Lesson 27: Inquiry Questions and Search Terms Practice

Have students take out their potential research topics from Lesson 26 and instruct students to form pairs.

Think-Pair-Share

Conduct a Think-Pair-Share about the following questions. Display the following questions for students to discuss.

• What is one of your research topics, and why are you interested in it?

  • (Student responses may vary.) My research topic is Native seed sharing and habitat restoration. I’m interested in this topic because it connects community knowledge, plant diversity, and reciprocity with the land.

• How does your topic connect to reciprocity, restoration, or systems balance?

  • (Student responses may vary.) My topic connects to restoration because seed sharing can help damaged ecosystems recover. It also connects to reciprocity because people care for plants, and plants support the community in return.

Invite 2–3 students to share their ideas with the class.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Now that we are starting to finalize our research topics, we are ready to develop researchable inquiry questions that will guide our research exploration.

Remind students that a research topic is not the same as a research question. Introduce the concept of inquiry questions.

• Say: Inquiry questions help us investigate different parts of a topic more deeply. These question stems are tools you can use to turn a broad topic into a focused inquiry question. As we look at examples, notice how strong questions often use or build from these types of stems

Display the following question stems for students to use throughout the lesson.

• How does/did ___ affect ___?

• What is the relationship between ___ and ___?

• Why did/does ___ happen?

• How do ___ understand ___?

• What happens when ___?

• How do ___ and ___ compare?

• What role does ___ play in ___?

• What are the effects of ___?

• How can/could ___?

Display the following chart and have students review the content.

Inquiry Questions

Say these Directions: A strong inquiry question does more than ask for a simple fact. It helps us investigate relationships, causes, effects, comparisons, and perspectives. As I model, listen for how I turn a broad topic into focused inquiry questions that I can research to find information.

• Say: I already know my topic is traditional fire management and forest health, but that topic is still too big to research by itself. If I ask, “What is fire management?” I will probably get a dictionary-like definition, not analysis.

• Say: I ask myself what I need to understand about my topic: Indigenous knowledge about fire, Western scientific knowledge about fire, how those perspectives compare, and how this connects to reciprocity.

• Say: I can use a question stem to help shape my thinking, like “How do ___ understand ___?” or “What happens when ___?” Then I make the question more precise by naming a place, a practice, or a system. For example, “How do Karuk cultural burning practices support forest health in California oak woodlands?” is much stronger because it names who, what, and where.

• Say: A strong inquiry question should be specific, open-ended, and substantial enough that I would need more than one source to answer it well.

Turn and Talk

Transition students into pairs. Invite students to discuss the following questions with their partner.

Say these Directions: Discuss the following questions based on the inquiry question chart and the model.

• What makes the stronger inquiry questions better for research than the weak questions?

  • The stronger inquiry questions are better because they ask about effects, relationships, or different perspectives. They are also more precise because they name the practice, the place, or the system being studied.

• Which question stem could help you move your own topic from broad to focused?

  • I could use “What is the relationship between ___ and ___?” because my topic is about pollinator gardens, and I want to look at the relationship between urban planting and bee populations.

Say these Directions: Turn to your partner. Each of you states one possible question stem for your topic and explains what kind of research it would lead to.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Now that you have learned about inquiry questions, you will begin developing inquiry questions to guide your own research.

Part A: Developing Strong Inquiry Questions (W.8.7) (15 minutes)

Students will use their selected research topics to develop inquiry questions that guide their research.

Transition students into working independently to develop 6–8 inquiry questions for their research topic(s). Remind students that it is okay to still have 2–3 research topics they are considering. Explain to students that generating inquiry questions can help them decide which research topic they truly want to explore because they may find questions that are more interesting or exciting.

Say these Directions: Choose one of your possible research topics to focus on. Then, write 6–8 strong inquiry questions that will help guide your research on that topic. Write your inquiry questions in your journal.

Display the following criteria for strong inquiry questions.

Criteria for Strong Inquiry Questions

• specific and focused on a clear topic

• open-ended (not yes/no or definition-based)

• connected to relationships, causes, effects, or perspectives

• detailed enough to guide research across multiple sources

• Say: Remember that strong inquiry questions are specific and open-ended and require more than one source to answer well.

Provide time for students to independently draft their inquiry questions. As students work, circulate and support them in refining their questions.

Use the following prompts as needed:

• How could you make this question more specific?

• What relationship or effect are you trying to understand?

• Could this question be answered with a simple definition, or does it require deeper research?

• Which question stem could help you revise this into a stronger inquiry question?

If students finish early, encourage them to revise their questions for clarity and specificity or to add one additional question that explores a different perspective on their topic.

