I'm in favor of the following:
- Introduce students to what's available and possible.
- Give students time to investigate, explore, and try out the many research tools including video, image, text, and conversation.
- Schedule regular research meetings for focus lessons to guide work, engage in discussion, share ideas, and respond to questions.
- Observe student work, coach where needed.
- Once the project gets going, and you have a sense of the collective group's work, create a time line with students related to project "have-to's" and "extras."
Some might debate that allowing students to jump into all aspects of research at the start will delay the standards-base work of reading, thinking, taking notes, and writing the report. After trying these projects myself, I believe it's best to introduce all aspects, and give children the time to try out their own paths and find their own, best ways to complete the project with significant teacher coaching and response.
Although I've engaged in this endangered species research many times before, this is the first time that I'm delving into the project with a greater focus on 21st century project base learning and design--a worthy challenge for both teacher and students. Stay tuned.
