Essential Questions

Instructions:Post a paragraph containing questions that explain what you want to learn about your topic during your search. Include one overarching essential question and five more specific search questions that you will seek to answer. This should be approximately 150 words.

Here are links to three great examples of essential questions. If you like their topics, feel free to follow their  blogs!


Brianna:  http://bellamyisearch.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-i-want-to-know-about-my-topic.html

Katie: http://dwuletisearch.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-i-want-to-know-about-my-topic.html
Anthony: http://montgomeryisearch.blogspot.com/2011/03/do-you-feel-violated.html

Essential Questions: What are they and how do you write one?

1. What Is an Essential Question?
• Answering an essential question requires critical thinking. Instead of simply looking up answers, you conduct research and create an original answer. An essential question:
• provokes deep thought.
• solicits information-gathering and evaluation of data.
• results in an original answer.
• helps you conduct problem-related research.
• makes you produce original ideas rather than predetermined answers.
• may not have an answer.
• encourages critical thinking not just memorization of facts.
2. “ Essential vs. Traditional Questions “
• Not Essential:
• “ What is it like to live in Hong Kong?”
• Essential
• Which city in Southeast Asia is the best place to live?
• Not Essential:
• “What is diabetes?”
• Essential:
• Which serious disease most deserves research funding?
3. How do you write an essential question?
• Consider the focus of the research topic:
• Substance abuse, drug addiction, legal & illegal drugs (use your inspiration mind map)
• Ideas for a good essential question:
• may stem from your particular interests in a topic (e.g. What makes a drug “good”?, community resources (How is China dealing with substance abuse?)
• Begin with the 6 typical queries that newspaper articles address: Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?
• From these questions formulate your essential question.
• Use: Which one? How? What if? Should? Why?
4. Types of Essential Questions
• Which one?
• How?
• What if?
• Should?
• Why?
5.  “How Questions “
• Examples:
• What are some sustainable solutions to environmental problems in your neighborhood, and how could they be implemented?
6. “What if Questions “
• What if questions are hypothetical, questions which ask you to use the knowledge you have to pose a hypothesis and consider options.
• Examples:
• “What if the Cultural Revolution had never happened?”
• “What if you didn’t have to go to school?”
7. “Should Questions “
• Should questions make a moral or practical decision based on evidence.
• Examples:
• “Should we clone humans?“
• “Should we discontinue trade with countries that abuse human rights?”
8. “Why Questions “
• Why questions ask you to understand cause and effect. “Why”helps us understand relationships; it helps us get to the essence of an issue.
• Examples:
• “Why do people abuse drugs?”
• “Why is the death rate higher in one Third World country than another?”

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/maryaliceosborne/essential-questions-for-students