Our brains constantly seek patterns and connections, and it was my 3rd-graders’ study of the brain and the picture book ZOOM that inspired this unique research project as part of our SYSTEMS unit.
By third grade, my students were spending more time reading and exploring topics on their own and this project allowed me to model and teach research skills and strategies.
The end product, which can be digital or a paper project, is fun for students to share and present. It could begin as a question or curiosity, part of an independent design project (e.g. Genius Hour), and could be an ongoing project completed in parts. It was also designed to reinforce concepts in SYSTEMS THINKING.
The project begins with a sharing of the picture book ZOOM. As each page is turned, students enjoy guessing what’s next! If you’ve never seen this book, or its companion, Re-ZOOM, they are fun to share with kids and can lead to all kinds of activities and conversations beyond this single project.
ZOOMING IN AND OUT (DIGITAL PROJECT)
After sharing ZOOM, explain to students that you’d like them to somewhat mimic this idea of changing perspectives in a research project. They will select three or four topics that connect, sometimes in surprising ways, so that as each topic is revealed, the audience will be drawn into guessing what might be next.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS: Using research websites suitable for your students’ ages, and with support from you, students read to explore a topic of interest or a question. As they read and take notes on the topic, they think about connections that come to mind.
FOR EXAMPLE: Let’s say Shawna is interested in kangaroos, specifically how long joeys stay in their mother’s pouches and whether they come out and go back in. Shawna would start by searching for information and perhaps find this. She uses one or more sources to record what she learned and perhaps some other interesting and fun facts about kangaroos. In the course of her reading, she learns more about Australia and another topic she’s interested in comes to mind – the Great Barrier Reef. Shawna then zooms OUT (as on a map), to explore the GBR. In her research, she learns that the GBR is the largest living thing visible from outer space, so she makes a connection to the International Space Station and zooms OUT further to learn about the ISS. Finally, in reading about the ISS, she learns something surprising that few people may know: astronauts aboard the ISS last year were craving sweets and requested that candy be sent on the next cargo flight. Skittles® were among those requested and sent, so Shawna ZOOMS IN to learn a little about Skittles® candies as her final topic.
HELPING STUDENTS FIND KID-FRIENDLY INFORMATION
| RESEARCH TIP #1: Have students add phrases to the keyword when they search, such as “for kids,” “history for kids,” or “fun facts for kids.” A search phrase such as “Skittles history and fun facts for kids” will result in information your students may find more interesting and easily accessible. RESEARCH TIP #2: Model and practice the skill of paraphrasing with students. It is a skill that improves as students develop as writers, so constant modeling is key. HERE is one blogger’s explanation of how to do this with younger students. |
The SAMPLE PREZI PROJECT shown here is one you can share with students or use as a guide. Prezi is the perfect tool for creating the zooming effect, connecting one topic to the next. If you don’t have access to Prezi, you can create a similar presentation in Google Slides. NOTE: The first few slides of this sample refer to SYSTEMS and the BRAIN to tie in with the universal theme for 3rd grade GT- see Planning for Gifted Students: The Work of Reflective Artisans and Lifelong Learners.
There are many ways to modify this project. Rather than writing the text in paragraph form, students could use their questions in the presentation and create more of a guessing game for their audience. You also could model the process first and create a class ZOOM project or have students work together in small groups or pairs.
BOOK-WITHIN-A-BOOK-WITHIN-A-BOOK
My students also enjoyed creating and illustrating this hands-on version of the same project, a book-within-a-book project that explores four topics. The books fit inside one another, similar to Russian nesting dolls.
We entitled the project “The Power of Perspective” and it fit in well with our universal theme of SYSTEMS. Take a look at the photos in the slides below to see how the final product came together.
To create this, each student needs a file folder, white paper, crayons or colored pencils, and scissors. Directions for making the nesting books can be found HERE.
This kind of Inquiry and open-ended research encourages and capitalizes on students’ natural curiosity and can be incorporated in many ways in the GT classroom. A similar project for older students, The Journey of a Question: Open-Ended Creative Research, includes additional resources for the teaching and modeling of research skills.
If you try any of these projects, I’d love to hear how it goes! Leave your comment below or send a MESSAGE. If you are new to the blog, you might like to subscribe to receive new ideas and updates about twice a month.
This project reminded me of a word game my sister and I made up and used to do when we shared the same room when we were little and we’d talk before going to sleep. I started with the word “popcorn” for example and then say I’d ended up with “Honda” and then she’d try to guess all the connections I had in my head to get me there. I would tell her for instance there were 4 to get there. She’d try to guess mine and then I’d do that with hers too. They were more personal than research but it was fun and not too terribly hard because we shared so much that we usually could get kind of close to each other’s answers!
Love this, Tiffany! Thanks for sharing it!