Welcome to the Good life Podcast
by Nebraska Es Coordinating council. On I'm your
host Andrew Easton. And thanks for joining us
as we discussed the latest in digital learning
across Nebraska and around the country.
Alright. Like to book my back for another
episode of the good life, Edu podcast,
And we're gonna have a conversation today about
social studies here in our state, and also
nationally, as we're grateful to welcome in John
Lee, who is the founder, of C 3
teachers. He's an associate Dean and professor at
Nc state, and we're gonna give the opportunity
to learn a little bit more about C
3 teachers the C3 3 framework inquiry design
model for social studies instruction and really where
that's met some pretty,
robust efforts in our state to develop units
that are available. 4 grades 4 through 8,
and I'm grateful to Mark Brady, who's a
professional development coordinator at 7 for joining us
for today's
conversation as well, as he'll be able to
kinda bring
updates, and a little look ahead at where
that particular project is at and and going
Nebraska. And so,
John, Mark
Thanks for joining us for the podcast.
Absolutely thanks.
Yeah. And we'll start with John then. Thank
you for taking a all time, to lead...
As a part of this conversation, the backstory
story behind the C3 3 teacher's framework and
site. And so I'll just kinda turn things
over to you for the backstory story a
little bit, John on how
this effort came about.
Sure thing. Thank you. And and thank you
as well for inviting me to be on
the program with Mark.
C 3 teachers is an effort that got
underway in 2014
to bring teachers who are interested in using
inquiry in their classroom together
in a network.
A collaborative network to share Ideas to develop
curriculum materials and learn from each other.
C 3 teachers was explicitly an effort to
provide a an
articulation of the C3 3 framework,
which is a standards
guidance document that was published in 20 13,
on 09/17/2013
constitution day.
A little bit of a backstory on the
C3 3 framework. The c 3 framework was
commissioned by a group of state social city
specialists in late 20 10,
among those specialists were folks in the state
of Nebraska, specifically Harris Pain, who was the
social studies lead in the nebraska and the
time. There were 23 states that were participating
in a national
organization, called Ccs ssl, the Chief Council for
school state officers.
And, that's the professional organization for state school
superintendent,
Ccs sso had published
in 20 10, a document that we're all
familiar with, a common core.
And, you know, the common core as folks
in social studies may know and may recall
if you can flash back to 20 10
included within it some mention in reference to
social studies.
Pages. I think it was, like, 64 and
65 in the document,
mentioned social studies and put forward some standards
for social studies literacy
in the process of development the common core,
the social community was not engaged. And so
we were caught by
surprised. I think that's an understatement to say
we were surprised at the publication, the c
3 framework everybody was.
But more than surprised, we were a little
dish disheartening that
professionals in the field hadn't been engaged.
It wasn't as nsf what was included in
the common core was bad. You know, were
problematic, but it just didn't work flight where
we were and didn't bring us into the
conversation, those of us in social studies. And
so
we got together in our field and said,
you know what? We need to put forward
an
articulation and a representation of what we want
in our field.
And that was the origin of this thing
called the C3 3 framework,
at it at the beginning, it was commissioned
again by folks that were a part of
Ccs sso, and Nebraska was a... Was at
the table.
We thought we were gonna do a national
standards project by the common core, but that
is not what it ended up to be.
And part of the reason for that is
because it's good social studies people, We were
paying attention what was going on with the
common core. We were the politics of the
common core, the implementations of rollout of it
as folks who were called there was a
big
implementation effort and,
rather watching considerable
incentive to adopt the common core race to
the top and hundreds of millions of dollars
that were provided the states,
we're an opportunity at least to compete for
those funds.
If they adopted the common core 40, I
think 6 states did adopt the common core.
