What I learned from this project
First, I found this project to be a bit difficult in terms of other projects that I have done in the past. For example, a lot of the information for things such as the building cost, supply cost and government financial aid, were very hard to find. It took some time to dig deep to find these numbers, as well as work and communicate with my team members to find them as well. I would say another thing that was difficult in this project was knowing exactly what to put in the powerpoint presentation. As a group, we weren’t sure specifically how to present the information that we found.
Although there were some difficulties to this project, I think it was a good way for us to gain knowledge about different schools in the county that we had. It was interesting to compare the numbers throughout the county, as well as the numbers from the schools within each district.
I learned from this project that within each district, the elementary school tends to have the most students. This number then gets lower through the middle and high school. This makes sense as students my transfer to a different school in a different district, or students may move. Another thing I learned is that there is a wide range of percentages throughout the Sheboygan county districts when it comes to economically disadvantaged. In some cases the percent goes down from the elementary school in a district, to the high school. Or other times, it stays the same, or even goes up. Other things I learned while doing this project is that there might be times when I just might not be able to find the statistics for a certain topic and that is okay. I learned that teamwork is important, and for each member to be accountable for their share of the project.
Inquiry learning is a bit messy because it is not a simple “connect the dots” process. Rather it is more akin to sifting through sand to find the things of interest and merit. We have vast amounts of public data. This is not a hypothetical situation, we are searching for real information and trying to find patterns that help us to create meaning and draw conclusions. So while the process is inherently messy, and likely causes some discomfort, that is the nature of meaningful learning.