Collaborative Inquiry-Based Learning Experience: Wanuskewin Heritage Park
Sydni Thorpe, Lisa Button, Shelby Buell, Alyssa Wingerter, Brittany Bodnarchuk, Kashtin Moen, Raelynn Falcon
Demographics: Grade 9 & 10 (30 students each)
Subject Areas Incorporated: Science 9 & 10, Home Ec. 9, Foods 10, Indigenous Studies 10, Arts Education 9, Drama 9, ELA 9 & A10, Social Studies 9.
Our students will spend a day exploring and completing numerous educational tasks at Wanuskewin Heritage Park. We have planned for numerous activities surrounding this trip:
Fund Raising: In order to fund the trip, Home Ec. Students will work together to organize fund raisers such as bake sales and lunch specials. This will not only help to hit some of the Home Ec. And Foods outcomes, but will also work to create a student-based “field trip fund” that can be put towards the Tours/activities at Wanuskewin.
Tipi Raising: The Tipi Raising tour at Wanuskewin would be beneficial for students in the above grade 9 courses. They will attend the tour and then complete a number of reflective assessment pieces once the day is over.
Medicine Walk: The Medicine Walk tour would be beneficial for students in Grade 10 classes.
Bannock Bake: The Bannock Bake offered at Wanuskewin would be beneficial for our Home Ec. And Foods students. It is also a great opportunity that all students can complete in a relatively short time frame (over lunch hour).
Scavenger Hunt: After the above Tours are completed, we wanted to give students the freedom to explore the land on their own. We will offer them a list of objects, sights, plant life, etc. that they will look for on their independent hikes and take pictures of so that they can be added to a collective reflection at the end of our trip (such as a Class Dojo or Twitter page). This gives the students the agency to move around, explore, and learn on their own, but also ensures that they won’t miss key elements of the experience.
Think-Pair-Share: On the bus ride home, students will be asked to perform a quick Think-Pair-Share activity with their partners to reflect on their favourite aspects of the experience and their newfound knowledge.
Creative Inquiry Project: Over the next few days, students will do numerous short activities throughout their classes reflecting on their experiences at Wanuskewin. We will only assign one collective Inquiry project, as we figured it wouldn’t be fair to assign multiple projects at once. Arts Education, English Language Arts, and Drama teachers will come together to outline an Inquiry Project in which students have the opportunity to hit Outcomes in all of these areas. Students will be expected to draw from the inspiration and knowledge gained at Wanuskewin to create a project of their own design.