Key Features of Driving Questions

Feasibility
• Students can design an investigation to answer the question.
• Students can perform an investigation to answer the question.
• Materials for the investigation are readily available.
• The question is developmentally appropriate for the students.

Worth
• The question is related to what scientists or other professionals really do.
• The question is rich in content and concepts from the content area(s).
• The question helps students link concepts from the discipline.
• The question is complex enough to be broken down into smaller questions.
• The question leads to further questions.
• The question meets district, state, or national curriculum standards.

Contextualization
• The question is anchored in real world issues.
• The question has real world consequences.

Meaning
• The question is interesting and important to learners.
• The question intersects with learner’s lives, reality, and culture.
• The phenomena covered by the question are of interest to students.

Ethics
• The practices used to answer the question do not harm living organisms or
the environment.

Sustainability
• The question allows students to pursue solutions over time.
• Students can pursue answers to the question in great detail.

Types of Driving Questions/Unit

Tasks
Investigation-oriented
• Students can design and perform an investigation to answer the question.
• Students can analyze data from existing datasets to answer the question.

Scenario-oriented
 • Students address a scenario or problem
• This approach often uses a proposal, design, or plan to address a contextual
problem they can relate to.

Research-oriented
• Students build knowledge through research and documentation
o This approach often uses a jigsaw and presentation approach to
address a broad range of content
Key Questions to Help Evaluate
Your Driving Question / Task
Goal: What is the driving question/task of
the project/unit?

Question #1: What content will the students

learn?
If you are not addressing content with your question, you need to re-evaluate
the question. All driving questions and inquiry projects should aim to
address some content understanding, as well as the inquiry and research
process.

Question #2: What content standards will be

met?
Like number one, you should not only be addressing content, but you should
specifically be addressing those areas identified as needed concepts for
student understanding – specifically those mentioned by district or state
standards. With this, you can also begin to shape your question, so that the
work done by students can help evaluate whether or not they have learned
this content.

Question #3: Can students generate their own

questions?
If the content is too difficult or completely unrelated to students’ lives, you
should re-evaluate your question. Likewise, you want to consider how much
input students will have in investigating their own sub-questions while
addressing the driving question.

Question #4: What investigations can students

do?
Investigations should be able to be generated (eventually) by the students.
If the question leads to investigations that are beyond their scope or
capabilities, you need to redesign your driving question.

Question #5: How is the question anchored in

the real world?
While they may be fun or interesting for some to consider, hypothetical
questions or those drawn from abstract concepts can be especially
challenging for students to investigate.

Question #6: How is the question meaningful for

students?
This takes the previous question to a finer level of detail. Not only should the
question be anchored in the real world, but it should also be relevant to
students’ lives. Asking students about something they haven’t seen or
experienced, even if from a real world event, does not engage students
nearly as well as those questions to which they can directly relate.
Remember, the question should also elicit prior knowledge from the student
to help understand how it can be answered.

Question #7: Can the question sustain student

engagement?
In other words, is it engaging enough to be able to maintain student interest
over the course of the project, and deep enough to allow students to
investigate many layers of the topic?