Next, introduce and model how to refine inquiry questions using specific criteria.

Display the following criteria for refining inquiry questions.

Refining Inquiry Questions

1. The question is connected to my topic.

2. The question is specific, not broad.

3. The question asks about a relationship, cause/effect, comparison, perspective, or impact.

4. The question uses precise words.

5. The question would require more than one credible source to answer it.

Model for students how to refine their inquiry questions.

• Say: When I draft inquiry questions, I do not stop with my first version. I test each question against the inquiry question criteria to see if it is specific and worth researching.

• Say: For example, my first draft might be “How do people use fire?” but that question is too broad and does not tell me which people, where, or why it matters. I can revise it to “How do Karuk cultural burning practices compare with state fire suppression approaches in supporting forest health?” That version gives me two perspectives and a clear topic to investigate.

• Say: I also want at least one question that connects directly to the unit, such as “How can cultural burning restore reciprocity between people and oak woodland ecosystems?” Good researchers draft, check, and revise questions before they ever search for sources.

Provide students with time to refine several of their inquiry questions using the Inquiry Question criteria.

Say these Directions: Refine several of your inquiry questions using the Inquiry Question criteria.

Transition students into partners.

Turn and Talk

Say these Directions: Now you will meet with a partner to receive feedback on your inquiry questions. Read 2–3 of your questions aloud and use the feedback frames to help your partner revise their questions for precision. Choose which partner will share first, then switch roles.

Display the following feedback frames to support partner feedback.

Feedback Frames

• Your topic is focused because you named ___.

• You could make this more precise by specifying ___.

• This question becomes stronger when you clarify how it demonstrates or disrupts reciprocity.

• You might narrow it by focusing on one policy, place, or practice, such as ___.

Provide time for students to give each other feedback on several of their inquiry questions.

Part B: Searching for Sources with Inquiry Questions (W.8.7) (15 minutes)

Students learn how to use their inquiry questions to create search terms to support their research.

Say these Directions: We are going to practice turning inquiry questions into search terms to find sources for our research topic. You will use your strongest questions to decide what words belong in a search and which sources look promising.

Teach: Choosing Effective Search Terms

• Say: My inquiry question is “How do Karuk cultural burning practices compare with state fire suppression approaches in supporting forest health?” Instead of typing the entire question into the search engine, I can pull out the key ideas: Karuk cultural burning, California state fire suppression, forest health, and California. If I search only “fire,” I will get random results, so I want search terms that match the exact relationship I am studying.

• Say: When I see results, I do a fast first check: Who wrote this? When was it published? What kind of organization is it from?

• Say: A source from a tribal organization, government agency, university, or science publication may be useful, but I still need to read carefully. I also want to keep track of which inquiry question each source might help answer, because one source may fit one question better than another.

Instruct students to generate some search terms based on their inquiry questions.

Say these Directions: Choose one or two of your strongest inquiry questions. Write 2–3 search term combinations for each question in your journal. Try out some of your search terms by putting them into an online search engine to see what sources come up.

After providing time for students to generate search terms, transition them into partners.

Turn and Talk

Ask students to turn and talk with a partner about the following questions.

• Ask: What search terms would you use for one of your inquiry questions?

  • (Student responses may vary.) For my question about pollinator gardens, I would search “urban pollinator gardens bee population,” “native plants pollinators city study,” and “community garden pollinator habitat.”

• Ask: What is one clue that a source might be credible?

  • One clue is that the source names the author and the organization. Another clue is that it was published recently and comes from a government, university, tribal organization, or scientific source.

• Say: Today, you learned that strong research starts with strong questions. In your final project, those questions will help you choose better sources and build a clearer explanation. The more focused your questions are now, the stronger your research will be later.

Check for Understanding

Provide students with a confidence continuum (i.e., 1–5). As needed, model how to demonstrate a level of confidence using the continuum.

Quick Write

Instruct students to complete a Quick Write to reflect on their research.

Say these Directions: Review your inquiry questions. Choose one question you think is strong and explain why. Then, write one search term combination you would use to begin researching this question.

• Which inquiry question is strongest and why?

  • (Student responses may vary.) My strongest inquiry question is “How do urban pollinator gardens affect bee populations in cities?” because it is specific and focused and asks about a relationship between two parts of a system. I would use search terms like “urban pollinator gardens, bee populations study” to begin researching this question.

Instruct students to consider where they might find information to answer the following questions in their Journal.

• What types of sources might help: articles, videos, interviews, scientific studies, tribal organization websites, government reports, or other credible sources?

• What search terms will you use?