Web Wiggle Wonder Weave

Inquiry is DEFINITELY NOT linear. I find myself doing all of the Ws in my title. A summary of each-

Webbing:

• Library OPAC-searched for butterfly gardens; gardens; butterflies; Located four books I thought might assist in gathering the information I need
• online-located 6 website so far, one suggested by classmate, which show much promise; used Dogpile (since it is a metasearch engine and collects from Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask) to search for "Butterfly garden"; disappointed in not finding a Purdue site, but happy to find ones from Ohio State and Univ. of Minnisota.
  

Wiggling:

• Noticed two websites (The Butterfly Site and Butterfly Garden Website) seem to be the same information and pictures, just two different URLs and slightly different layout!
• Skimming Sally Roth's Attracting Butterflies & Hummingbirds to Your Backyard made me realize it was an excellent choice since author is from Indiana and information is great!
• Roth's book also reminded me how important color is to attracting butterflies, and how to trick butterflies to come using fake flowers when necessary! (Hint: purple is their favorite color)
• Skimming both The A to Z Garden Plants and The American Horticulture Society encyclopedia of Gardening gave me little information other than knowledge that butterfly bushes grow rapidly, are hardy, but relatively short lived (A to Z, 155), and the Butterfly flower prefers sandy soil (I don't have that) and are best for southern Florida and Texas (Amer. Hort. Soc., 210), eliminates it from my garden.

Wondering:

• Roth's book made me wonder how I could modify an existing flower bed to attract both butterflies AND hummingbirds; decided to focus on adding plants to attract butterflies to this area, since the hostas already attract hummingbirds
• Think Roth's suggestion for starting small and adding over the years is a feasible plan.
• Thinking about what questions would be best for an interview with a local expert gardener.

Weaving:

• Thinking about how this will tie into state standards for elementary: How can this be applied at our school?
  
• We have a courtyard garden. What host plants do we have? What host plants do we need? What other features should we add?
• The flowerbed I am now targeting needs to be rejuvenated (and Poison Ivy patch needs to be taken care of)
• Five parts of the garden (Roth, 18-19): nectar, water, supplemental foods, shelter, nest sites/host plants)
  
• Knowing that Bee Balm and Purple Cone Flowers are butterfly attractors, and that I have access to as many as I'd like through my mom (her thinning of beds is my benefit) is great. It cuts my cost and lets me focus on other aspects of the garden.

General thoughts:

I am glad I took the time to review the checklist for this project. I realized I was missing out on some crucial aspects, so I have some catching up to do! I am feeling a bit stressed-out, seeing the amount of progress needed in this last week! I now know how students feel when they are looking at the deadline and assessing the progress that must be made to meet the deadline.
I have added my online resources to my Delicious account-tagging them "butterflygarden" to make them easy to sort from the other bookmarked sites.
As I work on this project, I am also thinking about how to use this project as a model for an upcoming collaboration with the junior high English teacher. We are working on an inquiry project for some of the eighth graders, and I think sharing parts of my inquiry as an example (including my feelings along the way) will help.

Gathering Sources

Today I followed a tip about the Indy White Water Garden butterfly exhibit (see previous post comments), and found out the exhibit doesn't start until late March. That might not help me right now, but it is worth knowing in case I have the opportunity to go before I start my garden.

While I was on the Internet, I decided to use Dogpile to search for sites about butterfly gardens. I also tried to locate a Purdue site, but didn't have much luck. This is a bit frustrating since I would think they would have something along this line. On the brighter side, I found The Butterfly Site, The Butterfly Garden Site, The North American Butterfly Association, and Louisiana Public Broadcasting's tips for beginners. While not all of these are about the Hoosier state, they will give me information about butterfly gardens in general. The Butterfly site looks really promising with its articles on everything from plants for caterpillars and adults, activities you will see in a garden, and what butterflies live in each state! I am definitely excited to dive into the information and start formulating ideas for my garden. I am going to swing by the library to see if they have books/resources that will also help. Perhaps they will have one on Indiana plants.

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.

Topic decision -what a challenge!

I have been struggling with deciding which of my final topics to choose - butterfly gardens or sewing machines. I am leaning toward investigating butterfly gardens. With exploring the class readings, I feel this topic may lend itself better to the inquiry project. I could interview member(s) of the local Master Gardeners and/or the school's horticulture teacher concerning which plants are best for Indiana butterfly gardens and even ask about how to create the garden. I can also look into sources for the plants and other garden features, checking prices for the project, with my ultimate product being a plan for the garden and the approximate cost of the materials. These seem to be the nuts and bolts of the project, but I know as I learn more about butterfly gardens my questions and final product may change.

