The problem of plastic pollution is one of the pressing problems of environment today. Rapidly increasing number of disposals have left us to rethink about our choices as consumers and our role in reducing this waste production. This issue calls for an early intervention where preparing our youth for empathizing with our environment and taking the lead to critically examine the situations, bring forward the resolutions for a sustainable living. Hence, with this inquiry project, the main goal is to make young learners empathize with their environment and they act as responsible citizens of their community.

As per BC Curriculum’s Science Goals and Rationale, science curriculum at grades 10-12, help the learners to

               “develop the skills, processes, attitudes, and scientific habits of mind that allow them to pursue their own inquiries using scientific methods. Using critical thinking, creative insight, and their current scientific knowledge, students collaborate, investigate, solve problems, communicate, innovate, discover, and increase their understanding of science through hands-on experience. Students have opportunities to develop personal and social awareness of their roles and responsibilities with respect to the environment. By cultivating an appreciation for the field of science, students can recognize opportunities to apply their                knowledge in their everyday lives or contribute to science in their future careers.”

Therefore, using and inquiry based learning approach related to real world situations like ‘Plastic Pollution’ encourage critical and creative thinking, problem solving skills, and collaborative learning, where students ask questions and grow their collective scientific knowledge as young environmentalists.

This project is divided in four sections starting from empathizing the students about their environment and arousing their interest, next section about investigating  the use of plastics and its harmful impacts on our environment, followed by connecting the learners to their community by conducting surveys and understand the problem at local level to help them ideate on their last STEM project in designing a creative alternate solution to this problem.

The major challenge I faced during this project was to plan activities that include diversity along with catering to the individual needs of the learner but not exceed individualization, therefore, a blend of group projects and individual projects have been designed where the students have the opportunity to reflect on their work as well as respect their peers feedback through peer reflections. For example, with groups work on their investigation topics, they bring forward their experiences and ideas from different cultural backgrounds and sharing those within the group expands their knowledge about usage of plastics in various households.

Willms and Friesen (2012) suggests, that reforms need to take into account the ways in which the emotional and cognitive aspects of learning work in tandem to create the optimal conditions for deep, engaged learning. Such reforms also require supporting teachers in their designing of flexible, adaptive learning environments that can be manipulated according to the emerging needs of learners and the learning situation. A conducive classroom environment caters to the needs of the learner where open discussions take place and a cordial relationship of teacher-student, student-peers and student-self is created. Therefore, if I would get a chance to plan the project again, I will try to modify the activities according to the previous knowledge of students and setting a level that makes learning more experiential and collaborative. Another aspect I feel which can give students a realistic experience is through place based learning where they go out in their local community and discuss with them about the differences they have seen in climatic change or environment degeneration. This will not only help them connect with their history, but also provide them with the opportunities to behave responsibly in the society.

This inquiry project have opened pathways for me to understand and deeply reflect upon key ideas related to inquiry process- what is inquiry, why it is important, how it has evolved over the time and how it can be effectively incorporated in classrooms keeping the achievement of educational goals consistent. From the first peoples principle of learning, “Learning requires exploration of one’s identity”, my insights about inquiry have developed over the time from where I started and where I have reached and I have learnt that Inquiry approach not only helps on holistic development, but also helps the learners to identify their skills and competencies but also connects them with their culture, language, beliefs which form the basis of their identity. Through this project the students will be able to hypothesize their findings based on their cultural experiences (First Peoples Principles of Learning, 2017).

After completing this inquiry project, I understand that to carry out a successful learning experience for both teacher and students, inquiry is the major goal of 21st century education, where the students become better questioners as ultimately questioning is central to meaningful learning and intellectual achievements at higher levels. That is why, an effective learning experience make students want to actively pursue inquiry and willingly learn content along the way within the inquiry (Wiggins and McTighe, 2013).

In the later parts of the inquiry project, what sparked my interest was ‘which assessment tool is the most suitable one in inquiry based learning’. As discussed in Bailey’s research, when we talk about implementing reforms in assessment practices in context of inquiry based classrooms, we look forward to the assessment practices that focus on conceptual understandings, ability to solve problems, and understand about inquiry and adopt critical and divergent thinking as the outcomes of the learning process. Therefore, the criteria for a good assessment practice as suggested by Palmer (1998), is teachers should weave the connections among themselves, their subjects and their students, so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves. The tools for assessing the learners’ ability, should be reliable and authentic such that the students can reflect or trust themselves in acting on their implications. Hence, inquiry-based classrooms has to involve thoughtful professional judgement on performance relative to what is expected within a particular discipline. Students must have the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding by thinking and acting flexibly with what they know about it, not just through the regurgitation of information and execution of routine skills (Perkins, 2009). This was the main idea behind including peer assessments in the project which will help the students to self-reflect on their work in collaboration with their peers keeping their aims of learning intact and become self-regulated learners.

Using design thinking approach, in vein to Bartlett’s study and Friesen’s core principles, this inquiry project helped in attaining the aim of developing a creative disposition in conjunction with the mind-sets engaging students in work acting as action researchers with their own creative development through these tasks and responsible for their own developmental growth. This design thinking process will help in creating deep impactful design scenarios, further helping students acquire the skills of generating creative ideas for effective resolutions for conserving their environment (Friesen, S., 2009).

The learning improves when teacher leadership receives consistent support, and teachers have opportunities to learn from one another (McKinsey & Company, 2007). With this notion, it is very critical to remain familiar with the peers’ work but seeking constructive feedback from peers as well as mentor helped me to gain insightful thoughts about the activities planned and formal conversations within the group improved my strategies to the point of effective execution. In conclusion to that, the entire inquiry project executed gave me a deep understanding of inquiry based approach and its techniques. If we want a life-long learning experience, it is imperative to develop competence in students to gain deep knowledge about concepts and the work should instill the intellectual rigor as well as connect them with their world inside or outside the school.

               “In an Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) approach learners take the role of an explorer and scientist as they try to solve issues they came across and that made them wonder, thus tapping into their personal feelings of curiosity. IBL supports the meaningful contextualization of scientific concepts by relating them to personal experiences. It leads to structured knowledge about a domain and to more skills and competences about how to carry out efficient and communicable research. Thus, learners learn to investigate, collaborate, be creative, and use their personal characteristics and identity to have influence in different environments and at different levels.”

(Alexander Mikroyannidis et al., 2013, p.2094)