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As a pre-service teacher, it has been brought to my attention numerous times how importantt it is to help students become independent learners. If they are able to own their learning, the passion, the interests, and the level of attention, which is directly connected to comprehension, will grow drastically in the subjects that they are studying. This article focuses on a classroom where asking the questions without the easy answers leads to investigation and allows students to find out the answer themselves rather than reading it in a textbook. The use of a Driving Question Board means that it is very student-centered, and the inquiry-based learning means that the teacher can merely advise and help to fill in some of the blanks to help students investigate further. Storylines are a teaching method that I had not previously come across, but it intrigues me greatly. These studetns pushed for more questions and more time to investigate how the world works. Everyone's voice mattered, and if a student didn't understand, their peers helped them to get back on track or try and answer their question with a hands-on example instead. There was also use of an Activity Summary Table which makes our job as educators so much easier. It shows what they were working on, their personal reflections, what they've accomplished, and return to their higher-order thinking skills when referring back to the DBQs that are beihng asked. What do we still need to figure out? Have all our questions been answered? There are always more questions to ask, and this is a great method to get students excited about STEAM.
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