I thought Singer sewing machines would also be interesting, since I am not sure what year my treadle machine was produced. Finding out that Elias Howe and I.M Singer had a five-year battle in the courts (Howe eventually won) was eye-opening to me. What else is there to know about the invention's history that is not well-known? I think looking at sewing machines and how they have changed over the years and predicting the future machines might be fun as well, but like I said, I am really leaning toward butterfly gardens.

Hmmmmmm.....
With the prospects of creating a butterfly garden in the near future, I think I have made my decision. Now I need to start "wondering" about what I need to find out and think about what I already know. This will help guide my initial search and help me decide which questions I can ask a local gardener and which questions I need answer before the interview. I've found from past interviewing experiences that the more prepared and knowledgeable I am about the topic, the better the interview goes. That's similar to "doing your homework" when applying for a job: find out all you can before going, and then ask well-informed questions. I feel more confident now that I know what my topic is.

Watching

Throughout my inquiry process, my blogs will be following Dr. Annette Lamb's 8Ws of Information Inquiry. A complete list is available at http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/ws.htm. (This is one page from her Information Inquiry Course Guide.)
"Watching" involves observing the world around me. From this, I brainstormed a list of possible topics to investigate. In brainstorming, I took the traditional approach...write down everything that comes to mind, even if you know you will eliminate it later.

I must confess, having been so focused on work, college, and family time, I really hadn't thought about what topics interest me. I used suggested areas (hobbies, school subjects, current issues) from Lamb's Latitudes to jump-start my brainstorming. When I started working on my Other list, I browsed Grolier's Great America cards I had purchased a few years ago. That really got a few interesting topics.

Hobbies: quilting, gardening, cooking, baking, reading, canning, cross-stitch, singing

Subjects: band, English, science (some parts)

Current Issues: recession, health care reform, RttT initiative

Other: Air Force; pirates (old school); learn how to knit/crochet; butterfly garden; milking goats/making goat cheese/other goat's milk products; alternative energy; raising cattle, pigs, etc.; recycling & sewing; remodeling our house; potty training; geocache-ing; nutrition & exercise; crafts for toddlers; homemade toys/books; maintaining/expanding an orchard; nutrition & recipes; converse shoes; history of sewing machine/I.M. SInger/Elias Howe.

Reviewing my list, I can see where my interest in expanding our farm is a theme. We already have goats, but I don't know much about milking and other goat's milk products. We've also talked about expanding our farm to include other animals.
Having a toddler inspired some of my topics as well. Most of those topics would not lend themselves to this inquiry, so they are eliminated.

The topics that pop out to me are learning to knit/crochet; butterfly garden; candy experiments; Converse shoes; and history of sewing machine.
The candy experiments is an idea from a parenting magazine...but I am not too fond of creating messes that may have to sit for a while.
Converse shoes comes from a childhood curiosity...why do we call them Chuck Taylor's? Is there really a connection or did I errantly connect the two?
I've attempted to learn how to knit and crochet before...only ending in my mom and I laughing so hard we were crying because we couldn't figure out what I had done wrong!

I've narrowed it down to butterfly gardens and history of sewing machines. I want to think about these topics some more before making a decision. I want to create a butterfly garden at my house. I have what I believe to be the perfect spot, but am unsure about the plants and features needed to be a successful garden. I am also intrigued by the Singer vs. Howe case and Singer sewing machines in general. I have two singer sewing machines, one with a treddle and an electric one from the 1960s. I also remember using my grandmother's small machine that clamps to a tabletop.

I am going to ponder both butterfly gardening and sewing machines a while. I need to spend some time "wondering" about each before making my final decision.



Lamb, Annette. "Life-long learning: Lamb's Latitudes." Information Age Inquiry. 16 Jan 2010. .
Lamb, Annette. "8Ws of Information Inquiry." Information Age Inquiry. 16 Jan 2010. .

Introduction

I am about to embark on a voyage, but the destination is currently unknown. Where I may traipse is also a mystery. The first step is brainstorming topics to explore. As I explore I will update my ventures here. Join me as I describe the journey and the adventures I have along the way...be they exciting or disappointing.