Inquiry Based Activity- Actively Engaging Young Learners

One of the main ideas discussed this week in class was teaching meaningful and powerful Social Studies. When teaching history, teachers can create an authentic experience by allowing the students to take on the role of a historian. Historians study past events, investigate them, and draw connections between different events. By creating activities that actively engage students and require them to use their skills to draw conclusions, we can help students become historians rather than just Social Studies learners.

In class, we were given am artifact bag that contained pieces of a person's past. Below, you can see the items that were in my groups' bag.

I really thought that this project can be used to develop specific skills in young students. When you are given a collection of artifacts that you know nothing about, you are forced to try to draw connections between the items and figure out what they could mean. Featured on the bottom of the picture, is a Russian birth certificate. Through the use of the Internet, we were able to translate the birth certificate. This allowed us to see that the birth certificate belonged to our professor, Dr. Smirnova. From this information, we were able to conclude that these items were related to Dr. Smirnova's life and Russian culture. 

I think that this activity allows for students to become historians and investigate Russian culture. Students are using problem solving and critical thinking skills to put the puzzle pieces together. Students are also taking part in an inquiry based learning experience, where they are investigating the presented material. Activities, such as the artifact bag, can help students to build their knowledge from their experiences.