Broad & Abstract vs. Focused & Narrowed: Common topic trap

Often times when beginning a project, a topic can start pretty broad. For example, a teacher might observe that their children enjoy the Arts, so they may be thinking Art could be a good topic. Or maybe the students enjoy animals, or being outside in Nature. All of these ideas are good starting points, however, they would make very difficult project topics as they are very broad and abstract. These broad and abstract topics can become a trap.

Risks with a topic that is too broad or abstract:

• The topic may not be researched as in-depth, making it more of a unit or theme and not a project.

• It may not be truly focused on what the children want to know, so they may lose interest quickly. Projects are meant to be studied over a longer period of time.

• The topic may not be developmentally appropriate. Young learners use their senses to explore and learn about the world around them. If the topic does not allow for them to discover answers through hands-on exploration, the teacher ends up doing most of the investigating instead of the children.

During Phase I, it’s important not only to look at children’s interests and environment to gather a topic, but to focus and narrow down that topic. So with the Art example, do students enjoy painting, sculpting, taking photos, singing, instruments, dancing? To find out, you can do different focusing experiences: bring in artifacts, read books, sing songs, or do a field site in your building. Through bringing in different paint brushes and clay, the teacher finds most students went straight for the brushes and began painting. So the teacher narrows the topic to paint and brushes.

However, without student questions, there is no direction in what to explore about paint and brushes. A teacher may have an ideas of what types of things the students may enjoy exploring, but without student input the project would be a teacher directed inquiry not a true project. To focus the topic on the children’s interest and create a launching point for in-depth child-led investigations, questions need to be gathered. You can ask students what they want to know, do a web, and/or observe their behaviors to gather their current knowledge and questions. With non-verbal students, observing their actions is crucial for discovering the questions they have or what they want to learn more about. After doing these activities, the teacher finds the following student questions around painting and brushes:

-How do I make paint?

-Do I have to use a brush to paint?

-Why are some brushes small and other brushes big?

-What makes it brown?

-Why does it get wet?

-How long until I can take my painting home?

Now that there is more information about what the students want to know, the topic has narrowed from Art, which is broad and abstract to Paint and brushes. With questions and a focused topic, the teacher and students can head into Phase II, Investigating! Additional artifacts and tools such as measuring tape, rulers, timers, different types of paint and brushes and more can be added to the station for deeper investigation. The teacher can guide students through provoking questions: How do you think we can make brown? What other things can we paint with besides brushes? What happens when we use these other tools?

Just imagine all the new things the students will learn and discover with their focused and narrowed topic!

 Written by Amelia Troutman

Authentic Artifacts

As a child, I was interested in hairstyling. I had different dolls with hair I could braid, dye, and even cut! One of the dolls was a salon doll and she came with plastic scissors and hair that could be attached with Velcro. So she could have long knee length hair and then with the pretend scissors it could be “cut” and then a new shoulder length or bob hairstyle could be added on with Velcro.  In real salons they use scissors made of steel that really do cut hair, and hair can’t just be attached in an instant with Velcro. Had I been more familiar with real scissors and how they work, I may have avoided the following incident. My mother turned around and in an instant I had gone from playing with the doll, plastic scissors, and Velcro hair, and instead I had real scissors and my own hair. My locks fell away as a very blunt choppy pixie cut emerged. My mom started screaming, and I didn’t understand until I tried to reattach my hair, the damage I had done. I learned very quickly that real scissors cut hair and hair doesn’t just grow back or get magically reattached. During project work, when students are investigating a topic, it is important that they have access to real artifacts such as tools, living things, and objects. If I had more experiences with real scissors and how once things are cut they can’t just be put back together, I may have avoided all the tears I shed when I realized I had to wear my pixie cut until it grew out.

If students are doing a topic on puppies and just have stuffed animal puppies, they may gain false information. Stuffed animal puppies don’t need food or exercise, so they may not realize that a dog needs to eat or go out. Or they may think that dogs can just eat people food, but certain foods can make dogs very sick. Also, stuffed animal puppies can be put away in a bin or on a shelf when you’re done and they will stay there. Real puppies move and wiggle and run! In order to be able to care for a real puppy, it is important for students to have first-hand experiences with a puppy and the object needed to care for them.

Another example of real artifacts came through a past project in the Early Childhood Connections program. Students were doing a project on firefighters and learned about the weight of firefighters clothes through having clothes as real artifacts. The pretend clothes were light and thin, but when the students felt the weight of the firefighters real clothes they realized how strong firefighters are and how heavy their clothes were. This led students to ask more about the clothes, why were firefighter clothes heavy? Students then began to investigate and learn about how firefighter clothes are fire-resistant and reflective and made of different materials than clothes the students wore.

Children are trying to learn about, understand, and navigate the world around them as they grow and develop into adults. The more real artifacts students have access to the better they can understand how things work. That said, often a question we get is how do I find lots of artifacts?

Artifacts can be any real life objects, tools, living things, or items. For example, in a puppy project in addition to having a puppy visit, real artifacts could be the following:

dog brush

leash

dog bags

dog bed

collar

food bowl

water bowl

dog food

dog harness

dog yard stake

dog house

treats

chew toys

cage

dog boots

dog shampoo

dog toothbrush

dog toothpaste

nail trimmer

cone or e-collar

dog bandages

A topic that is concrete and very hands on will easily lend itself to many artifacts. Experts, colleagues, parents, and other adults can be a great resource when trying to come up with artifacts. Need some help with ideas for artifacts on your topic? Check out more artifact lists in our project examples!

By Amelia Troutman

Selecting a Topic

“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