Wondering and starting to Web

Friday, I spoke with our ag. teacher about resources. She was going to pull some of her resources about gardening, specifically having information about butterfly gardens. I know I would like to end up with a garden plan, but I need to answer some important questions before tackling that.

My questions from my Wonderings:

• What elements (plants, rocks, water, etc) are MUSTS for a butterfly garden?
• Is the location I have in mind: a. too sunny? b. too wet in spring? c. too susceptible to wind?
• Is there a better location? If so, where?
  
• Are there any plants I should avoid because they are poisonous to my dog?
• What are some pecific plants that attract butterflies? which butterflies? are these plants/butterflies in Indiana?

This is just "the tip of the iceburg" I am sure. As I explore my resources (which includes a couple gardening books I have at home), I am sure other questions will come up. From working with students, I know it can be difficult to follow these new questions, given time restraints and the thought that sticking to the original questions is all the teacher really wants.

I also know that I tend to do a lot of thinking about my topic before diving into resources. What do I know? What do I want to know? Having been through and led students through the I-Search method of inquiry, I keep going back to this -my "What I know" of inquiry. :) The Wondering and What I Want to Know go hand in hand. They both ask for thinking on the topic and creating questions to research.

Personally, I like the "Watching" aspect of the 8Ws better than the general brainstorming I had students do with the I-Search. I also really like the pre-search activities as explained in "Inquiry 8: The Freedom to Choose". I must admit, this one caught my eye. As I do my own inquiry project, I am also preparing to collaborate with our junior high English teacher on a similar project. I think I did not spend enough time with my students in the pre-search stage, focusing more on the gathering of information and less on the thinking behind the topic-a mistake on my part. Helping the students evaluate their topics and decide if it is able to be researched is a valuable step which I glossed over (naivity?).

Back to butterfly gardens....
I need to do some thinking myself.

Why is this an interest to me?
I grew up with flowers all around me. My mother spent (and still spends) time grooming her flower beds- weeding, thinning, watering, and sharing her excess plants. My interest in gardening comes from this.
A few years ago at a church Mother-Daughter banquet, the guest speaker was a local gardener -possibly Master gardener - who shared a lot of information about starting a butterfly garden. I remember taking copious notes, but at the time, really didn't have a good location for the garden. I knew we would be moving sometime in the near future, so I didn't want to invest a lot of time in creating my garden only to have to start over elsewhere. Now that we have moved and I have plenty of locations to choose from, I am ready to create a butterfly garden.

Another motivator is my son. I know he enjoyed exploring the outdoors last year (turning over rocks, trying to catch/follow toads, splashing in puddles) and I know his curiosity will continue. Creating a butterfly garden will establish another outdoor lab to explore.

Webbing
I know that research is not linear. It still makes it a challenge to look at how the different aspects of inquiry are interwoven. As I work on webbing-finding sources and evaluating them for their expertise and validity, and starting to organize my research information, I know new questions may -no will - arise. I expect more frustration in the webbing, wiggling and weaving aspects of my inquiry. I know the feeling of "what do I do with this information now that I have it" both from personal experience and leading students through it.

I feel pretty confident right now in beginning to collect information to answer my initial questions. I also feel the pressure to get going on my project, with the deadline looming closer each day.