Butterflies - Guided Inquiry

We conducted a guided inquiry to help us learn how to ask big open questions.  We are good at asking questions but often they are closed and really easy to answer.  At the beginning of this guided inquiry about butterflies we asked lots of questions.  We thought they were good questions, which there were.  What we found out during our guided inquiry was that those initial questions were closed and easily answered.

We worked in pairs at one stage to find out about different butterflies that are endemic (only found here) or native (got here under their own steam and stayed but are also found in other countries) to New Zealand.  During that research time we found out that even though we were all researching different butterflies, we found we all could answer our initial questions.  The next step was to read about some of the problems facing butterfly species here in New Zealand.  Now, that reading helped to to formulate much bigger and open questions.

We started looking at the natural patterns that had existed for years but were now being disturbed.  We found out that habitats, food chains and life cycles could all be impacted by changes in established patterns.  We know that the seasons are changing and that is having an effect on lots of plant and insects in particular.  The weather patterns are changing with more flooding in some places and increased droughts in others.  These changes are affecting habitats especially.  People are also causing lots more pollution, needing more land, food, more resources and all these things are affecting all sorts of animals, plants and insects.