Inquiry learning at Mernda Primary School provide opportunities for students to explore a wide variety of topics. The topics develop further learning in History, Geography, Economics and Civics & Citizenship to name a few.  Students explore these through Inquiry and Problem-Solving strategies such as

• asking questions and researching the answers
• hands-on exploration
• utilising different sources of information
• experiencing related activities and incursions/excursions

At Mernda Primary School we immerse students in an inquiry topic by integrating  Literacy, Numeracy, STEAM and Digitech.  This provides a context for learning and means that students are more easily able to make connections both within their learning and between topics.  For example, while studying the topic of Geography students may also learn about mapping in Math; they might create a map of geographical features of a country they are researching and use a grid reference to locate the features on the map.  While studying Civics and Citizenship, students might write persuasive speeches to deliver to their peers to convince them to change a rule or law.  Integrating between Curriculum areas gives students the reason for WHY we learn new skills and provides a platform in which they can practice the skills they have learnt.

The natural curiosity of students is encouraged as they learn how to form research questions based on what they already know and to give focus to what they would like to know next.  As students move up through the years at Mernda Primary School the Inquiry topics are carefully scaffolded to allow their knowledge, skills to be built upon.   Our students eagerly showcase their learning through presentations in class and to parents and visitors during open sessions. The ability to apply their learning in a new context makes this learning engaging and fun.