Learning to craft quality questions is a skill that can be taught. Class members use the Question Formulation Technique to learn how to create and refine both closed-ended and open-ended questions. They then view West of the West's documentary Arlington Springs Man and use these techniques to develop questions to guide research to learn more about the Arlington Springs Man.

Concepts

human migration, archaeology, research writing, asking questions

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Begin by showing the West of the West's series teaser, Tales from California's Channel Island which provides the context for the video and other resources in the series
• Pause the Arlington Springs Man video frequently to permit viewers to clarify information and to formulate and record their questions

Classroom Considerations

• Invite a science teacher or archeologist/geologist to talk with the class about carbon dating
• The Arlington Springs Man video and the lesson may be used in any course to model how to develop strong questions

Pros

• A link is provided to a Question Formulation Technique tutorial for those unfamiliar with this Visible Thinking strategy
• Link are also provided to additional related resources

Cons

• No rubric is included for the research project

Common Core

SL.5.1.a SL.5.2 SL.5.4