Objects to Start Inquiry

We started our first project this week. Our entry event went very well. Rather than explain it I will show it to you and let you see if you can figure it out for yourself. The students were given these instructions:

Here are the objects in the center of the room.

We also played “Panama” by Van Halen while they checked out the items. Next students made guesses about what each thing sybolized. Many of them were stumped. When a student made a correct guess we threw them a popsicle.  After letting them guess for a few minutes we shared a slideshow of primary source resources with them. See how you many you can guess before checking out the slides (adapted from Bruce Lesh).

Students figured out everything except for the concrete paver. This activity was a great start for our project. Students were engaged in the inquiry and very motivated to figure out what everything stood for. We followed this up with revealing our Driving Question: ” ‘Murica…cuz MD?” Students now had to figure out what that meant.

The next day the first thing that happened was two students came up to me to guess what the concrete paver stood for. Good attempts but still not correct. One of them said, “I thought about it all night.” That was music to my ears. I highly recommend using objects related to a project as an entry event. It is great way to start inquiry, build curiosity, and creates conversations between students.

How could you use objects as an entry event for a project?

PS: Make a guess about what each item represents and leave it in the comments. I will post the answers in a few days.