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A friend recently shared with me her winter break experience taking her daughter to a hands-on museum. She said they spent six hours at the museum. She really wanted to share the questions her daughter was asking as she was interacting with the hands-on exhibits. She shared all of them with me because she knows how important questioning is in a classroom.

“What would happen if we redid it like this? Can we try and see?”

“Would that airplane go higher if we built it in a rocket shape? What is that shape called?”

“How many pulleys does it take to lift me up? What about you? Daddy’s not here, so how can we figure out how many pulleys to lift him up if we know how many for me?”

“What would make my car go faster? Hmmm…can I try a different way?”

“Look Mommy, the pieces to the road can only be put together in one way. Isn’t that part of a fact family?”

Questions were literally flowing out of every child in the museum. In fact, there is a constant buzz in the museum from the excitement of wanting to learn. They weren’t completing a worksheet or looking at a picture…they were doing something with the knowledge and gaining more knowledge as they proceeded.

This list of questions arrived in my inbox with perfect timing. I was rereading Chapter 5 of Tony Wagner’s book, Creating Innovators:The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World. The chapter is entitled, “Innovating Learning” and I had just finished watching an incredible clip that featured Amanda Alonzo, a highly successful science teacher who emphasizes the importance of discovery and questioning with her students. [Click here for more about this INCREDIBLE book.]

Why write a blog about questions? I’ll let an expert explain…in that same chapter, Tony Wagner states,

“One problem with this traditional approach to learning, however, is that the way in which academic content is taught is often stultifying: It is too often merely a process of transferring information through rote memorization, with few opportunities for students to ask questions or discover things on their own—the essential practices of innovation. As a result, students’ inherit curiosity is often undermined and ‘schooled out’ of them, as Sir Ken Robinson and others have written.” [This TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson explains more and is well worth your time!]

Curiosity is nothing new. Throughout time, so many have attributed their creations, explorations, and inventions to questioning. When asked why he was able to develop so many theories and think the way he did, Albert Einstein repeatedly stated,

“I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious.”

In Simon Sinek’s book, Start with Why, he describes the dichotomy between Samuel Langley and the Wright brothers.  Langley had the funding, the resources, and everyone thought he would be the first to fly—including Langley himself. The Wright brothers had no money, few resources, but they had such a passion to fly that they inspired the enthusiasm and commitment of a dedicated group in their hometown. This group banded together in the basement of a bicycle shop and made their vision real. Did they have questions? Did they expect to fail and fail often? Yes, but they also expected to fly. (Personally, I love the fact that the Wright team always took 5 sets of parts with them to every flying test or trial. I share this with my students to encourage them to try and try and try–and bring extra parts!)

My friend’s last question to me made me think the most,

“After watching all these children all day long, it just makes me ask…why aren’t we teaching this way in schools?”

No time like the present to begin. Here are a few simple ideas to help you begin:

1. Put up an “I Wonder” chart on the wall of your classroom. Whenever a student simply “wonders” about something, have them write it on a sticky note and put it on the chart. Once a week, select a question from the “I Wonder” chart and develop a plan for finding the answer.
2. Bring in an old box and label it “The Question Box.” If a student has a sincere question, they drop it in the box. Questions are pulled out at the end of every class period. If no one knows the answer, then everyone goes home to “wonder” about it and share what they discovered with their partner the next day in class.
3. Use Exit Questions at the end of every activity. Have students think about what they learned and how the information could be used in their world.

I’ll let Amanda Alonzo, whose students regularly finish among the 40 finalists in the Intel science competition, finish this post,

“To be a successful science teacher, you have to make it fun, and for kids that means making it theirs—so that they have ownership over what they are learning. It’s what motivates them…The most important thing is allowing students to ask questions and then giving them the space to find the answers.”