At the moment teachers at Oranga School are busy with their classes working on an Inquiry about the ocean. In the Junior Syndicate they are looking at the question "What can we do to make sure that the ocean is a good home for sea life?". The Middle syndicate are focussed on the question, "How do we take care of what is in the ocean?". And the senior syndicate's question is "What do we need to do to ensure we maintain a sustainable supply of fish?". These questions are called essential questions. During the Immersion stage of the Inquiry all students visited Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium and watched videos or DVDs about the ocean and it's inhabitants. After discovering lots of new and interesting things we moved on to the Brainstorm part of the inquiry. This helped all the children to share their ideas and new learning with their classmates and teachers. After being busy brainstorming the children came up with smaller (subsidiary) questions that will help them to find some possible answers to their big (essential) question. Our next step is to begin researching our smaller questions, using the internet, books and maybe even some experts from home. Check out these photos of the inquiry process so far.
