“A water what?” was the response I’d get whenever I introduced my grade 8 students to the concept of a watershed. “How can I get my students to engage when they don’t even understand the importance of our water sys- tems?” I thought to myself. Needless to say I found it challenging to teach the Water Sys- tems unit in Science and Technology. I knew that I needed to step it up! I had to find a way to use inquiry in the older grades and have my students connect with this important topic in a more meaningful way.


STARTING THE ENVIRONMENTAL INQUIRY PROCESS


In September 2014, I decided that I was go- ing to begin my Water Systems unit by us- ing the inquiry process. I wanted to find out what my students already knew about this topic. Did any of them actually know about watersheds? Did they know that humans are a part of the water system and impact the other parts? I began my inquiry by asking a general


question: “What do you know about water on Earth?” My students came up with a lot of additional questions to which I added my own. Once we had our questions, we were able to focus on and plan around learning about watersheds, the impacts humans, technology and natural disasters have on them, and the effect of water sys- tems on the climate.


E ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 33


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