Inquiry Questions

Overview

In this finalised unit lesson (Lesson 21 of 24), students build and refine questions for a geographical inquiry. They use what they know about landforms, landscapes, and human-environment connections to generate investigation questions that are meaningful, investigable, and focused on a phenomenon or challenge.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• create geographically significant questions about a landform, landscape or related challenge
• explain how their questions connect to a phenomenon or change over time
• refine questions so they are clear, focused, and researchable

Success criteria

Students can:

• formulate at least two meaningful geographical questions
• use question words (how/why/what/where) appropriately to target a phenomenon or challenge
• narrow questions to a specific place, landscape feature, or scale
• identify what evidence or data they would need to investigate

Curriculum links

• Geography 7-10: develop questions for a geographical inquiry related to a phenomenon or challenge - Geography 7-10: geomorphological processes that produce different landscapes and significant landforms to support question ideas
• Geography 7-10: interconnections between human activity and geomorphological processes, and ways of managing distinctive landscapes to shape inquiry focus
• Geography 7-10: the location and distribution of Australia’s distinctive landscapes and significant landforms to ground places for investigation

Lesson structure ({total minutes})

1. 0–5 min · Hook and language check. Teacher displays 3 example “bad vs better” questions (no student names) and asks: “Which one would you actually investigate, and why?” Students quick-discuss in pairs and share one reason.

Success criteria focus: questions target a phenomenon/challenge and are investigable.

2. 5–12 min · Mini-lesson: what makes a significant question? Teacher models a think-aloud: choosing a landscape example (e.g., erosion near a coastline, wetland loss, river regulation effects) and converting a vague idea into a focused inquiry question. Students add one improvement to a teacher question using a class checklist:

• It asks about change/causes/effects
• It names a place/scale (local/region/Australia)
• It suggests evidence/data (maps, rainfall, photographs, field observations, reports)

Success criteria focus: at least two meaningful questions.

3. 12–22 min · Group brainstorming (conversations first). Students are placed in diverse ability groups (3–4). Each group chooses ONE “inquiry theme card” (teacher-prepared) linked to the unit, such as:

• erosion and land degradation
• river/floodplain change
• wetlands and biodiversity
• tourism impacts on tracks and vegetation
• coastal management and sustainability Teacher circulates, prompts with “How could we investigate that?” Students generate as many questions as possible, aiming for 6–10, using sentence starters on the board.

Sentence starters (for question crafting):

• “How does ______ affect ______ in ______?”
• “Why has ______ changed in ______ over time?”
• “What evidence shows that ______ is happening at ______?”
• “To what extent do human activities influence ______ on ______?”

4. 22–32 min · Refine and select best two. Teacher provides a “Question Filter” sheet (or on paper): students sort their group questions into:

• Investigable now
• Might be too broad
• Too unclear Students then select the best TWO questions and rewrite them to improve specificity (place, scale, phenomenon). Teacher gives a quick 1-minute conference to each group, checking question clarity.

Success criteria focus: students produce at least two meaningful questions.

5. 32–40 min · Gallery share (short presentations). Groups post or read their two final questions. Each group receives one “question glow + grow” from another group:

• Glow: what is strong about the inquiry question?
• Grow: one change to make it sharper.

Students record one improvement to make final versions.

6. 40–45 min · Exit ticket. Individually, students submit:

• their final two questions (exact wording)
• one piece of evidence they would use for each question (e.g., satellite images, rainfall records, field notes, maps, local council reports, student sketches with annotations)

Teacher checks for alignment to phenomenon/challenge and specificity.

Resources

• Inquiry theme cards (laminated or printed)
• Question starter prompts on the board
• Question Filter sheet (or table on paper)
• Gallery display space (walls, desks, or digital board if available)
• Coloured sticky notes for Glow/Grow feedback
• Exit ticket slips
• Dyslexia-friendly reading options: audio recording of instructions and example question models; text in large font; colour overlay paper if available
• Clipboards/pencils and spare highlighters

Assessment

• Formative checks during group brainstorming: teacher listens for whether questions target causes/effects/change and include place/scale
• Monitoring during refinement: quick conferences to verify question specificity and investigability
• Exit ticket: ensures each student writes two final questions and names evidence sources

Differentiation

• Support for diverse learners:
• Provide sentence starters and a partially completed question frame (e.g., “How does ____ affect ____ in ____?”)
• Offer a “question bank” with 10–12 tailored options for students who need reduced load
• Allow oral drafting: students discuss their best two questions first, then write
• Use mixed-ability groups and rotating roles (Question Curator, Place Finder, Evidence Thinker, Writer)
• Extension:
• Ask students to add a scale choice (local vs regional) and justify why that scale matters for investigation
• Challenge students to turn one “why” question into a testable “how might we measure” sub-question
• Dyslexia/SEN adjustments:
• Large-font handouts, minimal text per sheet, and audio versions of instructions
• Colour-coded question components (Place = blue, Phenomenon = green, Evidence = orange)
• Extra time in the refinement stage; allow using speech-to-text where possible (school-approved)

Success criteria for this lesson (student-facing recap)

• I can write at least two clear, geographically significant questions for an inquiry.
• I can include a place/scale and a real phenomenon or challenge.
• I can state what evidence I would need to investigate each question.