Any Curriculum Can Be Enhanced By a Quest
Questing provides students with an opportunity to investigate a place. Place provides opportunities for interdisciplinary learning and critical thinking. By following the inquiry process, they make observations, ask questions, gather information, construct new knowledge, share their work with authentic audiences, and reflect.
By seeking, finding, and touching they get to make physical connections that increase their motivation for and investment in the learning process. They attach meaning to experiences, and nest the experiences into a narrative or “story” that lives in their memories. Utilizing fieldwork and technology to make maps, record images, learn from and digitize primary sources, students move from “studying about” something long ago to “participating in” something of relevance. Place-based approaches to teaching are wonderful and valuable. Service Learning projects are valuable, too, especially when students take the time to share what students have learned with their peers, families, and the broader community.
