Lesson Plan 3

Student groups develop their RQ

1. CaL Note Book
2. Pencil/Pen
3. Blackboard + Chalk
4. CaL Handout – 1 (Optional)

Step 1. Whole Class Instruction (15 min): Teacher reviews with students how to write questions about a topic using a variety of question stems- what, where, who, how, which, when, where. With the help of students, Teacher gives examples of types of questions students can come up with using a topic like transport:

1. Which type of public transport is used by the most people?
2. How many people use the train everyday?
3. When do we see the most delays in train schedules?
4. How are public taxis affected by Uber and Ola?
5. Who in my community uses bus versus train and why?
6. Which area has the most bus routes?
7. Which type of petrol is the cleanest for our air?
8. Is public transport in my city efficient?

Teacher provides the checklist given below  of what makes a good CaL RQ and explains each point to the class. A good CaL RQ should:

Step 2. Group Brainstorm (10 min): Teacher instructs students to do a mini brainstorm in their groups to come up with 5-8 questions related to their topic. Teacher reminds everyone of the rules of brainstorming as discussed in lesson 2.  Give students 10 minutes to brainstorm .

Step 3. Class debrief (10 min): Next teacher models how to analyze if a question is a good CaL RQ. She takes 1-2 examples of questions from different groups and discusses if those questions are good RQs as per the checklist above. If they are not,teacher gives ideas for how to convert them to good RQs 

Step 4. Small Group Work (10 min): Students continue working in their groups and finalize two questions to submit to the teacher before the next lesson. Teacher goes over student options and gives feedback to finalize the RQ. If needed, this can be sent to CaL for feedback.

TEACHERS PLEASE NOTE:

• The question “why are taxis so expensive?” is a good question but not a good research question if you check against the criteria. Instead students can ask, Are taxis in Mumbai more or less expensive than other places? OR How much more expensive are taxis compared to buses, trains, cars, bikes? These are more measurable.

• The RQ should be connected in some way to the city.. For example if students conduct a science experiment to find out which type of petrol is the cleanest, they can create an advertisement to promote that petrol among car owners and thus help our city breathe cleaner air. 

• Another example is if students find out how many taxis are in Mumbai, they can make a recommendation for increasing or decreasing the number to make public transport for efficient for Mumbai’s citizens.

Teacher meets individually with each small group for 15 minutes over the next week and helps them refine their question and rationale.