street School, presented students’ predictions and observations comparing water in a cup and in a sealed plastic bag: “Where will it go?” and “Where did it go?”  Following the discussion of the children’s work, everyone participated in a knowledge building activity, using a visual representation to display individual theories and how they connected with one another. This exercise brought up many more questions that we look forward to exploring in the future: What comes after the collection of students’ ideas? When is it time to bring an outside source into the discussion? Does the introduction of an expert source close the conversation, or can it open a new avenue of inquiry?

 

Reflections from students on the water team

With these questions and observations in mind, students from the water team reflect on their experiences participating in the roundtables below.

Ruth: In both roundtable sessions I found it very interesting to learn more about how students in each class develop their ideas about water through drawings, experiments, and class discussions. In both Jan Szymaszek’s classroom and Katy Butler’s classroom the students’ ideas about water shifted: from observations of turquoise pipes and imaginative theories involving large splashes, to ideas encompassing evaporation and the water cycle.  I am very interested to see how student theories continue to develop and how this development occurs. The Water Inquiry Team hopes to help guide continuing idea development about water, for teachers and students.

Elena Betke-Brunswick examines one of the student-made "windproof machines."

Elena Betke-Brunswick, Water Inquiry Participant, examines one of the student-made “windproof machines.”

Catherine: What most interests me is the question of when to allow students to continue to search for answers on their own and when to bring in the expert. The work that Katy Butler presented at the most recent roundtable was a perfect example of how the teacher may guide discourse without calling on an authoritative source. Initially, her students believed that water evaporation was caused by splashing, so she encouraged them to fill plastic cups with water and then observe how the water level changed. As the water level dropped without splashes, children then concluded that wind must be blowing the water out of the cups. Currently, students are building “windproof machines” to see if that theory holds. But the question, echoed by many teachers during our visual exercise, still remains: Where to go next? At what point does the teacher have to hand the reins over to an outside source? How do you do that? Or do you have to? I look forward to grappling with these questions in the near future.

IMG_0825

Third grade students at the Smith College Campus School have created collage artworks in response to their water studies.

Hannah: I found myself really excited to learn more about what is going on in classrooms right now. In both Jan and Katy’s classrooms, students are in the process of refining their theories.  A combination of group discussion and experimentation drives the transition from an individual theory to a community theory. I look forward to seeing these theories develop as the year continues. Questions that I am interested in exploring also include: What is the role of the teacher in guiding discourse or theory formation? How can we support the shift from individual to community theories? I am looking forward to investigating these questions in the coming months.

What’s next?
As the year comes to a close, we leave for the holiday break with exciting data from teachers to analyze and many questions to consider and pursue going forward. Currently, the Water Inquiry team is contacting participating teachers to further learn about what is happening inside their classrooms and what sort of tools and techniques we can provide to help support their students’ inquiry. In March and April, we will hold two more roundtable sessions, sure to spark discussions as thoughtful and intriguing as those from this semester.

Blog post by Catherine Bradley, Allyson Ciccarone, Ruth Neils and Hannah Searles

Reactions to Teachers’ Ideas

The school year is just a few weeks old, but we are already hearing of exciting plans and developments from our Water Inquiry teachers. As we prepare for our first teacher roundtable session at the end of the month, the student members of the Water Inquiry team wanted to share our initial reactions to various project launches.

The Rain Yard, designed by Stacy Levy and installed at the Schuykill Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia.

The Rain Yard, designed by Stacy Levy and installed at the Schuykill Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia.

Catherine: What excites me is the possibility of collaborations between grades as well as interdisciplinary connections. Too often, learning is done in a vacuum, and what a student learns in third-grade science does not seem at all applicable to fourth-grade English. That’s why I was particularly intrigued to hear that 2nd and 3rd grade teachers from the Smith College Campus School are working together as a team to design their projects. I am also interested in ways of studying water inquiry that are not directly connected to science. Early ideas ranged from collecting water outside in some sort of artistic installation (from Katy Butler at Jackson Street School) to writing personal stories about water and creating geometric-based drawings to illustrate the story (from Renee Bachman at Leeds School). Since water is all around us, I am excited to see ideas that will make this theme as ubiquitous and present to students as water itself.

Rain.jpgRuth: While reading the observations about water from the 2nd and 3rd grade students at the Smith College Campus School I noticed repeated questions and observations about water moving objects around it. This brought up questions on the power of water. How strong is water? What can it move? How does water move these objects? This inquiry both noticed and then investigated by students opened up many other areas of study into the strength and power of water. I am excited to see if this topic continues to be pursued by students along with new discoveries and exploration into the different roles water can play in our community.

Allyson:  As I read over the email responses from August, I was struck by ideas from the teachers at Jackson Street School. Ms. Garcia plans on structuring her kindergartners’ study around the question “Why is water important?” This essential question lays ground for years worth of scientific understanding, supported by Ms. Garcia in the form of observations, books, discussions and exploration. The social implications of this question may also be discussed in the form of another essential question: “Who controls water? Is this fair?” In the first grade, Ms. Butler plans on structuring her inquiry around the questions “Where does water come from?” and “Where does water go?” Plans to go outside make me wonder what questions will be stirred up by the quest to ‘track’ water. (A word of advice: another teacher recommended that students definitely bring a change of shoes!) I can’t wait to see how her wall space for collective learning and idea building develops over time.

Both teachers plan to continue their water inquiry throughout the year. I hope that students in these classrooms will connect water studies with other scientific topics they cover. The fact that these students are a year apart also presents an interesting opportunity for both classrooms. I can certainly image a group of kindergartners and first graders standing at a classroom window in the winter making group observations about the icicles forming outside.