Meet the 2026 Inquiry Work Contest winners

Teachers across the country shared inquiry work from their classrooms this fall, from anchor charts and student work to classroom video. Thank you to every teacher who entered. These are the classrooms that stood out.

1st place Inquiry Week Winner

Students doing the thinking

Entries were scored on how clearly the work shows students investigating a question, building evidence and sharing their own thinking.

🥇 grand prize

Telling the story of 6th grade through cave art

The Human Story

Lakota Local School District, OH · Grade 6

After studying early humans and the stories artifacts can tell, 6th graders created their own Paleolithic cave art. Using four symbols and no words, each student answered the question "What story would you tell?" Then they switched roles, analyzed the art as archaeologists and wrote museum placards to explain it. The finished pieces came together on a simulated cave wall that tells the story of 6th grade.

🥇 Best Video

Sorting artifacts to uncover their stories

Native America

Flemington-Raritan Regional School District, NJ · Grade 5

5th graders spent this inquiry investigating what artifacts can tell us and who they belong to. In the video, students work together to sort artifacts from Native American cultures into categories they came up with on their own, including materials, how items were used, time frame, tribe and how items were made. They then took a position on whether artifacts should be kept in museums or returned to their cultures of origin and wrote out their claims and reasoning, shown in the photo.

K-2 winner

Interviewing the grown-ups who help our school

Navigating School

East Haven Public Schools, CT · Kindergarten

Kindergartners brainstormed the grown-ups who help at school and voted to interview their custodian. With teacher support, they wrote questions to learn about his role and his life outside of work, then illustrated and labeled what they learned.

Middle school winner

Comic strips on the Agricultural Revolution

The Human Story

Elmhurst CUSD 205, IL · Grade 6

6th graders created two-part comic strips about the Agricultural Revolution. First, they illustrated the changes it brought, like farming in place of hunting and gathering and people taking on different jobs. Then they showed the impact on daily life and weighed the tradeoffs, such as a steadier food supply against crop failures and disease from domesticated animals.

Honorable mentions

More standout classrooms

These classrooms will also be featured in this year's showcase.

3rd place Inquiry Week Winner

Star student bookmarks

My Team and Self

Tacoma Public Schools, WA · Kindergarten

Students designed bookmarks about being a star student, and the winning designs are printed in color and handed out with library books.

A colonial regions quilt

The Colonial Era

Bannockburn School, IL · Grade 5

Students researched how culture, geography and economics shaped each colonial region, then designed quilt blocks based on historical regional patterns that came together as a bulletin-board-sized quilt.

Native America inquiry wall

Native America

St. John Catholic School, KS · Grade 5

Students turned their research into large posters connected to each region on a hallway map that families explored during conferences.

Mapping a community's needs and wants

Meeting Needs and Wants

Stevenson School, CA · Grade 2

Students built a class community called Sunset California and created a word splash connecting their vocabulary, with many placing scarcity at the center.

Vocabulary anchor chart challenge

Natural Resources of the U.S.

National Heritage Academies · Grade 4

Students reviewed unit vocabulary by racing to place each term on the correct anchor chart.

Student Works

Explore examples from the Inquiry Work Gallery.

Click on a thumbnail below to expand and view more images.

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I am submitting the project we used for the Identity Cube Panel and the Superpowers Cube Panel. I felt that the print out of the actual Identity Cube was too small, so I had my students attach their Face Template Handout, the Family and Culture Heart Handout and the Super Symbol handouts all on one large piece of construction paper. We hung these in the hallway and I plan to hang the Special Qualities Handout under each of them when they are completed.

Unit

My Team and Self

Grade

Kindergarten

Example Type

Handout

I am submitting the project we used for the Identity Cube Panel and the Superpowers Cube Panel. I felt that the print out of the actual Identity Cube was too small, so I had my students attach their Face Template Handout, the Family and Culture Heart Handout and the Super Symbol handouts all on one large piece of construction paper. We hung these in the hallway and I plan to hang the Special Qualities Handout under each of them when they are completed.

Additional Info

Emily Tisue from Dunkerton Schools: IA, Kindergarten

Unit

My Team and Self

Grade

Kindergarten

Example Type

Handout

This is our world map in which we displayed all of our connections throughout the unit.

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Inquiry-Long Display

This is our world map in which we displayed all of our connections throughout the unit.

Additional Info

Heather Chapman from Quality Schools International: IT, 3rd Grade

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Inquiry-Long Display

This is the initial list of Brainstormed questions related to the unit.

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Investigation Questions Anchor Chart

This is the initial list of Brainstormed questions related to the unit.

