Learning Activity 3-B-1

Engaging Questions for Data

[Forum]

One way to engage students and promote critical thinking skills is to provide them with a question and let them investigate the answer. The students’ role becomes that of the detective solving a case.

For this activity, you will play both the role of questioner and of investigator.

Question:

Create a question that can be answered using primary source data, but requires more than a simple answer. Your question should give your classmates an opportunity to investigate and may have multiple correct answers. See the Key Information for examples of questions.

Post your question to the forum for Activity 3-B-1 as a new thread. Include a link to the online data resource where your classmates should investigate.

Investigate:

Choose a question posed by one of your classmates; try to respond to a question that hasn’t been answered yet by anyone else. Investigate the answer to this question. You may need to create charts or do some analysis to come to a conclusion. If you have difficulties finding the right information, post your questions as a reply in the thread with the question. Sharing your challenges may help your classmates refine their questions before using them in the classroom.

Post your answer to the question in the forum as a reply in the same thread as the question. If you created any charts or analysis tools, upload them with your reply.