WHY ask Essential Questions?

Science Dept Meeting

Tue, March 14, 2006

What lasts, remembering or thinking? Why?

Essential Questions

• Unit….. Part of our new curriculum format

• Lesson… proven way of organizing a lesson!

Essential Questions

•What questions –

– are arguable - and important to argue about?

– are at the heart of the subject?

– recur - and should recur - in professional work, adult life, as well as in classroom inquiry?

– raise more questions – provoking and sustaining engaged inquiry?

– often raise important conceptual or philosophical issues?

– can provide organizing purpose for meaningful & connected learning?

Essential vs. “leading” Q’s used in teaching (Stage 3)

• Essential - STAGE 1

– Asked to be argued

– Designed to “uncover” new ideas, views, lines of argument

– Set up inquiry, heading to new understandings

• Leading - STAGE 3

– Asked as a reminder, to prompt recall

– Designed to “cover” knowledge

– Point to a single, straightforward fact - a rhetorical question

Sample Essential Questions:

– Who are my true friends - and how do I know for sure?

– How “rational” is the market?

– Does a good read differ from a ‘great book’? Why are some books fads, and others classics?

– To what extent is geography destiny?

– Should an axiom be obvious?

– How different is a scientific theory from a plausible belief?

– What is the government’s proper role?

Enduring Understandings:
How people deal with other people affects their future.
Some form of conflict will be present in all lives at some point.
Conflict does not just affect humans.

Essential Question:
What role did conflict play in development of the Constitution of the United States?

Essential Questions
Suffield Science

• 1)How does matter and energy flow through the earth systems and how do we interact with it?

• 2) How do living organisms function and evolve?

• 3) How is matter transformed and how does it affect us?

NINTH

• How do we know and can show where we are on Earth?

• How does soil composition affect land use decision making?

• How are land use decisions made?

• How does water quality affect land use decision making?

• How does land use decision making affect water quality?

• How does tectonic plate activity affect land use?

• How do atoms come together to form matter?

• How do we use resources to make polymers?

• How do polymers affect the environment?

• How does the Earth system affect the atmosphere?

• How does human activity affect the atmosphere?

• How does the use of energy resources affect the environment?

TENTH

• What are the characteristics that distinguish living from non-living things?

• What is the relationship between living and non-living components of an ecosystem?

• How does human activity impact Earth’s ecosystems?

• What are the processes responsible for life’s unity and diversity?

• What is evolution? How do we know how things have evolved?

• How are organisms classified?

• What are the basic principles of chemistry? What are the structures and functions of biologically important compounds?

• How are living cells organized? How do living cells reproduce?

• How do plants convert, store, and use energy?

• How do living things obtain energy from nutrients?

• How do the systems of the human body function together to support life?

Eleventh

• What is matter?

• How is matter organized?

• How do chemical reactions affect our lives?

• What are the applications of the kinetic molecular theory?

• How do we make materials?

• How does matter and energy flow in chemical reactions?

• Should we use nuclear energy?

12th

• How do we observe motion?

• What factors affect moving objects?

• How can we analyze accelerated objects?

• How does physics apply to traffic?

• How can we use physics to analyze collisions?

• How much energy do you use in a week?

• How do energy transformations affect your life?

• Should we use complex machines?

• What are the ways we analyze motion, heat, electrical and light energy?

• How has modern physics changed our view of the world?

• What are the applications of circular motion?