Native American Inquiry Research {Web Quest Included}

We have been having a wonderful time discovering the different Native American Tribes through the process of Inquiry. Too often, kids are taught the information and not given the tools to learn, discover, and question on their own. During the process of inquiry, kids are encouraged to ask questions, wonder about the world around them, research answers to their questions, and make discoveries. 

Through inquiry based discovery HERE, we were able to evaluate "artifacts", infer what we believed them to be used for, ask questions, make wonderings, and come up with a plan of research. It also introduced us to the different Native American regions allowing us to choose which group we wanted to do more research on.
For the last two weeks in November, we went on a WEB QUEST attempting to help the Michigan History Museum replace their precious Native American Quilt which was "stolen"!

NATIVE AMERICAN WEB QUEST

We started by getting into our regional groups shown on the bulletin board above and creating oaths that promised we would be good group members, work hard together, participate, and encourage one another. We also chose which topic we wanted to help our group research in depth clothing, housing, religion/beliefs, natural resources.

Then, we dove into research. Thanks to an AMAZING grant, fifth grade has been BLESSED with a class set of Chrome books and we have been getting our money's worth out of them!

First, we began researching informational books and our text book and filling in our I-Charts based off the information we found. 

Next, we used internet websites and Google search options to find more information on our chosen topic. 

Lastly, we watched educational videos from our different regions and worked together in our groups to glean information that could add to our different topics.

Now that we have our research, we will be working on helping replace the Native American Quilt by adding illustrations that share our topics information as well as write short informational paragraphs about our findings. Please stay tuned!