Essential Questions

What are the traits of an essential question?

• The question probes a matter of considerable importance.
• The question requires movement beyond understanding and studying - some kind of action or resolve - pointing toward the settlement of a challenge, the making of a choice or the forming of a decision.
• The question cannot be answered by a quick and simple “yes” or “no” answer.
• The question probably endures, shifts and evolves with time and changing conditions - offering a moving target in some respects.
• The question may be unanswerable in the ultimate sense.
• The question may frustrate the researcher, may prove arid rather than fertile and may evade the quest for clarity and understanding.

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To trace the decline and fall of the Roman Empire is a grand task, an enormous task, but it hardly makes for an essential question because it lacks focus and fails to move past description to analysis, synthesis or evaluation. If we were to ask instead how our modern state, be it Australia, the United States or Canada, might avoid a decline like the one experienced by the Roman Empire, we would convert mere collecting and description into a much more important and intriguing task.

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Intermediate Grades

The types of questions mentioned above work well for this age group, but the complexity and depth may change to match the growing reasoning capacity of the students.

Traits remain a potent focus:

• What are the traits of a good ship captain?
• What are the traits of a good leader?
• What makes for a fair punishment?
• What makes one team better than another?
• What makes one writer more powerful than another?
• What makes one story more believable than another?
• What makes one country more just than another?

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Middle School

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Older students continue to work on understanding the characteristics or traits that set particular examples apart as distinguished and special.

• How do we know if a law is just?
• How do we know if a poet, a playwright or a novelist is promising?
• How is a hero different from a celebrity?
• What kinds of harm can be done by fame and fortune?

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Older students can also handle complex choices which require the skill of evaluation on Bloom’s Taxonomy.

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Understanding why life turns out the way it does is another major focus for essential questions at this age.

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As with the younger students, invention and problem-solving can also inspire questioning and thinking at this middle level.

• What should be done to improve the effectiveness of the United Nations?
• How can our nation best handle the influx of immigrants?
• How can our nation best provide for security without undermining important civil liberties?
• How should the copyright laws be adjusted to take into account the impact of new technologies?
• What should be done about homelessness and poverty?
• What is the best way to balance the need for resource development with protection of the environment?
• How can the writing in this essay be improved?

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What is the price of progress?

How can we enjoy the fruits of chemistry without spoiling our world?

What are the best examples of responsible disposal practices?

What should the government be doing to regulate the impact of chemicals on the farms, rivers and forests of our nation?

What changes need to be made to the Super Fund clean-up program?

What are the most dramatic contributions made to the quality of life by chemical products?

What are the products with the most damaging impact?

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