Inquiry Week 2026

Celebrating inquiry in every classroom

Teachers across the country shared photos of students in the thick of inquiry — asking questions, testing ideas, and discovering something new. Here are the classrooms that stood out.

1st place Inquiry Week Winner
1st place Inquiry Week Winner
1st place Inquiry Week Winner
This Year’s Winners

Outstanding inquiry across every grade

These classrooms were picked for their creativity, depth of questioning, and student engagement.

1st place Inquiry Week Winner
🥇 First Place

The Colonial Era

Jefferson County Public Schools, KY · Grade 5

This end of unit project for the Colonial America unit asks students to explore an important event or aspect of colonial life. Students chose a topic and created an illustration in the medium of their choice. They also wrote a caption that explains the event from the perspectives of the different groups they studied, helping them consider how people experienced the same moment in different ways.

2nd place Inquiry Week Winner
🥈 Second Place

Migration & Movement

Maywood School District 89, IL · Grade 3

After reading about different waves of immigration, third grade students created posters about a specific immigrant group and presented what they learned to the class. The activity sparked discussion about push and pull factors and helped students understand the challenges immigrants faced before and after arriving in the United States.

3rd place Inquiry Week Winner
🥉 Third Place

My Team & Self

Alta Vista School, CA · Kindergarten

In the My Team and Self inquiry unit, students reflected on their own strengths and then identified the strengths of their classmates. They shared and celebrated these qualities as a class while learning how each person contributes to a team. The experience helped students understand the importance of teamwork and appreciating one another.

For Participants

Download your certificate

Every student who participated in Inquiry Week 2026 deserves recognition. Download the official participation certificate to celebrate their curiosity and hard work.

Download certificate (PDF)

Student Works

Explore examples from the Inquiry Work Gallery.

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

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The students focused on an important tradition within their family and culture to create a picture book/ebook. They enjoyed the creative process and took great pride in planning and sharing.

Unit

Families Near and Far

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Final Product

The students focused on an important tradition within their family and culture to create a picture book/ebook. They enjoyed the creative process and took great pride in planning and sharing.

Additional Info

Beth Caruso from South Brunswick School District: NJ, 1st Grade

Unit

Families Near and Far

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Our final product was a giant school map put on display to help others navigate our school. We included important areas, people, rules / expectations, and things you might find there. Also included on display is a transcript/photo of our interview with a school helper, plans from our initial mapping of the school, photos of our 3D classrooms, and lots of student writing.

Unit

Navigating School

Grade

Kindergarten

Example Type

Final Product

Our final product was a giant school map put on display to help others navigate our school. We included important areas, people, rules / expectations, and things you might find there. Also included on display is a transcript/photo of our interview with a school helper, plans from our initial mapping of the school, photos of our 3D classrooms, and lots of student writing.

Additional Info

SABINA ROCKE from Alameda Unified School District: CA, Kindergarten

Unit

Navigating School

Grade

Kindergarten

Example Type

Final Product

We will create an ABC Book on Sustainability to inspire our community to use natural resources responsibly.

Unit

Natural Resources of the U.S.

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

Final Product

We will create an ABC Book on Sustainability to inspire our community to use natural resources responsibly.

Additional Info

Valeria Laitinen from Quality Schools International: IT, 4th Grade

Unit

Natural Resources of the U.S.

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

Final Product

For our final social studies project, students decided that they wanted to, "create a quilt in order to share with our community and our families about holiday traditions." Here is our final project! (We got the idea from studying other final projects in the Inquiry Work Gallery!)

Unit

Families Near and Far

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Final Product

For our final social studies project, students decided that they wanted to, "create a quilt in order to share with our community and our families about holiday traditions." Here is our final project! (We got the idea from studying other final projects in the Inquiry Work Gallery!)

Additional Info

Sarah Maxwell from Public Schools of Brookline: MA, 1st Grade

Unit

Families Near and Far

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Final Product

This is an introduction activity for module 1 in which students place the dynasties studied in chronological order. Each group records three interesting facts or point of information on each dynasty card. After sharing their information with other groups they post this information on the yellow paper for the entire class to see. This stays posted in the classroom until the end of the unit for a reference tool. The gold yellow color represents is symbolic of Ancient Chinese rulers.

Unit

Ancient China

Grade

6th Grade

Example Type

Anchor Chart

This is an introduction activity for module 1 in which students place the dynasties studied in chronological order. Each group records three interesting facts or point of information on each dynasty card. After sharing their information with other groups they post this information on the yellow paper for the entire class to see. This stays posted in the classroom until the end of the unit for a reference tool. The gold yellow color represents is symbolic of Ancient Chinese rulers.