And, many of those states including my home
state, Nebraska received hundreds of millions of dollars
and funding from race to the top as
a result. But then it all came apart,
many people viewed it as an over reach
on the part of the Federal government, the
United States Department of Education, other organizations, and
and state after state including my home state
in North Carolina,
folks quit the common core. So we were
watching all that play out and we're, like,
why we're not gonna make that stake. We're
not going gonna have a national standards project
in social studies, but what we can do
is provide guidance. And so what we ended
up doing a publishing this document called the
C 3 framework, which is a guidance document
for states
to develop or red develop or upgrade state
standards,
published it on 09/17/2013
constitution date, so we wanted to put put
it forward as kind of our constitution for
social state Education.
We had no idea what the reception was
gonna be. It ended up where Ccs sso
did not publish it. It got a little
too hot. In the kitchen for Ccs sso
and so they decided, they needed to really
focus on some core things and couldn't really
go into the social studies area. Our professional
organization, the National Council for the social said
picked up the work and publish the C3
3 framework.
And so when we put it out, you
know, we put it out a great fans
here, at our annual conference, in... I think
was in S saint. Louis in 20 13,
but we didn't know what to expect. Now.
Flash forward, here we are 10 almost 11
years later in it's been remarkably successful. We
have 38 states around the country that have
picked up C3 and used it as an
influence document. To redo their standards or upgrade
their standards.
And it's a really interesting collection of states
that have done this work, but So we've
been really pleased. Now,
after the publication, you know, we were watching
what was happening, we very quickly.
Came to believe and this is before the
publication of the C framework, but we very
quickly came to believe that if we were
gonna have any influence,
ruben gonna need something in in addition to
this guidance document. It was gonna be 1
thing to put out the C3 3 framework
and
offer...
People, some examples of or states, some examples
of what standards
in social states might look like. But we
needed to do more. We needed to have
a curriculum
articulation
what the c 3 framework, was calling for.
And so at the publication the c 3
frame, when we did that, and I'm using
the plural we a lot because this is
a highly collaborative effort. There were hundreds of
people that were involved and the...
Publication, the C3 3 framework, and, you know,
it's to honor my professional wife to have
been 1 of the folks that was able
to work on that with my close friends
and colleagues, Kathy Swan and S g Grant,
we served as to
lead riders for the C 3 framework and,
The 3 of us decided to create a
network of teachers when we published the C3
3 framework
to bring together folks that were interested in
the message the c3 3 framework was communicating,
and we called that network c 3 teachers.
The message of the c 3 framework is
that inquiry is the valuable, and we think
most appropriate
approach to teaching and learning in social studies,
in the C3 3 framework we have something
called the Inquiry. The inquiry arc is a
concept and it's an organizational structure for the
document.
As an organizational structure, what it does is
it lays out 4 dimensions or 4 parts
with which the c 3 frame what was
organized.
The 4 dimensions have to do with questioning,
which is the first 1, the disciplines of
social studies, the concepts and tools within the
disciplines,
using evidence,
to make claims as the third 1 in
communicated the conclusions of an argument resulting from
a western asking
and taking informed action
Conceptually what the inquiry is is this an
approach. It's an approach to living, honestly, to
living in a democratic society. If you think
about life life has an arc to it.
You know, you began you're born, you go
through your life and all the complications and
the beauty of life,
and then it comes to a conclusion.
And we wanted to evo that and use
that as a way of thinking about inquiry
inquiry begins with a question. And then you
go through all the twist and turns of
the life of an inquiry and you come
to some conclusions and communicate those and then
move forward with the next next thing that
you're gonna do.
And so what we wanted to do is
to bring that inquiry arc to life,
So
Kathy Sd and I brought together an amazingly
talented group of people and we built something
called the inquiry design model or Id.
And we used the C3 3 network, c3
3 teacher's network
as a vehicle to get the inquiry design
model out teachers and to invite them to
design
inquiry curriculum materials using this model.
Id is a 10 step model for building
curriculum
materials, inquiry based curriculum materials.
The work really get a big boost in
the state of New York in 20 14,
we received a grant from the state of
New York to build a curriculum an inquiry
based curriculum to support their new standards, which
incorporated
the C3 3 framework in the inquiry arc
Ironically,
the money for that grant came from race
to the top, which was the funding mechanism
that encourage folks to adopt C3 3 framework.
