“One of the most important features of Phase I of project development is the process of selecting the topic to be investigated” (Judy Harris Helm & Lilian Katz, Young Investigators, 2016).
Each year at the end of our first day of training, we receive many questions about project topics. The most common is “How do I know what topic to do and if the topic is a good topic?” Since the topic can have a major impact on the success of the project, it is important to really spend time with the selection. The majority of Phase I’s focus in on the topic.
How do I know what topic to do?
To get started, one of the best ways for a teacher to find out student interests is to listen and observe students. What things do students play with, talk about or create? For younger students this can often be seen during center or free choice time. For older students with limited free choice time this may come out through conversations, writing, or drawings. Teachers can also talk with parents, or bring in books or artifacts on different topics to incorporate into literacy or other times, to see what students gravitate towards.
How do I know if the topic is a good topic?
All interests may not make good topics. Once you’ve observed several interests, you want to evaluate if they would make a good topic. Here are some ideas on how to evaluate your topic from Young Investigators the Project Approach in the Early Years by Judy Harris Helm and Lilian G. Katz:
- Do the children find the topic engaging and interesting? The more interested students are in the topic the deeper and more fruitful it will be.
- Does the topic further children’s understanding of their curriculum and does it help them meet developmentally appropriate standards? A project topic should be able to easily connect back to curriculum and development goals.
- Is this topic more concrete or abstract? With younger students the more concrete the topic the better. They need to be able to use multiple senses to explore the topic.
- Do you have access to direct experiences, experts, and objects related to the topic? The harder it is to find experts, field sites, and authentic artifacts, the harder it will be for students to have access to all the sensory input they need. And the more work it will be for the teacher.
*A more extensive list can be found in Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years.
Think you’ve found a good topic? Test it out! Create a web with students and a list of questions to see what they already know and what they want to know about the topic. If students are not showing a lot of interest in knowing more about the topic, a new topic needs to be selected. If students are showing an interest, but don’t have much knowledge, they need more resources to develop background knowledge.
Want some more information on topics? Check out our past project topics list in project examples.
By Amelia Troutman