Free online resource Exploratree to support pupil-led research projects
May 2008
Exploratree, a new free web resource from Futurelab, is set to provide Key Stage 2-4 pupils with ready-made interactive 'thinking guides' or 'frameworks' to support their own enquiry projects and research. Exploratree thinking guides help students to work through an issue, topic or question. These guides prompt them to shape, expand on and focus their ideas and also help to identify the planning required to investigate student ideas further. Exploratree is freely available to access at www.exploratree.org.uk.
Pupils and teachers can choose from over 20 ready-made customisable thinking guides, or start from scratch and design their own. Students can add or change text, shapes and images within the guides. Some of the ready-made guides available include: 'Question Things' for querying who, what, where, when, how and why?; 'Compare and Contrast' to make comparisons between two different topics; and 'Thinking Boxes' to analyse a topic from different perspectives – locally, globally and from its place in history.
A great tool for class projects across the curriculum, Exploratree guides can be used as a basis for whole-class discussion, or e-mailed to individuals or groups to complete.
Pupils can work on the same thinking guide together (at school or at home), complete a project online and submit for comment; they can choose whether or not they would like it edited or simply reviewed. Sharing findings and thinking with others at any time during the project is easy with Exploratree's presentation tool – 'Show It'. The guides can also be printed out as large as A0 format.
The Exploratree web resource has emerged from the Enquiring Minds project, a three-year research programme in partnership with Microsoft, under its Partners in Learning initiative, which supports young learners to take responsibility for their own learning.
Tash Lee, Learning Researcher at Futurelab, said: "Over the past two years, as part of the Enquiring Minds programme, we have been observing teachers and children working on enquiry projects. They've used a variety of different methods, tools and worksheets to plan and think through issues as part of their enquiries and we recognised that it would be really useful to be able to create, edit and share these thinking guides digitally. We hope that schools will find Exploratree a useful resource to develop students' thinking skills and support their own projects."
Steve Beswick, Director of Education, Microsoft UK, commented: "Nurturing independent and creative thinking is a vital part of learning. Exploratree is a testament to how, when harnessed in the right way, technology can be a powerful facilitator in helping develop such skills."