So we did benefit from the common core
in that funding mechanism.
Through that project,
so 3 and a half million dollar project
we built out the inquiry design model, we've
built our first 84
inquiries,
implemented them in New York where they're still
being used to this day, and
as I guess we sometimes say in social
states the rest is history. We've been going
since then building inquiries, hundreds and hundreds of
them including this,
amazing collection of inquiries in in Nebraska,
that teachers, badge educators in in the state
of developed recently.
Think that gives us a pretty natural pivot
then to
bring in mark, and it get a little
better sense of that project, out, and some
of those units and where that work has
really influenced
yeah. What we've done in the state in
Nebraska. Yeah. It's been really exciting. In 20
19, November of 20 19, our state board.
Approved new study standards in Nebraska and a
major feature of those standards. Was inquiry. It
was a major shift within our standards, and
it was really a a major shift from
our previous version of the standards from 20
12. And, even though we had a little
bit of interesting role a lot of those
standards with with Covid a few months later,
we really were thinking about how can we
support our teachers in engaging students in inquiry
in the Sol classroom, especially when you know,
in some cases, the materials that they had
didn't lend...
Themselves well to that. And so that really
started the conversation and connected us with c
03:20
21, there was a group of,
Asu leaders who were trained by c3 3
in the inquiry design model,
and that really started a conversation around how
can we use this model to
really help teachers have access to,
materials that would allow them to to do
with their students. And so
this... That let us do the first year
of the project in the summer of 20
22. We had 30 teachers from across the
states sign up to create,
inquiry units of study,
using the inquiry design model. We asked them
to create 1, 3 to 5 day inquiry
unit of study that was connected to 1
of the the Nebraska sol say standards. Again,
the focus of that project was for grades
4 through 8. And we... I mean, we
were... This is brand new to us. We
trained the teachers. It was brand new to
them. And so John mentioned the inc inquiry
arc. We train them in the inc inquiry
arc. We train them in the Id. Was
And then we supported them as they wrote
curriculum. And as we know, that is a
really hard thing to do. It's a lot
of heavy brain work.
And, you know, it took a good chunk
of time that summer. But, ultimately, we walked
away. We're really pleased with the results and
we work. Super pleased that we had 30
inquiry units of study then created by Nebraska
educators that could be freely used
by Nebraska educators across the state,
that coming year. And so then we were
thrilled when we were
notified that our statewide wide Ds asu coordinating
council
was gonna support 2 more years of that
project. And so we had cohort 2 last
summer, 20 23,
and, had great group of participants there And
I feel like, once again, just produce great
results, great units that were made available for
teachers across the state. And now as we
look at, our standards for fourth through eighth
grade. We have pretty good coverage
for units connected to those standards, and, we're
entering the summer of 20 24. This is
the final year of the project.
And right now, we're just in the process
of recruiting teachers to apply to be a
part of this and,
I think 1 of the most encouraging things
to me is so far, you know, we've
got a great group of applicants who are
veterans from this project. So I think to
me that is the biggest affirmation that this
is helpful,
for teachers not only to learn about the
process of inquiry, but also
to create resources that they can actually use
what there's students. So that's been a a
great affirmation. I'd love to see the teachers
find as beneficial and,
love to equip teachers with the tools they
need to work with students.
Well, and I'll expand up upon that a
little bit and just to add that the
grades 4 through 8 resources came as a
result. Right, of the Nebraska,
state department of Education,
employing John Hopkins to do a survey that
produced the identification of those grades as needing
these materials. And maybe an overs overseas simplification
of it would be to say in Nebraska
in fourth grade, you learned about history of
Nebraska. And they're not an overwhelming amount of
materials nationally that's exclusive to Nebraska history
in terms of textbooks and and programs. So
I think that that sort of speaks a
little bit to why, you know, was a
high need area for us here in our
state given what the emphasis is. So with
that, I guess, I'd love to get under
the hood and talk more about what... Like,
what does this look like for? You mentioned
there, Mark,
the classroom teacher that it is a little
bit of a... I think anytime you try
something new. As a classroom teacher, there is
an onboarding to that that needs support. That
needs feedback.
