Student+Audience


 * __ Student Audience __**

The setting for this project is an elementary school in rural South-central Indiana with 519 students in grades K-6. Forty-eight percent of students receive free or reduced lunch. In 2010, the ISTEP passing rate for sixth graders was 66%, and the passing rate for third graders was just 60%.

In terms of inquiry experience, the third graders have very little. They were introduced to information inquiry in second grade, where they completed a very basic, brief inquiry project. The sixth graders are somewhat more experienced, having completed several inquiry projects over the past few years, each growing in scope from the ones previous.

The final output for the third grade will be a sizeable timeline featuring each student’s research displayed prominently in the school’s hallway. Hopefully the knowledge that the entire school will be exposed to their work will be a great motivator for the students to do their best work. The end result of the sixth graders’ inquiries will be presentations they give to third grade students. It will be explained beforehand that like themselves, the third graders are also studying space. They will understand that it will be expected of them to delve deep into their subject matter to discover interesting information that can be presented to the younger students in an interesting manner.

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