Inquiry Based Learning Lessons

This week in class, we have created on our own Inquiry Based Learning Lesson.  This kind of lesson has multiple purposes.  A class can benefit from IBL lessons because students have to do their own research on a topic, and they must be able to utilize multiple informational platforms (website, book, et al) in order to complete the assignment.  These assignments can also contain collaborative aspects and critical thinking exercises.  So, overall, this activity can combine many, many ways of learning and assessment in a fun, effective way of learning.

The only problem I envision with this type of lesson deals with math teachers.  How can you use this lesson to teach multiple steps in mathematical objectives? There are ways one could do so; however, I believe the best way to utilize this lesson in mathematics is to garner interest in the topic.  That is what my fictional lesson did.  I did a lesson on Pythagoras and the theorem in his namesake.  I had the students research his life and Greece in the time period in which he lived.  I figured that if they saw how he worked and why he researched mathematics, they may be more interested in the subject.  Though that was my main objective, I also put a critical thinking question in the assignment in order to make the students combine prior knowledge with the material they were to be researching.

Overall, I believe this assignment could be very beneficial to students.  They may be able to learn quite a bit while researching and they could become interested in the topic.