Additional Info

Allan Cupicciotti from Chicago Public Schools - Galileo Scholastic Academy Of Math And Science: IL, 6th Grade

Unit

Ancient China

Grade

6th Grade

Example Type

Anchor Chart

Students at a DLI school were able to bridge their knowledge from English to Spanish through this Inquiry Product.

Unit

Natural Resources of the U.S.

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Students at a DLI school were able to bridge their knowledge from English to Spanish through this Inquiry Product.

Additional Info

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

Unit

Natural Resources of the U.S.

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Students learned all about Carol Stream and learned all about the amazing places you can visit.

Unit

Our Special Location

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Inquiry-Long Display

Students learned all about Carol Stream and learned all about the amazing places you can visit.

Additional Info

Kelly Ashline from Community Consolidated School District 93: IL, 1st Grade

Unit

Our Special Location

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Inquiry-Long Display

Half of our class chose to innovate in our cafeteria. A student in our class brought this problem to our attention: There are not signs in the two different lunch lines in the cafeteria that tells students what items are available on each line. This group created picture signs, since our building starts with kindergarten, so students know which line to join when buying lunch. We shared our innovation with our building by making a green screen video and being on our school announcements. Students changed the signs each day for the rest of the school year and then gifted the signs to the cafeteria staff since our building ends at second grade.

Unit

Past, Present, and Future

Grade

2nd Grade

Example Type

Other

Half of our class chose to innovate in our cafeteria. A student in our class brought this problem to our attention: There are not signs in the two different lunch lines in the cafeteria that tells students what items are available on each line. This group created picture signs, since our building starts with kindergarten, so students know which line to join when buying lunch. We shared our innovation with our building by making a green screen video and being on our school announcements. Students changed the signs each day for the rest of the school year and then gifted the signs to the cafeteria staff since our building ends at second grade.

Additional Info

Melissa Riehle from Lakota Local School District: OH, 2nd Grade

Unit

Past, Present, and Future

Grade

2nd Grade

Example Type

Other

Students chose a final product of either a picture book, a play, or a puppet show. They had the BEST time showing their learning.

Unit

My Team and Self

Grade

Kindergarten

Example Type

Final Product

Students chose a final product of either a picture book, a play, or a puppet show. They had the BEST time showing their learning.

Additional Info

Kelly Ashline from Community Consolidated School District 93: IL, Kindergarten

Unit

My Team and Self

Grade

Kindergarten

Example Type

Final Product

While completing the Navigating School Unit, we used shape blocks to create a map of our school. After creating this hands-on visual, we created picture versions with a few more details than the blocks allowed. Each group of students was in charge of creating a map of each of the main rooms of the school we use (classroom, office, lunchroom, library, gym, music, playground), then we all drew ourselves on one piece of paper labeled "US". We posted these up connecting each picture as well as to a (real) picture of our school building. The students enjoyed creating both versions of our school map and took great pride in having the web on display all unit.

Unit

Navigating School

Grade

Kindergarten

Example Type

Inquiry-Long Display

While completing the Navigating School Unit, we used shape blocks to create a map of our school. After creating this hands-on visual, we created picture versions with a few more details than the blocks allowed. Each group of students was in charge of creating a map of each of the main rooms of the school we use (classroom, office, lunchroom, library, gym, music, playground), then we all drew ourselves on one piece of paper labeled "US". We posted these up connecting each picture as well as to a (real) picture of our school building. The students enjoyed creating both versions of our school map and took great pride in having the web on display all unit.

Additional Info

Allison Slater from Iowa City Community School District: IA, Kindergarten

Unit

Navigating School

Grade

Kindergarten

Example Type

Inquiry-Long Display

Fourth graders created a snack business based on what they learned about economic choices. Students managed the business and donated profits to the St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center. The brochures they independently created were distributed across the school to promote the business.

Unit

Economic Choices

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

Handout

Fourth graders created a snack business based on what they learned about economic choices. Students managed the business and donated profits to the St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center. The brochures they independently created were distributed across the school to promote the business.

Additional Info

Hanan Attiyah from Flemington-Raritan School District: NJ, 4th Grade

Unit

Economic Choices

Grade

4th Grade

Example Type

Handout

Students created a quilt from family papers and a cookbook to show family foods.

Unit

Families Near and Far

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Final Product

Students created a quilt from family papers and a cookbook to show family foods.

Additional Info

Theresa Meadors from Bloomington District 87 Schools: IL, 1st Grade

Unit

Families Near and Far

Grade

1st Grade

Example Type

Final Product

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