Additional Info

Heather Chapman from Quality Schools International: IT, 3rd Grade

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Investigation Questions Anchor Chart

Our proud display of our Families Unit Class Quilt

Unit

Families Near and Far

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Inquiry-Long Display

Our proud display of our Families Unit Class Quilt

Additional Info

MONIQUE CZARNECKI from National Heritage Academies - Parent District: NC, MI, NY, CO, 1st Grade

Unit

Families Near and Far

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Inquiry-Long Display

These products were generated for their like grade level to continue their learning in order to expand their knowledge about Ancient Egypt.

Unit

Ancient Egypt

Grade

6th Grade

Example Type

Final Product

These products were generated for their like grade level to continue their learning in order to expand their knowledge about Ancient Egypt.

Additional Info

Jen Renner from Janesville Community School District: IA, 6th Grade

Unit

Ancient Egypt

Grade

6th Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Unit

Natural Resources of the U.S.

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

Other

Additional Info

Kelly Ashline from Community Consolidated School District 93: IL, 4th Grade

Unit

Natural Resources of the U.S.

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

Other

Unit

Ancient China

Grade

6th Grade

Example Type

Other

Additional Info

Suzanne Fraser from Iowa City Community School District: IA, 6th Grade

Unit

Ancient China

Grade

6th Grade

Example Type

Other

The students were insightful and open-minded during our unit. They learned all about global connections and how we can be global citizens. It has been an enlightening unit for the kids to see how connected we are to the people and places around the world. A student of mine is learning to read in Mandarin so he read a version of The Hungry Caterpillar, I read it in English, and our ESL teacher read it in Spanish. After we interviewed his mom who was pulled to America from Taiwan after falling in love many years ago. We learned so much! It was a great example of how globalization and cultural diffusion is alive and thriving. It was an incredible experience to have them see how everything we have been learning is a part of who we are as humans. We did a mural for our final product this time and they came up with the idea of a variety of people holding hands to show unity around the world. This is before it was hung up in the school.

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Final Product

The students were insightful and open-minded during our unit. They learned all about global connections and how we can be global citizens. It has been an enlightening unit for the kids to see how connected we are to the people and places around the world. A student of mine is learning to read in Mandarin so he read a version of The Hungry Caterpillar, I read it in English, and our ESL teacher read it in Spanish. After we interviewed his mom who was pulled to America from Taiwan after falling in love many years ago. We learned so much! It was a great example of how globalization and cultural diffusion is alive and thriving. It was an incredible experience to have them see how everything we have been learning is a part of who we are as humans. We did a mural for our final product this time and they came up with the idea of a variety of people holding hands to show unity around the world. This is before it was hung up in the school.

Additional Info

Rachel Dawson from Lisle Community Unit School District 202: IL, 3rd Grade

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Exit ticket sample from Our Changing Landscape, Module 3, Lesson 2

Unit

Our Changing Landscape

Grade

2nd Grade

Example Type

Handout

Exit ticket sample from Our Changing Landscape, Module 3, Lesson 2

Additional Info

Pamela Henry from Berkley Schools: MI, 2nd Grade

Unit

Our Changing Landscape

Grade

2nd Grade

Example Type

Handout

Our steps for this project were inspired by discussing the multi cultural elements of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Games are something we can share and play together regardless of culture or language. Games can also be cultural diffusion. They decided to make posters, but with a comic strip embedded with the directions. We practiced presenting to each other and then took turns on the announcements. That will be an ongoing part of our project that will occur every Monday morning.

Unit

Migration and Movement

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Our steps for this project were inspired by discussing the multi cultural elements of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Games are something we can share and play together regardless of culture or language. Games can also be cultural diffusion. They decided to make posters, but with a comic strip embedded with the directions. We practiced presenting to each other and then took turns on the announcements. That will be an ongoing part of our project that will occur every Monday morning.

Additional Info

Marissa Carter from Talbot County Public Schools: MD, 3rd Grade

Unit

Migration and Movement

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Final Product

When I am asking them to brainstorm we love to use dry erase on our desks. They love this and it makes it easy to erase questions or circle open ended questions during QFT. We will sometimes do gallery walks during this process and have them circle questions they like on others' desks or a shared thought. In the other desk writing scenario we were tracking belongings to understand imports.

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Other

When I am asking them to brainstorm we love to use dry erase on our desks. They love this and it makes it easy to erase questions or circle open ended questions during QFT. We will sometimes do gallery walks during this process and have them circle questions they like on others' desks or a shared thought. In the other desk writing scenario we were tracking belongings to understand imports.

Additional Info

Marissa Carter from Talbot County Public Schools: MD, 3rd Grade

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Other

These are samples of the student's letters. Our process was researching and choosing businesses, learning how to write a letter, peer editing and utilizing feedback, creating the rubric together, and writing a final draft.

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Final Product

These are samples of the student's letters. Our process was researching and choosing businesses, learning how to write a letter, peer editing and utilizing feedback, creating the rubric together, and writing a final draft.

Additional Info

Marissa Carter from Talbot County Public Schools: MD, 3rd Grade

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

Final Product

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