Inquiry Project: Reflection

I had fun doing this inquiry project. Before the project, I had always been curious about experiential learning, because I remember having a lot of fun in my math classes in elementary school with all the hands-on activities. I thought that experiential learning is just doing hands-on activities and seeing the concepts take place in real life. Through this project, I realized how many forms of experiential learning there are, such as project-based learning, problem-based learning, simulations, demonstrations, and traditional labs. When I was in high school, I had fun doing all the projects and labs that my teacher assigned. From this project, I learned about how much work is actually needed behind the projects and labs to keep them aligned with the curriculum and prepare the materials required.

Through talking to my SA and students at my practicum school, I was surprised by how most of them highlighted working with other people as one of the main skills to develop through experiential learning. I was also surprised to hear from one student that working in a group actually makes it harder for them to understand the concepts. I learned from my SA that collaboration with teachers is very important in implementing experiential learning, as it makes the work easier. I realized how some students feel nervous about experiential activities because they worry that they would make mistakes, and also because of safety concerns. Like I expected, students found lab reports the most stressful part of experiential learning, but I was surprised that they said they understood it was an unavoidable part of the process. Students also highlighted how, without enough background information, experiential learning becomes very challenging and stressful for them.

I also realized how much our inquiries overlap with each other in this class. For example, place-based learning related to the outdoor education in Will's presentation, my SA recommended the "Building a Thinking Classroom" book as a first step to implement experiential learning, which directly connects to Jimena and JJ's inquiry.

Overall, I learned a lot through this inquiry project and I am excited to be able to try out some activities involving experiential learning in my long practicum!