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.

Entries were scored on how clearly the work shows students investigating a question, building evidence and sharing their own thinking.
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.
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.
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.
3rd graders designed a layer cake to show their audience how people can take part in a democracy. They decided which layer should support the ones above it, from knowing how government works and using your rights to staying informed, volunteering and voting.
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.
These classrooms will also be featured in this year's showcase.

Students designed bookmarks about being a star student, and the winning designs are printed in color and handed out with library books.
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.
Students turned their research into large posters connected to each region on a hallway map that families explored during conferences.
Students built a class community called Sunset California and created a word splash connecting their vocabulary, with many placing scarcity at the center.
Students reviewed unit vocabulary by racing to place each term on the correct anchor chart.
Click on a thumbnail below to expand and view more images.

Students reflected upon the photographs in the Revolutionary Gallery Walk Hook activity for this unit. They were able to understand what revolution and revolutionary meant while they previewed content from the unit to come.
The American Revolution
5th Grade
Handout
Students reflected upon the photographs in the Revolutionary Gallery Walk Hook activity for this unit. They were able to understand what revolution and revolutionary meant while they previewed content from the unit to come.
Additional Info
Elizabeth Nielsen from Skokie District 68: IL, 5th Grade

Students learning about how economic choices can have positive impacts. It is really helpful to have a space where we can add to student learning and showcase student work throughout the unit.
Economic Choices
4th Grade
Investigation Questions Anchor Chart

My students created dioramas to show globalization in different settings. One group created a diorama showing Epcot/Disney World. Another group showed how different places receive products. They were very engaged and excited to show the meaning of globalization and how we are connected as a community and world.
Global Connections
3rd Grade
Final Product
My students created dioramas to show globalization in different settings. One group created a diorama showing Epcot/Disney World. Another group showed how different places receive products. They were very engaged and excited to show the meaning of globalization and how we are connected as a community and world.
Additional Info
Talitha Cutchin from Roaring Fork School District: CO, 3rd Grade

Each student chose something that they would like to change or improve at our school. We chose placards and a peaceful protest march to practice responsible citizenship because we saw it more than one of our classroom read-alouds during the unit. We then created a prototype and used that to create our final project. We then marched around the second floor shouting and showing with our placards what we wanted.
Civic Engagement
1st Grade
Final Product
Each student chose something that they would like to change or improve at our school. We chose placards and a peaceful protest march to practice responsible citizenship because we saw it more than one of our classroom read-alouds during the unit. We then created a prototype and used that to create our final project. We then marched around the second floor shouting and showing with our placards what we wanted.
Additional Info
from , 1st Grade

The students decided to bring families together to form a stronger community by encouraging our school families to donate new school supplies to a local school for children with disabilites that didn't have any art supplies.
Families Near and Far
1st Grade
Anchor Chart
The students decided to bring families together to form a stronger community by encouraging our school families to donate new school supplies to a local school for children with disabilites that didn't have any art supplies.
Additional Info
Ali Golfetto from Quality Schools International: IT, 1st Grade

Native America
5th Grade
Final Product

Navigating School
Kindergarten
Final Product

Meeting Needs and Wants
2nd Grade
Final Product

Natural Resources of the U.S.
4th Grade
Final Product

Our scholars enjoyed incorporating painting, illustrating and collaborative arrangement to create and design this mural now hung in the main office hall of Detroit Premier Academy.
Our Special Location
1st Grade
Final Product
Our scholars enjoyed incorporating painting, illustrating and collaborative arrangement to create and design this mural now hung in the main office hall of Detroit Premier Academy.
Additional Info
MONIQUE CZARNECKI from National Heritage Academies - Parent District: NC, MI, NY, CO, 1st Grade

Native America
5th Grade
Final Product
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