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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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.

Unit

The American Revolution

Grade

5th Grade

Example Type

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

Unit

The American Revolution

Grade

5th Grade

Example Type

Handout

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.

Unit

Economic Choices

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

Investigation Questions Anchor Chart

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.

Additional Info

Amanda Hargadine from Canby School District: OR, 4th Grade

Unit

Economic Choices

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

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.

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

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

Unit

Global Connections

Grade

3rd Grade

Example Type

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.

Unit

Civic Engagement

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

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

Unit

Civic Engagement

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Final Product

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.

Unit

Families Near and Far

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

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

Unit

Families Near and Far

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Anchor Chart

Unit

Native America

Grade

5th Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Additional Info

Alba Figueroa from Kipp Texas, Inc.: TX, 5th Grade

Unit

Native America

Grade

5th Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Unit

Navigating School

Grade

Kindergarten

Example Type

Final Product

Additional Info

Hanan Attiyah from Flemington-Raritan School District: NJ, Kindergarten

Unit

Navigating School

Grade

Kindergarten

Example Type

Final Product

Unit

Meeting Needs and Wants

Grade

2nd Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Additional Info

Jenny Herkins from Lakota Local School District: OH, 2nd Grade

Unit

Meeting Needs and Wants

Grade

2nd Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Unit

Natural Resources of the U.S.

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Additional Info

Mira Winograd from Roaring Fork School District: CO, 4th Grade

Unit

Natural Resources of the U.S.

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

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.

Unit

Our Special Location

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

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

Unit

Our Special Location

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Unit

Native America

Grade

5th Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Additional Info

Alba Figueroa from Kipp Texas, Inc.: TX, 5th Grade

Unit

Native America

Grade

5th Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Unit

Families Near and Far

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Final Product

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

Final Product

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