Use the following 5-day plan to help students conduct this week's Internet inquiry
activity on how money works. Remind students to follow classroom rules when
using the Internet.
Identify Questions Discuss the lesson focus question: How does money work? Brainstorm ideas for specific inquiry questions about money and how it works. For example, students might want to find out what banks do with money they receive. Have students work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to write an inquiry question they want to answer.
Navigate/Search Review how to begin a simple Internet search using a student-friendly search engine. Have students identify keywords and phrases related to their inquiry questions. Encourage them to limit the number of keywords they use. Students can identify useful Web sites by reading the descriptions carefully.
Analyze Have students explore the Web sites they identified on Day 2. Have them scan the sites for information that will help answer their inquiry questions. Students should analyze information to see if it is relevant to their question. Students can print pages that contain useful information and highlight relevant details.
Synthesize Have students synthesize information from Day 3. Remind them that when they synthesize, they integrate important and relevant ideas from various sources to create an answer to their inquiry questions.
Communicate Have students share their inquiry results. They can use a word processing program to create a short informational article about how money works for a school newspaper.