And so what what is typical, I guess?
And John as well. I mean, your experience
also for onboarding teachers
speak to those differences.
Yeah. I can share a bit about that.
I think first of all, it's... You know,
it's a shift. You know, it's thinking about
the teacher's role differently when you're using the
Id,
I think we're design model.
Obviously, students need to have some background knowledge.
They need to have some sense of the
characters and, The events of whatever
topic they're studying. But the role of the
teacher is different. They're not just the deliver
and information, but they're really
facilitating learning. They're facilitating the students wrestling with
the questions that are in the inquiry unit.
And so that really is a shift
And I think that's kind of the first
thing to think through as a classroom teacher
Is, like, man, my my role really is
different.
And then we just spend a lot of
time with you... Features helping to think through,
you know, the compelling question of the ink
inquiry design model
in their unit. Right? We need to have
a quality compelling question that's gonna drive
the inquiry unit, and there's so many different
characteristics of a compelling question that that makes
it a good compelling question.
And so, helping them craft that, was a
process, and I think it's a fun process,
but I don't know. You there's so many
teachers that would say, I had a compelling
question, and then I modified it. And then
I modified it again, and it just like,
there's so many iterations of that compelling question
before they they're before they finally found their
version they were gonna move with. And then
finding good... Like quality sources for students to
interact with and just, like, talking with teaches
about what makes a quality source. And what
are some sites that we can go to
to find some of those sources,
So that was something that we talked about
with teachers a lot. And then how can
we help all students access those sources. What
might be some scaffold that we can build
in Because... You know, and some of the
sources that we're introducing with students? There's language
in those sources that we don't use in
in anymore. So how can we help students?
Understand the content of the source, understand what's
being set in the source, and then be
able to
use that in the unit and their understanding
of the topic. So there's so many different
pieces within the Id that is just a
process as we learn, and we explore,
there's time. There's training. There's... Again, there's heavy
brain work on the teacher's part, and it's
a process to learn for sure, but it's
been a beneficial 1.
Yeah. I would echo everything that you just
said, Mark...
When I think about the work of teachers
on Corey, I think about 2 things. And
you mentioned both 1 is the teacher as
a designer. Mh. Which is empowering in many
ways. You know, it wants to point of
time, not too long ago.
Oftentimes teachers were expected to implement what other
people designed. And, you know, whether it was
a textbook company or
maybe a curriculum, you company or, you know,
some group of people that's external to the
context within which teachers are teach teaching, they're
handing materials to the teacher and saying, okay.
Now go teach this with Id and with
the approach that we're using and teachers are
empowered to be designers to build the... Curriculum
materials that they're gonna implement their classroom. And
and I think all of our experiences,
we would agree that that is very important
part of being an educator.
Other part of it is what happens when
you implement that inquiry. And there really is
a chef. You know, the teacher moves from
being the focus of the classroom, which is
kind of a traditional approach to education.
To the students being the focus, which is
how it should be. I mean, that's why
we're there where there for students who are
there to build up their knowledge and practice
and build up the skills.
They need to be know, good citizens.
And that's what social studies does. And so
what we found is that teachers that are
implementing inquiries are working harder, you than any
old teacher you're gonna find in a classroom.
You know, it's a lot more work in
standing in the front of the class and
delivering
content to students.
To be
reposition move an rail in the class and
facilitating students as they go through this process.
And
it infuse a lot of energy in the
classroom.
And in the empower students, and we've really
seen
the teachers in social studies g to this.
So we think we'll do something.
John, you remind me,
when you're giving your example of the traditional
approach there of the teacher at the front
delivering to the class of my own... I
think, well within this grade band. Seventh grade
experiences.
