Teacher resources » Collaborative research experience
Overview
In a collaborative research project, students join teams to investigate and report on a phenomena, interesting idea, person, or other exciting topic. This project is broad enough to fit any age or grade level and can fit into all subject matter areas.
Transform a traditional research project into a documentation of process, a showcase, or use it to illustrate all parts of the research process. In this activity, students not only learn informational writing and presentation skills, but gain valuable technical skills while working in a collaborative, goal setting environment.
Keywords: STEM, Social Sciences, Showcase
Good for: Teams, critical thinking
Grade level: K-12
Skill level: Intermediate
Student Instructions
Copy and paste the information below directly into the description box when creating your student assignment, or, use it as inspiration to make your own!
Design and create a video showing the results of your research project on the topic of your choosing. This video will be a showcase of what you learned during this experience and highlight the results of what you found during your research
Some things to consider:
- What did you learn about your topic that you want to share with your classmates?
- What is the most important thing you want other people to know about your topic?
- Add a reflection. How was this experience for you? Do you now view your topic in a different way?
- How will you make your video interesting in order to capture your audience’s attention and help them learn about your topic? What editing features will you use to make this happen?
Tips to help your instruction in this activity or help to get you started!
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This project is meant to be a video designed as the culminating experience for a collaborative research project, an inquiry or project based learning experience. If you are new to this kind of research, you may want to use the guided research scaffolds that can be found below in the resources section!
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Use this project to challenge students to make a difference in their school or community by researching and exploring solutions to an identified need.
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Create an inquiry based STEM project that puts students in the driver's seat. Have students come up with a question they want to answer, have them research that question and then showcase what they found through video.
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Create a showcase video for a critical or environmental justice centered social sciences project.
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STEM: This activity fits perfectly in a phenomenon based learning environment where you and your students generate questions about the world around you. Use this collaborative research experience to answer those phenomena based questions. Students will practice collecting, analyzing, and presenting data in a fun and engaging way.
Social Science: Use this research experience to kickstart a deep dive into a social, cultural, or political issue impacting the lives of your students, your school, or your community. Engaging in this work through the lens of anthropology, sociology, or political science offers critical ways to develop understanding of a problem and creates impactful learning moments.
Showcase: This project is perfect for a culminating experience or as part of a students video portfolio assessment. Allowing students to showcase their work is a powerful way to drive reflection and create an environment where students feel personally involved in their learning, driving deeper connections and meaning making experiences.