Ideas for Common Challenges

Phase 3: Investigate!

Q: What do I do if the kids do not have basic typing or other computer skills?

A: Kids learn how to navigate the Internet by experimenting. No matter how tempting it is to maneuver the mouse yourself to save time, let the kids do it. Send them on a 'scavenger hunt' where they have to find specific information on the web (that you have already located).

Kids also learn typing through practice. You can help them set up Yahoo email accounts, and send them emails with questions about the project.

Schedule plenty of time for the kids to type information. If possible, encourage your team to use an Alpha Smart keyboard on field trips so that team members only have to type information once. Once your team returns to the computer center, you can download the information directly into the computer. Make certain that your team doesn't save all the typing for the end of the project -- type the research a little bit at a time. That will also help you get a sense of their skills and what they need to work on.

Q: Field trips are hard to arrange.

A: Field trips do not have to be far away or fancy expeditions. Take advantage of the resources that are close at hand: local parks, businesses, health clinics or the library. For larger trips, ask some parents to help chaperone and make arrangements and make it a special event once the team has some good questions they are researching.

Q: My kids seem to hate writing anything and constantly complain about it being too much like school. What can I do?

A: Writing is an important skill to learn to enjoy, but there are other ways of documenting what the team is learning: Ask one child to interview another on videotape (have the questions written down first), draw pictures or make collages about what they are learning and provide caption explanations, create a scrap book with memorabilia from the various experiences the team has had. Sometimes it helps a child to dictate to another person and then continue solo. One team also created a bi-lingual web site when one team member was shy about his English. Everyone learned about lions in two languages!

Q: Our Internet service is slow and unreliable. What should I do?

A: Slow Internet service is a pain, and there is no way around the need for you to be creative when Internet connection is unreliable. Focus your time in two areas: first, if you have outside access to better Internet service, do some surfing yourself and find the web addresses that you want the kids to use. Then they can go directly to the site and save some searching time. Second, you'll need to spend more time doing creative planning, including local field trips and bringing in experiments the kids can do without Internet access. If you are close to the web site building stage, the kids can design the pages without being on the Internet at all.

Q: What if the kids don't really understand the information they are gathering?

A: When looking in books or online, it is easy to find information that is too technical or written in difficult language. However, even information that is age-appropriate needs time to become understood and integrated into the team member's mind. Coaches can help by suggesting categories of information that teams should research, or helping teams diagram their research in mind maps, Venn diagrams, or charts comparing related information. This research can be documented in teams' journals along with other notes from discussions.

Q: What if the team is cutting and pasting all their information from professional sites?

A: Getting kids to value their own words and ways of explaining things can be a challenge. Sometimes, the kids don't believe that their own words will be interesting ("someone else said it so much better"). Sometimes, it is easier for the kids to cut and paste the content. Think of this as an early lesson in avoiding plagiarism. At each step of the project, have the kids write down what they have learned in their own words. This can take the form of a 'ScienceQuest log' where they record what they have done at the end of every ScienceQuest session. Then when they are ready to build the web site, the information is already in their own words. If possible, have them write the log directly on the computer.

Ensuring that they have a real question that they are passionate about means that they have incorporated research from a number of different interesting sources.

Q: How do I know if we are done with Phase 3: Investigate?

A: This phase is gathering and integrating information in preparation for presenting it in a web site. If you have talked about how all the information fits together, revisited your plan to make sure that all ideas were covered, gathered information from the Reading, Watching, Asking and Doing categories, and the team had kept the journal updated, then you are ready to move on. Oh, and do you feel that you have a satisfying answer?

Read entire checklist for Phase 3: Investigate!

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