I had a workbook that I found recently
where I'd, you know, put all these facts
in, and I can still see my teacher
standing on a desk throwing
watts of paper to illustrate bunker hill. And
then, like, being able to attack from above
or something to that effect. And
with that, I do see the benefit of
inquiry or
the opportunity to focus in on the
skills that they will need to be members
of society moving forward. And I'd love to
press into that a little bit more. Right?
The benefit. What's that, like, take for the
learner. And as you mentioned to,
as a teacher,
you're busier, how could that be though? What
does it mean to facilitate
that? And and I think hopefully, I'm not
asking 2 questions,
that that are different. I I would imagine.
There's almost kind of a venn diagram overlap
between those 2. Right? Busy in the support
of what we're trying to foster in the
students that we serve.
Yeah. Maybe I'll take part of it Mark,
you're probably closer to teachers in the classroom
than I am at this point. And I
get the privilege to being able to teach
teachers.
But, you know, the classrooms that I in
are at the university level mostly. But with
regard to the first part, your question, Andrew,
you know, the why of social studies
I think in in my view, and I...
You know, this view, I think is shared
very broadly in social sales, our field is
about preparing young people.
To be good people,
to be citizens in this democracy,
in this complicated
beautiful
society that we live in,
it doesn't necessarily come natural or easy.
And so it's important to
have opportunities to practice with the skills that
you need to be a good citizen to
practice with
the ways of thinking and acting
that are needed to be a good person.
To be a humane person.
And that's what we do in social studies.
It's not about filling up yellow people's minds
with information.
It's about using the information and using knowledge
strategically to accomplish the goals that we have
the share goals that we have in our
society.
And so
we view inquiry as the ideal vehicle by
which to do that because it turns out
that most of life is about addressing questions.
Trying to figure out how to get stuff
done.
And that's what inquiry is about about addressing
a question and trying to figure out oftentimes
in an intellectual context, trying to figure out
how to get something done in responding the
question that's in front of you. And so
I think most social studies
teachers
view their work as being quite consequential
in that we, I guess if you were
to think about it as
there's, I guess, a lot of medical which
she could use. But if you were to
think about it as something that's
about trying to support our society. 1 on
the front lines of...
Supporting, you know, and building and strengthening our
democracy as we're preparing young people
to participate in our democracy. You know, we'll
say
that it's not just about preparation. It's about
engaging.
You know, It's not like you go to
school in order to be prepared to do
something else. You go to school because that
is something.
Going to school is life.
And it's a slippery slope when we keep
talking about preparation, you know, like,
you you go to school to prepare.
To go to work. And then you go
to work to prepare to retire, and then
you retire and you're like, oh, dang. What
just happened to my life. I spent all
this time getting ready for the next thing
Forgot to lift.
And so we really have to, you know,
take care to
provide the students in our classrooms an opportunity
to live to see themselves as
individuals who have an opportunity to contribute. But
to recognize that they're novice.
And so we build up all this support
around them. Is they practice with these skills
of engaging with others
in a humane way in a thoughtful way
in dealing with the complexity of living in
this democratic society we have in our country.
And is that aim that makes it to
teacher part tough. Right? Because it's lot better
to stay up the front and have you
listened to me,
but to actually be actively invested in the
myriad of conversations that are taken place as
students go through right, Mark? I don't, you
know better than I do, But I certainly
can see that.
Yeah. I think some of the benefits that
I've seen and I've heard teachers talk about
too is just, like, this process really helps
students learn to be informed receivers information. Like,
as they're looking through those sources? They're really
thinking about, you know, who created it for
what purpose? Like, what's it trying to communicate.
And I think that's that's a really good
skill for them to develop, and then John
touched on this as well, but just to
see students interact with each other in this
process. This is not something that, students are
gonna work through
know, individually
entirely in a classroom, like, they're working together
with their classmates, wrestling through some of these
questions, trying to, you to derive meaning from
these things. And I just think there's great
value in that. And then, ultimately, having to
communicate what they're learning. Like, that's a great
skill for them to develop as well
serves them well now serves them well in
the future. And so I think those... In
addition to things John mentioned, those are, great
benefits of this and
And I think too, you know, I I
think of some some of the compelling questions
that we've seen teachers develop are so excellent.
