Lesson 2: Posing Good Questions

🎯 Learning Intentions

• Understand the difference between a survey question and an investigative question
• Learn the criteria for a good investigative question
• Practice writing summary and comparison questions

1. Warm Up: Question Sort (10 mins)

Activity: Sort these questions into "Can answer with data" vs "Hard to answer with data":

• "Who is the best rugby player?" (Subjective)
• "How tall are the students in Room 5?" (Measurable)
• "Why is blue the best color?" (Opinion)
• "What is the most common eye color in our whānau?" (Countable)

2. Concept: Anatomy of a Question (15 mins)

A good investigative question needs I-V-G:

• Interest: What property are you interested in? (e.g., height, lunch type)
• Variable: What are you measuring? (e.g., centimeters, food category)
• Group: Who are you measuring? (e.g., Year 8 students in Room 5)

Example: "What are the heights (V) of Year 8 students in Room 5 (G)?"

3. Activity: Fix the Question (20 mins)

Task: Turn these bad questions into good investigative questions:

1. "Do you like sports?" → "primary sport played by Year 8 students"
2. "Are we tall?" → "heights of students in our class compared to..."
3. "Is this lunch healthy?" → "sugar content in lunchbox items of..."

4. Investigation Setup (10 mins)

Start thinking about your own investigation project. What are you curious about?

Draft 3 potential investigative questions for your project.