You know, when you first read the compelling
question, you might think, oh, it's a pretty
like simple straightforward question. But then when you
dive into the unit, you're like, no. It's
not. Like, there's so many different facets of
this, and there's so many different points of
view. There's so many different sources that we're
wrestling through. And so really to come back
and answer that compelling question, which our students
are asked to do in these units. Like,
that is is a a challenging task. And
so to your question, Andrew about, like, what
makes this so challenging for teachers. It's because
the things as students are doing in here
are really comp flex things. They're understanding cause
and effect and how the... With the impact
of these things, Like, it's not just remembering
names and dates. It's actually applying what they're
learning in a deep way and that's a
challenging thing for teachers to help students do.
And this is a framework that that we
believe is is gonna be useful for teachers
in accomplishing that.
Wow, yeah. The depth to which students have
to
employ skills,
or critical thinking.
Yeah. Everything that you mentioned there with regards
to their interaction with... Those primary sources.
It's I really like what you said there
too about then having to transfer that into
place, Are you expected to articulate your disposition
or learning as a result of those those
but then to also be an active listener.
I I really were just layering in so
many aspects of that that certainly puts the
learner at the center of that experience.
And it has to make for an engaging,
opportunity in class, and...
Okay. I was in English teacher. I was
not a social studies teacher. But I would
imagine that these are times,
that would be a little... I would be
very sensitive to what I would say in
class studies if I were to lead a
social studies course.
And I I think our educators broadly do
a very nice job of that. Right? But
I understand too that
all people, and there's an opportunity for maybe
some, personal perspectives or biases to get in
there.
And I would think that, a model like
this really for would alleviate that sort of
concern from the teachers. And because you're really
just presenting primary documents and the space for
students engage in them. Right? I mean, is
that like a benefit of this structure? Or...
Well, yeah. I think so I'll take that
1 on. And then Mark, maybe you can
weigh in,
So here's a there's a an irony
in your question.
It does seem like we're at a moment
in time right now that's... Quite divisive or
maybe put differently. It seems as if people
have stark views
and those views are being amplified by
you know, the media sort of landscape into
the ways in which we communicate right, Now.
So
maybe it's not the case really that we're,
you know, we have greater
divisions or greater more stark
differences of opinion or politics, but maybe we
just know more about it right now. Regardless,
Traditional approaches to teaching position a teacher where
they are a convey of information. And it
is quite easy in that context are not
just convey information. And neutral, but the convey
information with perspective. And with, you know, whatever
you wanna refer to it as bias a
political, agenda, whatever it is. Should And, you
know, that's for a long time been an
issue in social studies. You know, the teacher
is standing in front of the classroom, and
they're...
Making decisions about what to communicate and how
to communicate that, and it's got this perspective
wrapped into it,
Then students aren't really given an opportunity to
see a broad view, you know, and To
understand that there may be other ideas, they
stand in
contrast to what the teacher is telling them.
In an inquiry classroom, what the student has
asked to do
is to think for themselves,
first,
understand their novice so they have to have
a lot of support, but to think for
themselves, and
to engage in an environment they're thinking in
such a way that a variety of prospect
are represented and respect.
What other words reflective of what the teacher
thinks about this particular thing or not? Or
it may or may not be. But it
opens to space up and provides more
opportunity for discourse for dialogue
and importantly for differences
to be
represented in the classroom and to be considered
in the classroom. Now for For me, that's
at the heart and soul of
what our society is all about it. This
society is all about. It's about having the
freedom.
To be able to think for oneself.
And to find your way
to
the position that you're gonna take
with evidence and support of what you're gonna
say, which is what remodeled us.
So I I guess then the irony is
yes. Maybe we could say things are more
divisive. Yes, we could probably say there is
a little bit of pressure on social city
teachers right now because people are paying attention
and cameras are out and
they're recording and saying what's happening, but at
the same time, it seems as if if
you use an inquiry, all views are on
the table.
But that seems to be
potentially less objection
the and just 1 you'd being on the
table.
Yeah. I think that's... I mean what you
said is, I think... Is right on, And
I I appreciate in this model that it's
it's... By no means the case that one's
viewpoint has to be everyone's viewpoint, you know,
there's multiple perspectives presented in these units. And
students get to to wrestle through all the
evidence. And then, ultimately, they get to have
dialogue
with their reasoning. They get an opportunity to
voice that, And again, there's room to disagree.
And I think, you know, that's a a
great skill for for students to be able
to take a stance.
Support their stance with some reasoning, and it's
okay if their stance is different than than
the classmates or then the teachers, and that
part of the benefit of this. Yeah.
Makes see you think of a quote the
mark of educated mind to be able to
entertain and Deal that having to accept it
kind of an approach to things, which I
really appreciate and see across both of those
responses. And, you know, I idea I say
it every week as we're recording, 30 minutes
goes really fast.
Said, we... That said, to kind of bring
us to a close here, I guess, we
have a number of things you'd like to...
Highlight. And
some of that would really just start with
resources. And so, John, do wanna speak maybe
first to c 3 teachers, the web address
and and what resources highlight Educators might find
there that would be helpful towards onboarding to
some of this.
Sure thing. C 3 teachers is online at
c3 3 teachers dot org. The website has
been up and running for a number of
years now. We have about 300 or so
inquiries that are available for
educators If you visit the site, They're organized.
In 2 big groups. If you're on the
website, you'll see across the top, then an
navigational structure, there's a link to something that
says inquiries. And if you click on the
inquiry link you'll get access to about a
couple of hundred inquiries that are
available in a database to search reachable or
browse,
and we've organized these,
using a couple of different approaches is we
have something called hubs,
Nebraska has a hub. And so we have
an inquiry there. You can check out well
several inquiries you can check out, and we've
also organized those by topics.
Additionally, you can... On C 3 teacher's access
these things we call hubs, c 3 hubs,
and you can hit the link at the
top of the page to see those.
There are 2 types of hubs. We have
state hubs and organizational hubs,
about 13 or so state hubs, including Nebraska.
And if you go to the Nebraska
state hub, which you can either navigate to
or go directly to the Url, which is
c 3 teachers dot org slash,
Nebraska
dash, like a little hyphen dash, c 3
dash hub,
then you'll get a link, to what Mark's
gonna tell you about, which is this amazing
collection of inquiries that have been developed over
the last year. Or so
as well as some inquiries that were developed
previously.
1 of them is
on a question that asked, what did freedom
mean for Anna?
And Anna was a enslaved woman in
Washington Dc Area and a project was done
at University of Nebraska, Lincoln
by professor through their name, Will Thomas He's
a history professor,
and he researched.
Her life and produced this really beautiful documentary
of first story that you can click on
and
take a look at. And then another professor
that Lincoln did an inquiry with his students,
his name is Aaron Johnson. And so you'll
get access to that inquiry as well.
And then a couple other inquiries that were
developed,
God, There's probably been about 6 or 7
years ago. 1 of them on
baseball in Nebraska.
By a a former student it at University
Nebraska named Jesse Rod, and another one's about
the civil war in Native Americans.
So those were all available and see 3
teachers.
And then Mark, I guess you can say
something about that collection of dimensions.
Yeah. I would just strongly encourage
teachers to to check out the the inquiry
units that are on the c3 3 site,
you know, specifically, a take a look at...
The the units that came from this project.
I I think they're really well done. I
feel like our our participating teachers did a
fantastic job. The last the 2 summers, and
I'm so excited for this final summer, but,
you know, teachers can go there. And I
I've I've even heard from some teachers maybe
at the elementary level where maybe they're new
social studies, and they wanna introduce inquiry in
their classrooms. And I just feel like it's
it's great for them because they can go
there. It's social basically walks them through the
process, all of the links, all the resources
they need are right there. And so I
feel like it really is a great resource
to help teachers. Especially if inquiry is new
to them just to really make that shift
in their classroom. So really encourage,
teachers to check that out again so grateful
for the... The teachers who have participate participated
in this project. And really for all the
Es, we've had great Es support across the
state. So so thankful for all those who
are in kind of the social studies Realm
Nebraska and it helped lead this work and
grateful for our Es asu leadership, and their
commitment to funding the project, grateful for you,
Andrew, you've been such a great
advocate for our project, and have helped so
many people learn about it. I'm grateful for
all of your efforts as well.
Oh, I would echo that. Just tremendous effort
in Nebraska with this. And, you know, as
you're talking there sharing with teachers the reasons
to access this. Yes.
Each of them serves as an exe are.
U. And if you would like to, like,
utilize that for the questions, like, and how
to, you know, phrase the... Or the structure,
That's available. Finding those primary sources,
has been a challenge. And so maybe you're
gonna go there just to be able to
find some primary sources for your own purposes.
Right? And then and then in the process
of that, maybe learn a little bit more
about inquiry. But whatever it drives you to
go there first, just would definitely encourage folks
to check it out, whether you could do
that through some of the, local avenues for
accessing those resources, but definitely through c 3
teachers dot org site. And if you'd like
to be part of the upcoming effort, this
next summer, we still have a space. We're
actually just making that link for registration available
to our Nebraska educators and so Mark where
can people access that? Yeah. So there's been
emails that have gone out. It will be
going out from all the Es
with the the link to sign up and
apply
to be a part of this final cohort.
We are are having a deadline for that
application on March 6, and then we'll make
the decision for who's into the project shortly
after that, mid March is when we hope
to, to have that out to our participants.
If you haven't seen that email come your
way. I just encourage you to reach out
to your Es asu
and just ask for that information because they
have it for you but it should be
coming your way from your social studies content
specialists at your local Es asu. And I
also wanna say to the the project has
been focused done grades 4 through 8. But
if you're AK3 teacher or if you're a
high school teacher, you're still welcome to apply
for the project. We've had done participants in
the past to teach outside that 4 through
8 grade band They participate. They ride a
unit for the 4 through 8 grade band,
even though they might not get to use
their unit in their classroom. They still get
to learn about, c 3. They still get
to learn about the in gray arc. So
in the Id, and then they can take
that back, and they can use that knowledge
to create resources for their own classroom as
well. And, you can make your way to
see 3 teachers because there's is inquiry units
of study for k 12, and so that's
another great resource for you to access as
well.
Thanks for pointing that out, Mark too that
I know Deb Paul Issue champion this effort
before her retirement really stressed that this is
a professional learning opportunity for
educators out there and that that's, a big
piece of this this effort. So, John, do
you have a closing message for us not
to put you on the spot, but maybe
something to bring us home?
Yeah. Absolutely.
I... First of all, I wanna say thank
you for having me on and
mark,
congratulations, and thanks for all the... Terrific work
that's being down in the state of Nebraska
around inquiry.
For me, inquiry is a vehicle by which
we can,
1 student at a time,
show the people that we are responsible to
that we care about our students.
We care about each other. We care about
this place that we live. This society this
country this democracy that we live in.
And we take serious to responsibility we have
to prepare young people to be
contributors,
to,
our democracy.
And we really do believe that inquiry is
the means by which we can accomplish that.
Well,
thank you both so much for your daily
advocacy for that. After for doing that over
the course of our time here together on
podcast.
Just really grateful.
For you,
choosing this avenue as a place to share,
and we will look forward to the 20
to 24 project and continue to grow these
resources in support of educators with their inquiry
instruction. So thanks. Thanks, Andrew. Thank you.